Our on-farm composting webinars feature experts from across the industry and cover the ins and outs of on-farm composting and compost use. Topics include setting up a composting area on your farm, integrating composting into your farming business, developing composting recipes, sourcing feedstocks, interpreting a compost test report, and understanding the different benefits of and uses for compost on the farm.
This webinar series, together with our broader library of composting-related webinar recordings, is one way ILSR supports the growth of a distributed and diverse composting infrastructure that includes community-scale and on-farm systems. Explore our other composting-related webinar recordings.
This webinar series is being offered in collaboration with the Million Acre Challenge, which is advancing soil health and regenerative practices on farms across the Chesapeake region.
Composting is an age-old practice that is intrinsically tied to food production.1 On-farm composting provides farmers with a method for managing organic wastes produced on site, while creating an amendment that enhances soil’s overall function2 and increases crop yields.3 When added to soil, compost improves the soil’s ability to store nutrients for plant use, reduces the need for chemical inputs, and decreases the likelihood of plant disease and pest issues.4 Compost increases the capacity of the soil to absorb and retain water, making crops less susceptible to extreme weather such as floods and droughts, and reduces soil losses to erosion.5
Composting also benefits the climate and our communities. The addition of compost to soil is among the fastest ways of replenishing soil organic matter, which can increase the storage of carbon in the soil–especially in depleted soils.6 In addition, when food scraps and other organic materials are diverted from disposal to be composted, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfilling and incineration are avoided. When food scraps are composted and the resulting compost is used to support local food production, nutrients are recycled, creating more circular food systems.
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These Composting Learning Activities are designed assist community composting sites in training their own community participants.