This I Believe Essay

In my class Leadership Theory and Practice, one of our final assignments was to write and submit an essay to "This I Believe". I never heard back, but isn't that one of the reasons why I have a blog? To share my writing and thoughts?

I couldn't think of an appetizing compost picture,
 so here's a hen at Simmon's Organic Farm.

The Benefits of National Composting

Growing up in San Francisco, California, composting was always the norm. Just like all San Franciscans, my family put our green bins out on the curb for pick-up along side our blue and black bins. When I started college four years ago in Massachusetts, it was an adjustment to suddenly throw away food waste and paper towels that at home were composted by the city. When potentially compostable items are thrown out, they still decompose, but the nutrients from the waste are inaccessible if they are in a landfill.  It felt profligate to dispose of items that could have been composted and eventually used on farms as a natural fertilizer. It felt like an interruption to a self- sustaining cycle of growth, nourishment, and decay.

I decided to start my own compost program, modeled after San Francisco’s, which emphasizes ease for participants. Every Friday, I drive around campus and collect seventy- five individuals’ compostable items and empty the five-gallon trash bags into thirteen cubic feet composters. The paper towels and paper plates mixed with the food scraps create a balanced recipe for the compost. All of the unused nutrients left in the peels of oranges, the shells of eggs, and the weeds pulled from the garden break down into nutrient-rich soil. I stir the compost as if it was a slow cooked stew, but in this case I have to wait sixty days to enjoy the finished product instead of six hours.  At the end, there are several pounds of nutrient-rich compost that I can use to grow food or sell for a profit. The most astounding part of my job is that the entire collecting and stirring process takes one hour of my time a week.

I believe in composting on a national level. Farmers and farmland would benefit because they would have a natural source of topsoil. Our current farming practices deplete topsoil faster than it regenerates. If the United States composted on a national scale, we could possibly generate enough compost to replenish the necessary nutrient levels in the soil, avoid oligotrophic soil conditions, and the use of synthetic fertilizers. In addition, nation-wide composting would decrease our countries’ contributions to landfills and greenhouse gas emissions while creating more jobs. We have the resources and tools to compost on a national scale while increasing our nation’s food security, keeping food prices down, and decreasing our contribution to landfills and to climate change if we do so.