| In Celebration of Compost |
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| Written by Kiki Hubbard | |
| Wednesday, 07 May 2008 | |
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Compost. The decomposition of food scraps only pigs would eat; of garden remnants in September; and of blushing-gone-brown foliage come October. Compost is microorganisms, twisting, eating, excreting, producing plant nutrients richer (and cheaper) than any Scotts product on TV. Why celebrate compost? Well, not only is it International Compost Awareness Week, composting benefits your garden and the planet. Here are a few reasons to keep scraps, like coffee grinds and egg shells, separate from your garbage: 1) Why fill our landfills (which are brimming) with food and yard waste when it can be transformed into useful nutrients for your plants? About one-third of landfill waste is organic material from our kitchens and yards. 2) It's a cheap way to fertilize your garden. Compost can improve soil fertility by providing food for microorganisms, which in turn produce nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus necessary for maintaining healthy soil (making extra soil amendments unnecessary). 3) It's easy. If disposing of kitchen and yard waste is your goal, then passive composting is your answer. Collected organic waste (in a bin or freestanding pile) will eventually break down into nutrient-rich compost. Sure, it takes a couple years, but after that, even the simplest piles generate a few cubic feet of finished compost annually. I know, I know, simpler said than done... There are some rules, like balancing carbon-rich material (straw and other brown things, like wood chips) with nitrogen-rich material (kitchen scraps and green things, like grass clippings). And, if you live near bear territory, having open-air piles with food scraps isn't the best idea. Still, there are lots of resources out there, and you can even buy composters that contain the compost and facilitate the decomposition process. For starters, here's an excellent guide to composting. Outside the petroleum-based world we've created, there need not be such a thing as "waste." Image: Washington State Department of Ecology
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It's true what our moms said...we are what we eat. In fact, it's truer than they thought. What I eat doesn't just affect me anymore, it affects all of us.
Unfortunately, the story of food can sometimes be complicated. But envirovores help each other out...which is why this blog will be bringing you news, tips, and information about food and the environment every step of the way.
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