A Deeper Green

So after my last installment of Ask-A-Brekke I got a lot of questions. I will do my best to answer them all. I promise.

But today I am tackling one a received from a friend through text “Do a post about indoor composting and why I should bother.”

Now those of you who have been reading for a while know that I have been doing my own in apartment composting with worms (vermiculture). As far as I’ve been able to tell, this is the best way to do small space/indoor composting. First off, vermiculture, when done correctly, is virtually odorless.  Bins may give off the scent of wet earth when opened but that’s it. Second, the final compost from a vermiculture bin is a great fertilizer for any indoor (or outdoor) plants that you may have around. And lastly, worms are great, super low maintenance pets

But that still leaves the main question. Why should I bother composting at all?

The truth is that much of the food waste that you and I create every day can be composted, especially fruit and vegetable matter. If you are not composting it or eating it the waste goes into the garbage can and eventually ends up in a landfill. What happens to that food in the landfill you ask? Well not much. Food that is put into a landfill and compacted decays very slowly.

I don’t have exact numbers, they probably depend on many factors, but I can say that depending on the waste I add to my worm bin it can be gone within two weeks. Stuff that is harder to break down may take a couple months.  And when it is all broken down into tasty compost it has a purpose. It can help create new plant material. I’m pretty sure in a landfill your food waste just becomes wasted energy.

Does that give you enough why bother info?

Indonesian street kids find rescue in organic farming from Voice of America.

Now this story is inspiring to me in many ways. Of course the fact that it is giving kids with little hope for the future skills that they can use to make their own success is fantastic, but I am also really drawn to the organic farming/returning to our roots aspect of the Learning Farm.

In the past few weeks I have read a couple of different stories about how farming and rehabilitation/job training programs can go hand in hand. There is something about being outside and connecting with nature as well as producing a tangible product that seems to be a very effective  way to connect with so many people from so many walks of life.

Many times when people are faced with buying organic produce they may ask if it’s worth spending the extra money that organic products command. Now the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has made that decision easier for all of us.

They have put together a great printable cheat sheet. You can download the PDF of it here.

The great part about this cheat sheet is that it lists the 12 foods that you should typically look for the organic version of, and also gives you several foods that carry lower pesticide loads and can be bought conventionally. I really like this guide because it takes the guess work out of buying produce.

Take a minute and download it, print it out, and take it to the store with you next time. Your body will thank you