SMALL FARMS ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE AND PROFITABLE

Think small urban farms on unused plots of land or the 5000 ha of rooftop space in Toronto… Or other cities! (5000 ha = 2500 x 2 ha small farms)

Think space intensive, vertical growing systems!

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A 1,000 acre U.S. corporate farm growing genetically engineered crops nets an average of $39 an acre.
In contrast, a four-acre family farm nets, on average, $1,400 per acre.
Small organic farms are proving to be even more profitable. With oil prices on the rise, growing food without petroleum-based pesticides/fertilizers, and delivering that food to local markets will quickly prove to be the most affordable food available.
Source: New York Times
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12216.cfm

Developers Pave ALL OUR FOOD Land

The Ontario government isn’t doing anything to stop greedy developers from paving over all of the food land we have in Ontario or doing enough to save our farmers. Frankly, the government remains in bed with big business. Notice how this issue is receiving so little media attention?

Right now? Developers are suing anyone - environmental groups, city governments, you name it - if they stand in the way of their plans. The province’s Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is pretty much supporting big business as far as anyone can tell. The province is as silent as a lamb.

If we do nothing to protect our land for food - we’ll all be dealing with a hugely expensive food bill in the future (the sort that could bankrupt us all when you add it with lower wages [while CEOs earn 6 digits], inflation, housing and power costs). We’re seeing it everywhere these days with food costs for necessities like milk, bread, corn and anything else that we’re now importing.

A dollar or three extra? The poor can’t afford that. Many middle income families can’t either.

Below, is a small cry of a piece on the whole thing. Gods, lack of vision and leadership and timid media. Doing good just ain’t on the radar of big business or media.

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Province MIA on sprawl
August 08, 2008

Caledon town council is justifiably disappointed with the tepid support from the province in a dispute with a local developer who is threatening the community with a $500 million lawsuit.

Municipalities across Ontario deserve more backing as they struggle to curb urban sprawl by implementing growth management rules set by Queen’s Park. Pressure is particularly high in Caledon, where one developer is intent on building homes for 21,000 people on a 740-hectare tract south of Bolton.

Those plans crashed against a development freeze recently imposed by Caledon. The town council argued that Bolton’s population has already reached 26,500 – a level it wasn’t supposed to hit until 2021. The developer responded by threatening a lawsuit and by launching a local newspaper that pushes a pro-growth agenda.

In the face of that onslaught, Caledon councillors requested a provincial inquiry into rising development pressures faced by municipalities. Queen’s Park declined, with good reason. An inquiry is not really what Caledon and other rapidly growing communities need. They would benefit more from a high-profile government announcement that the province stands in full support of the official plans in Caledon and other municipalities facing development pressure.

Provincial officials insist they are supportive. But the province chose to send two bureaucrats to Caledon’s council meeting earlier this week, just to explain how the provincial rules work. No wonder Caledon residents and councillors felt abandoned.

The interests of all Ontarians would be better served if the province played a more direct role in the fight against sprawl.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/474307

Ugly Tomatoes Take NY By Storm

Here’s an interesting article about how ugly tomatoes are making a killing at Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket. Not quite sure I’m up for ugly tomatoes personally however I guess some people with lots of cash or a taste for the exotic really want them.

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Ugly Tomatoes Take Manhattan in Farmer’s Greenmarket Memoir

Review by Carly Berwick
Last Updated: August 7, 2008 00:01 EDT
Bloomberg – USA
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aftCENckUtHU&refer=muse

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) — Ugly, dirt-streaked vegetables are Tim Stark’s specialty. For the past 12 years, he’s been selling his wares at Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket, an effort that has made him a minor celebrity among locavore gourmands and a major reason why vegetables at the city’s best restaurants taste so fresh.

“Heirloom,” the memoir of Stark’s transformation from struggling New York professional to small-time, big-name tomato guy, is an instant classic of gentleman-farmer literature — at least, the first half of it is.
Before his commute on what he calls “the tomato highway” from his farm in eastern Pennsylvania to Union Square, Stark was a struggling consultant by day, unpublished writer by night. Then a chance encounter with a dumpster provided the weekend gardener and one-time country boy with the basics of a seed germination rack — two-by-fours, pipes, nails — which he impulsively decided to install in his Brooklyn apartment.
“I could not help noticing how these tomatoes responded to me in ways that women, bosses and literary editors never had,” Stark writes.
Stark took the flourishing seedlings to his family home, a rotting old farm purchased by his country-lawyer father from a desperate client. The heirloom tomatoes Stark grew there were blackened, cracked, mocked roundly by the local farmers and a hit at the Greenmarket, where he sold out every time. Their names alone make great poetry: Green Zebra, Black Krim, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter.
Farmer’s Fun
Stark writes inspired family rumination, local history and farm comedy. His father, he says, was “an Eagle Scout buried beneath barrister flab” who left a longstanding marriage for the dream of becoming a river guide. His unwitting childhood agricultural tutor was an embittered Pennsylvania Dutch-speaking farmer turned groundskeeper, who, when asked by Stark’s mother what he did for fun, replied, “Plow.”
Stark’s back-to-the-land effort does well enough that he eventually hires help. Notable losers show up: the felonious father of four who begs for a week’s pay in advance and then skips town, the art student who finds stake pounding uninspiring. But true tomato people reveal themselves after time: hardy, devoted, proudly regressive. They tend to be close relatives, hippies or Purepecha-speaking Mexicans.
Mennonites, Boulud
For a book about plants, “Heirloom” is well populated with outsized characters. Laconic Mennonite farmers wage psychological warfare at a tractor auction. Celebrity chef Daniel Boulud offers Stark a hand-cooked post-delivery meal, while a pastry chef dispatches him on elderflower-finding missions.
But the second half is a disappointment, mostly because the first is so wonderful. The names of top chefs are dropped too often, a tutorial on Greenmarket history feels obligatory and a response to critics of a Gourmet magazine article he wrote about killing a groundhog is indulgent (the properly grumpy farmer would just let the critics stew alone).
Stark would have done well to take a lesson from his tomato- selling strategy and stick to tending the unusual and unknown, leaving the bright lights of New York to more common writers.
“Heirloom: Notes From an Accidental Tomato Farmer” is published by Broadway (232 pages, $24).
(Carly Berwick is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer of this review: Carly Berwick at cberwick@gmail.com.

Urban Farms Shared by Community?

The community supported/shared agriculture (CSA) model is growing in popularity throughout North America. There is potential for this to be used in the urban gardening situation.

“The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming. But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.”

So far I’ve heard of very few urban farmers who have been able to pull this off. This however doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

It’s just going to take some serious dedication to community building, elbow grease and some creative thinking. What doesn’t?

Original article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/us/10farms.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

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July 10, 2008
Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms

By SUSAN SAULNY
CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill. — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms.

On one of the farms, here about 35 miles west of Chicago, Steve Trisko was weeding beets the other day and cutting back a shade tree so baby tomatoes could get sunlight. Mr. Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the four-acre Erehwon Farm.

“We decided that it’s in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,” Mr. Trisko said.

Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilized on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture. About 150 people have bought shares in Erehwon — in essence, hiring personal farmers and turning the old notion of sharecropping on its head.

The concept was imported from Europe and Asia in the 1980s as an alternative marketing and financing arrangement to help combat the often prohibitive costs of small-scale farming. But until recently, it was slow to take root. There were fewer than 100 such farms in the early 1990s, but in the last several years the numbers have grown to close to 1,500, according to academic experts who have followed the trend.

“I think people are becoming more local-minded, and this fits right into that,” said Nichole D. Nazelrod, program coordinator at the Fulton Center for Sustainable Living at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., a national clearinghouse for community-supported farms. “People are seeing ways to come together and work together to make this successful.”

The shareholders of Erehwon Farm have open access to the land and a guaranteed percentage of the season’s harvest of fruit and vegetables for packages that range from about $300 to $900. Arrangements of fresh-cut blossoms twice a month can be included for an extra $120 — or for the deluxe package, $220 will “feed the soul” with weekly bouquets of lilies and sunflowers and other local blooms.

Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.

Mr. Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labor and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.

“It’s very hard for them to make ends meet,” he said, “so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing.”

Under the sponsored system, farmers are paid an agreed-upon fee in advance of the growing season, making their survival less dependent on the vicissitudes of the market and the cooperation of the elements. The arrangement involves real farms and real farmers and is distinct from community gardens and other forms of urban farming, where vacant or public land is typically put to agricultural use by residents.

The average share price is $500 to $800 a season across the country, Ms. Nazelrod said, though community-supported agriculture seems most popular on the coasts and around the Great Lakes region. The states with the most farms, she said, include New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and California.

“The C.S.A. provides a base that’s certain, and we get the money when we need to spend the money,” said Beth Propst, who farms the fields at Erehwon, using the abbreviation for community-supported agriculture. “Having the money upfront and guaranteed, that gets us through at least the beginning of the season.”

The operations are as diverse as they are numerous.

Erehwon — the word “nowhere” spelled backward — started with two shareholders, reached its goal of 140 last year, and now has raised its target to about 200 members. Another farm in the Chicago area where the community sponsors the crops, Angelic Organics, makes weekly deliveries to more than 1,400 families in Illinois and Wisconsin.

At least 24 vegetable farmers serve an estimated 6,500 members throughout the five boroughs of New York City, said Paula Lukats of Just Food, which connects farmers with residents there. In 2005, there were 37 C.S.A. groups in the city; today, there are 61.

The Golden Earthworm Organic Farm, on 80 acres on the North Fork of Long Island, grew from 10 members in 2000 to about 1,300 this year, according to Matthew Kurek, one of the owners. About half of the members live in Queens, he said, and the farm delivers their weekly shares to six different sites there, mainly churches and community centers, 26 weeks a year. The farm grows arugula, strawberries and sugar snap peas in the spring; watermelon, eggplant and tomatoes in the summer; and broccoli, potatoes and carrots in the fall.

At the Cattleana Ranch in Omro, Wis., Thomas and Susan Wrchota offer grass-fed meat and organic produce through a community-supported arrangement. They have 55 members, and a seven-month meat membership costs $715.

Mr. Wrchota developed a taste for grass-fed beef while working for the Peace Corps in Costa Rica in the 1970s. When he returned home, he said, he was at a loss for that particular flavor and eventually decided to raise animals himself, starting with just one cow.

“We don’t do millions in revenue, but we make a living, which is rare,” he said. “Our goal is to provide a full portfolio of products for folks who want sustainable products. Up until about five years ago, we had to do a tremendous amount of guerrilla marketing. The consumer who is interested now, they’re doing their homework. They know the health and taste benefits.”

Teresa Crisco is one such consumer in Little Rock, Ark. She is a member of the community-supported agriculture program at the Heifer Ranch, an international humanitarian relief organization that is experimenting with how to make such arrangements more popular and profitable for farmers around the world.

“You feel like you’re doing more than one thing: you’re helping the project and you’re helping yourself,” said Ms. Crisco, a document specialist at a mortgage company who heard about the program from a friend. “The whole premise is really neat.”

Here in Illinois, Erehwon sold out of shares last year and had to turn people away.

Tim Fuller, Ms. Propst’s longtime companion and business partner in running the farm, said: “People are coming to us. We do very little marketing except for explaining what we do. It’s amazing.”

With a wry smile, Mr. Fuller said he considers himself both personal farmer and personal trainer, because shareholders under his direction are going to break a sweat.

“There’s always pressure on,” he said. “This is a complicated business, growing so many crops. We do everything by hand for more than 100 different crops.”

The farm expects to gross between $80,000 and $90,000 this year.

Some shareholders said they found the arrangement a bargain compared to grocery shopping, while others considered it a worthwhile indulgence. Most agreed that the urge to buy and spend locally — to avoid the costs and environmental degradation that come with shipping and storage — was behind the decision to join. Shareholders can pick up their goods at the farm or at a store across the street.

“From a ‘going green’ standpoint, it’s an appropriate thing to do,” said Gerard Brill, a musician who bought a share of Erehwon. “Like everything organic, it’s not a bargain, but what price do you put on being healthy? Considering all things, it’s actually a very good deal.”

The downside for people who are used to grocery shopping comes when they want fresh blueberries in January or, as was the case at Erehwon last week, the tomato plants needed more time in the ground because of a cold spring.

“We eat with the seasons, and there’s no guarantee that Mother Nature will cooperate,” Ms. Propst said. “That’s all part of the deal.”

Catrin Einhorn contributed reporting from Chicago.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Worm Compost Boosts Mushroom Growth

Well if you needed some more proof that worm compost is some of the most rich, most nourishing food for your soil and plants here it is.

Of course the guys who’ve been doing this for awhile it ain’t news at all (grins - imagining Mike Nevin and a whole host of gardeners in Toronto)

The original news release can be found here:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2008/29/c8059.html

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Forterra Environmental Releases Findings of University Study That Worm Castings Increased Mushroom Growth 20%

TORONTO, July 29 /CNW/ - The University of Guelph, in a July 8, 2008
study, concluded that using worm castings as a partial substitute for peat
moss in mushroom production resulted in 20 percent more mushrooms grown per
square meter.
The university’s study was financially supported by Forterra
Environmental Corp. (TSX-V: FTE-V), an emerging leader in the production and
sale of premium organic soil-enrichment products based on worm castings. The
study also found that using worm castings as a top dressing with peat moss can
result in a five percent increase in yield (weight of the mushrooms). A
tradeoff can be made, however, between the number of mushrooms grown per
square meter and yield. Subject to how the growing is managed, including the
frequency of pickings, yield could be further improved by capitalizing on this
increase in mushroom numbers.
The university’s report also said that, “The data suggest the worm
castings may enable the mushrooms to remain on the growing shelf longer
providing a better opportunity for staggered harvesting” and also that the
“data empirically, suggest that solids may increase as a function of an
increase in the amount of worm castings in the casing up to 30 percent.”
Mushrooms are a significant vegetable crop in Canada and the United
States. In 2006, Ontario mushroom farmers produced 61 percent of the mushrooms
grown in Canada or 118 million pounds with a farm-gate value of $172 million.
“This study by the University of Guelph’s agricultural experts is further
third-party confirmation of the value of worm castings as an enrichment
product to produce higher agricultural yields. It should further our marketing
of Forterra’s products to the mushroom-growing industry and should be of
interest to other agricultural sectors,” said Rick Denyes, Forterra’s
President and Chief Operating Officer. “As we continue to ramp up our
production levels of solid and liquid worm castings products, we also are
increasing our marketing and sales efforts.”

Health Benefits of Local Clean Food

“The 2008 report of Healthy Food in Health Care states that as of 2004, about 60,000 Americans die annually from resistant infections and 70 percent of the antibiotics consumed in America are from feed additives for poultry, swine and beef cattle. Robyn C. Gilden, a nurse and program manager at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, said the antibiotics aren’t used to keep the animals healthy but to make them grow faster and live closer together so farmers can squeeze more animals onto their property. Gilden is also a Carroll County resident and member of the county’s Environmental Advisory Council. She said people are becoming resistant to lifesaving drugs because they are getting high doses in their foods.

The milk the hospital uses comes from a dairy in Frederick and is rBGH free. RBGH stands for Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, which is given to dairy cows to increase their production of milk. But the hormone is known to lead to health problems in the cows, which leads to a heavier use of antibiotics, according to Health Care Without Harm, the organization that created the health-care pledge.

Aside from the use of chemicals in food, Cotter said there is a real benefit to using local foods, because of transportation costs and the freshness of the product.” (see the full article below)

Another reason to go for chemical free or better yet “true” organic local foods (I’m not talking about the processed organic stuff in boxes). Reminds me of Kim and Dave Perry’s Local Family Farms store out in Verona, Ontario (or Perry-Anjou Farms) - they sell chemical, hormone free beef - some of the finest meat around by all accounts (I savoured their beef vicariously through my other carnivorous friends).

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Healthy Pledge: Carroll Hospital Center to use more locally produced food
 
By Erica Kritt, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Carroll County Times - Westminster,MD,USA

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2008/07/02/news/local_news/newsstory1.txt
 
During the week of July 19, Marylanders are encouraged to buy local food, but the Maryland Hospitals for a Healthier Environment Initiative challenges the state’s hospitals to buy locally as much as possible.

The initiative, which is coordinated by the University of Maryland School of Nursing, wants hospitals to provide healthy, local and sustainably produced foods.

Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster, which serves about 1,500 meals each day, jumped on board in April 2007 as the second hospital in Maryland to sign up for The Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge.

By signing the pledge, the hospital promises to increase the offering of fruit and vegetables, use more local and organic food and minimize waste by using products and packaging that are friendly to the environment, among other goals.

“We’ve always supported local purchasing, because of being a small county hospital,” said Marcea Cotter, director of food and environmental services at Carroll Hospital Center.

The hospital has been receiving shipments of meat from Bullock’s Country Meats and Farm Market Inc. in Westminster since 1962, according to former owner Bob Bullock.

Clyde Hirt and Doug Zepp, the current owners of Bullock’s Meats, said their company delivers on average 100 pounds of red meat a week to the hospital.

Since Carroll Hospital Center had been buying foods locally for years, Cotter thought it was only appropriate to sign the pledge.

The Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment Initiative hosted an event Tuesday at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore to honor the four hospitals that have signed the pledge and to encourage more hospitals to follow suit.
 
The other three hospitals are Sinai Hospital, Anne Arundel Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center.

According to Cotter, Carroll Hospital Center is working on some greener initiatives, such as encouraging the use of mugs instead of disposable cups at the coffee bars and looking into recycling plastic bottles.

Cotter said about 60 percent of the hospital’s beef comes from Bullock’s, and according to Bullock, the company does not use antibiotics or hormones on their cows.

“I like the original [product] without anything being doctored up,” he said.

The 2008 report of Healthy Food in Health Care states that as of 2004, about 60,000 Americans die annually from resistant infections and 70 percent of the antibiotics consumed in America are from feed additives for poultry, swine and beef cattle. Robyn C. Gilden, a nurse and program manager at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, said the antibiotics aren’t used to keep the animals healthy but to make them grow faster and live closer together so farmers can squeeze more animals onto their property. Gilden is also a Carroll County resident and member of the county’s Environmental Advisory Council. She said people are becoming resistant to lifesaving drugs because they are getting high doses in their foods.

The milk the hospital uses comes from a dairy in Frederick and is rBGH free. RBGH stands for Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, which is given to dairy cows to increase their production of milk. But the hormone is known to lead to health problems in the cows, which leads to a heavier use of antibiotics, according to Health Care Without Harm, the organization that created the health-care pledge.

Aside from the use of chemicals in food, Cotter said there is a real benefit to using local foods, because of transportation costs and the freshness of the product.

Lou DeMaio, executive chef at Carroll Hospital Center, said time counts when it comes to providing a nutritious meal.

“Vitamins and minerals start to diminish after [fruits and vegetables] are picked,” he said.

Steve Lentz, the district manager for Cura Hospitality, which provides the food at Mercy Medical Center, said local food doesn’t pass through as many hands, so it leads to less contamination. Citing the recent tomato salmonella scare, Lentz said by buying locally a hospital or organization knows where its food came from and whom to contact if there is a problem.

Cotter said because of the number of meals the hospital serves, it is impossible to get all of their foods from local farmers. But she said the hospital looks for opportunities to use local foods whenever possible.

Reach staff writer Erica Kritt at 410-857-7876 or erica.kritt@carrollcountytimes.com.

Are You Wasting Food?

Here’s an article by “Mr. Anderson” highlighting the value of recycling not just our consumer goods waste but also our food waste (duh, right? Haven’t I mentioned this before…). Today I’ll let him do the talking.

Interesting however that it costs him Vancouver only $15/tonne to dispose of garbage. In Kingston, Ontario it’s at least $72/tonne last I recalled. I wonder why…?

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Why Our Food Waste May Be Our Greatest Asset
By Ruben Anderson, The Tyee
Posted on July 17, 2008, Printed on July 21, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/91732/

You and I are caring people. And caring people care about composting, which is why many of us bemoan the fact that our civic governments do not collect compost. The well-informed among us may even talk fondly of municipal organic waste collection systems, like those started in San Francisco in 1998 and Toronto in 2004.

But let’s play these municipal collection systems out a bit. First the city gives every household a pricey new plastic rolling tote. They buy additional trucks and hire more people. Those trucks chug up every single lane in the city until they are full, then they drive somewhere far away and dump the organic waste. Large machines pile and re-pile the organics for a few months until it breaks down into compost. They do this two to four times each month, 12 months of the year, for the rest of time.

There’s an obvious environmental cost, and the cash price is none too pretty, either. Take my hometown of Vancouver as an example. The current cost of garbage collection in the Vancouver area is about $15 per tonne. Metro Vancouver collects 1.5 million tonnes of garbage, of which 180,000 tonnes is organic waste.

So the cost of collecting that organic waste, whether in garbage trucks or compost trucks, is $2.7 million every year, plus inflation, wage increases, and fuel surcharges — and speaking of fuel surcharges, diesel has increased in price by 65 per cent this year. Analysts from the investment bankers Goldman Sachs predict oil could spike to $200 per barrel by winter of 2008.

Landfill potpourri

Cities are going to have an increasingly difficult time paying to move garbage from place to place. Something will give, and solid waste is usually the last thing to get a budget cut — people get real cranky when the rats are bigger than the cats. Say goodbye to daycares and libraries.

It doesn’t help that many cities have landfills already overflowing with packaging, construction debris and built-to-break gadgets, and must resort to increasingly tortuous and expensive ways to dispose of their waste. So far, the “best practices” solution seems to be shipping it overseas or to other jurisdictions by train, barge or truck.

Organic waste is a big part of that problem. We truck enormous amounts of food into our cities; in Canada about 1,000 kilograms per person per year. The waste from that food is mind-boggling. A recent report found the U.K. throws away almost a third of its food — and that’s counting only the food that could be eaten, not the piles of peelings and seeds.

So forget about compost? Of course not. You care. And so you care about compost. Composting returns nutrients to the soil. It is part of closing the loop of nutrients; from the soil to us, from us to the soil. As cities increase food security, reconnect with living systems, and increase affordability through urban agriculture, composting will be a critical part of the urban permaculture.

You also care about climate chaos, and composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions from organics rotting in landfills. Methane, a greenhouse gas 27 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, is formed as organic waste decays in airless conditions. Some places burn landfill gas for heat and power generation, but it is not a high-tech system — a big rubber sheet is spread over the dump to collect whatever leaks out. But the garbage bags are still tied shut — organics are mixed with mattresses. The system is far from optimized for methane generation.

Local composting: pick your method

Why not build a composting system that does not rely on a constant river of oil, and start saving part of that $15 per tonne — not to mention lowering our greenhouse gas emissions, cutting down on carcinogenic particulates and reducing the number of noisy trucks waking us in the morning?

To cut back on fossil fuels, everything needs to be on a walkable scale. This will require several kinds of composting systems, depending on the neighbourhood density.

Many cities offer subsidized backyard composters and balcony worm bins, and this obviously needs to continue. Nothing could be better than closing the loop right at home — eat food, compost scraps, spread compost on your garden, eat more food.

The next scale up would require small apartment buildings to compost on site. If a row of three or four backyard composters won’t keep up with the organic flow, small automatic composters use an electric heater to accelerate composting and an auger to automatically turn the compost, producing finished compost in two weeks.

For still larger buildings, industrial scale worm composters can really chew through the food. The Mount Nelson Hotel in South Africa uses worms to make short work of leftovers from the artichoke and asparagus assiette.

But, when I spend some quality time, just me alone with my dreams of composting, I always imagine a neighbourhood bio-digester. This would fit nicely near an intersection, so the residents from the four surrounding blocks can easily walk to it. After you throw your compost in the chute, enzymes and bacteria break it down to produce methane. The methane is burnt in a micro-turbine to generate electricity, which is sold back to the grid. The money raised through energy sales can be used to buy hot dogs and drinks for block parties. The nice thing about this neighbourhood node, other than compost-fueled block parties, is that it would be a logical place to expand into other waste streams like textiles, furniture, brass and steel. It would be helpful if urban planners could start thinking about space for these collection points.

Organic waste: your next career?

Diffusing decomposition into the community creates other opportunities that we wouldn’t get from a fleet of diesel trucks. Right now we have an under-recognized workforce harvesting the nutrient flows of aluminum cans and plastic bottles from our dumpsters.

Compost maintenance could provide jobs for those who would like to augment the money they make binning. Traveling by bicycle through the alleys, carrying an aerating tool, these waste technicians could turn your compost and add leaves or grass clippings as necessary. Well-turned compost breaks down faster and hotter, making for fewer flies and better compost. They could also increase the four-block range of the biodigesters by collecting compost from a wider area in bicycle trailers and dumping it into the digester.

So what is it going to be? Shall we build oil-based systems that are doomed from the start, or regenerative systems that can only grow stronger?

http://www.alternet.org/story/91732/

Peel organic wasted program

This one’s for the record.

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Peel goes green with organic waste program
Last Updated: Monday, April 2, 2007 | 10:44 AM ET
CBC News
Green bins containing organic waste were placed on curbs throughout Peel Region on Monday as the
area began its first day of recycling food and other products into compost in an effort to reduce overall
waste.
“This material shouldn’t be going to incineration or landfill,” said Andrew Pollock, the region’s director
of waste management. “It should be converted to compost that can be reapplied to land.”
Pollock said the program is a made-in-Peel approach: the organic waste will be collected, processed into
compost at a Brampton plant and sold to businesses and residents in the region.
Green bins similar to those already used in Toronto have been distributed to about 285,000 households
in Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon.
Food waste, some paper products and other waste, such as hair, sawdust and plants, can be placed in the
bin. Unlike the Toronto green bin program, however, the Peel Region bins will not accept products such
as diapers and plastic bags.
Until now, organic waste from the region has gone with regular garbage to an incinerator or a landfill in
Michigan.
The program costs about $6.6 million, but region officials say it’s a cost-effective solution since it will
help divert 70,000 tonnes of organic waste from landfills.
Organic materials account for about 30 per cent of the region’s waste, according to Pollock, and
recycling it will help the region move toward its goal of diverting 70 per cent of its waste by 2016.

Worm Poo Comes in Small Packages

Worm poo in plastic bottles: Get rich and save the world

(CNN) — Add heaps of red worms to mountains of raw, rotting garbage. Then collect the worms’ feces, brew it into a liquid, and squeeze it into a used soda bottle.

Sound like a twisted fourth-grade boy’s concoction for messing with his sister? Not quite. Rather, it is TerraCycle’s recipe for success — as a booming, eco-friendly fertilizer business.

“We’re not doing this to help save the environment,” said co-founder and CEO Tom Szaky. “We’re doing this to show that you can make a lot of money while saving the environment.”

It does that not only by avoiding excess waste, but by embracing others’ throwaways — from the organic material fed to its hard-working worms, to its used plastic packaging, to the once discarded desks and computers in the firm’s Trenton, New Jersey, headquarters.

The nonprofit environmental group Zerofootprint recently recognized TerraCycle for having “net zero” negative impact — the first consumer product to earn that distinction.

“Garbage is all opportunity,” said Szaky, noting that TerraCycle’s new factory (with the worms’ help) will consume all the company’s office waste. “It’s a way to do the right thing, and make a lot more money off it.”

After a somewhat rocky start, TerraCycle has emerged as a model of “eco-capitalism.” Growing between 300 to 600 percent annually since its 2004 market debut, Szaky said he hopes that, by the middle of next decade, TerraCycle will be a $100-million enterprise and oust Miracle-Gro as the world’s top fertilizing company.

This unique business takes its cue from Szaky. The Princeton drop-out, born to Hungarian parents and raised primarily in Canada, said he doesn’t consider himself an environmentalist, admitting he doesn’t eat organic food or drive a hybrid car. Yet he believes strongly in TerraCycle’s mission, his passion helping to attract similarly enthusiastic, if noticeably older, employees.

“People … enjoy being part of a company that can make millions while saving the world,” said Szaky, 25, who started four Web-related businesses as a teen. “It’s all about the excitement of growing something … And I have a factory to play with. It’s so much fun.”

Selling the dirty, eco-friendly dream

The fun began in 2001 in a Montreal basement, where a friend showed Szaky his plants thriving on worm excrement. Returning to New Jersey, he joined up with fellow freshman Jon Beyer to dream up a product that used worms and garbage to make all-natural, inexpensive fertilizer. The two entered Princeton’s annual business plan competition and finished fourth — out of the money, but not without hope.

Being a 20-year-old trying to raise funds “for worm poop was really tough,” Szaky said. He, Beyer and a few volunteers spent one summer shoveling dining hall scraps teeming with flies and maggots and concocting their brew. “We didn’t have too many friends at the time,” Szaky joked.

While largely striking out with venture capitalists, Szaky tapped into his and his friends’ savings, got backing from a few “angel investors” (who more than once rescued TerraCycle from insolvency), and won several business plan contests.

“My job really just became making investors, clients and customers out there believe in what TerraCycle stood for,” Szaky said. “Every time someone says it’s not possible, that’s just more fuel to make it work.”

After placing first at the prestigious Carrot Capital Business Plan Challenge, Szaky rang the NASDAQ stock exchange’s opening bell and formally dropped out of Princeton. Beyer stayed in school. Yet Szaky ultimately turned down the $1 million prize, unwilling to dramatically alter TerraCycle’s mission or direction.

‘The world’s biggest worm poop company’

That was mid-2003, with TerraCycle still desperate for money. Fortunately, a relatively quick $1.2 million infusion of investor cash helped the firm launch its product and rake in just under $100,000 the following year.

In 2005, revenues soared five-fold as TerraCycle’s signature fertilizer debuted in Whole Foods and Wild Oats, as well as Home Depot and Wal*Mart locations in Canada.

This growth came as TerraCycle attracted new — and, per Szaky, often underpaid — talent and refined its products and daily operations.

Many of the breakthroughs came out of necessity, conveniently married to the pro-environment, anti-waste cause. The two core components are worms — which eat, excrete and procreate freely — and similarly cheap, all but omnipresent organic waste.

When short on cash, TerraCycle decided to place the liquid fertilizer in used, plastic soda bottles scooped off the streets instead of buying new or recycled bottles. Nowadays, the company recruits scores of church and student groups, plus Home Depot shoppers, to collect soda bottles, and its new potting mix will be packaged in reused one-gallon plastic milk and water containers.

Even the spray tops are half-price leftovers from other manufacturers, and the boxes used to transport the bottles are cast-off misprints. (All labels, however, are custom-made.)

“We want to try to bring extremely eco-friendly products out there, but not make them more expensive than the current competitors’ [products],” Szaky said, calling the tactics cost-effective and consistent with TerraCycle’s mission. “If organic and eco-friendly products can do that, that’s what is really going to make them mainstream.”

Placing 30,000 gallons of worm fertilizing brew into 50,000 bottles a week, TerraCycle products can now be found in 7,000 locations, including CVS and domestic Home Depot and Wal*Mart stores. Szaky estimates 2007 revenues — fueled by expansion into Target and elsewhere — may jump from more than $1.5 million in 2006 to $5 million.

“There are so many problems, so many mistakes we’ve made. But every time you just learn from it and keep going,” said Szaky. “When we have no other choice and we have to come up with a way to solve a certain problem — if people just commit themselves to it, be creative or think out of the box, the solution is almost always there.”

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/01/26/worm.fertilizer/index.html

SPRING VEGETABLE PAPPARDELLE

SPRING VEGETABLE PAPPARDELLE
(HUGO MATHESON, THE KITCHEN CAFÉ, BOULDER)

• 1 packet pappardelle
• 1 c freshly shelled English peas
• 1 c freshly shelled fava beans
• 1 c tender asparagus, chopped into 1/2-inch sticks
• 1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, sliced
• pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 c heavy cream
• 10 fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1 c freshly grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese
• salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a strong boil. Add pasta and return to a boil.

Add peas, beans and asparagus. Bring back to a boil and cook until the pasta still has a bite — about 6 to 8 minutes more.
While cooking the pasta and vegetables, heat a large sauté pan to medium-high. Add olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Just when garlic starts to brown, add cream.
Drain cooked pasta and vegetables, keeping a little of the water (to thin the sauce, if needed). Add pasta and vegetables to the sauce.
Sprinkle in chopped mint and half of the cheese; toss to coat everything well.
Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce is too thick, add a little of the cooking water.
To serve, top with remaining cheese and a good glug of olive oil.