Why is composting important?
The US EPA estimates that 20% of what arrives in landfills in the United States is food waste. When this food waste arrives in the landfill it breaks down in the absence of oxygen discharging methane – a greenhouse gas 33x more potent than carbon dioxide. According to the EPA, these emissions from landfills are the third largest contributor of methane, greatly contributing to climate change.
Conceptually, Americans must realize that the food we produce extracts minerals and nutrients from our soil with every season we grow. Conventional agriculture utilizes nutrient inputs that require fossil fuel intensive industrial practices to produce nitrogen or strip mining to get phosphorous and potassium. Composting is literally tending the natural cycle of life by building the biological activity in our soil to be sure our soil is creating nutrient rich food that is just as healthy for us as it is for the soil and the climate.
Thus, your commitment to compost is not just about getting compost for your home garden, it is about combating one of the greatest existential, but very present threats to our civilization – climate change and the loss of healthy soil. There is only one civilization in the history of the world (our own) that has been able to break the natural cycle of life and replace it with industrial means. Star City Compost provides Roanoker’s with the option to think globally and act locally.
