Over 21% of waste produced in the United States comes from food. Whether it is being grown, harvested, prepared, or consumed, food always creates waste. Pitt County’s Farm and Food Council Coordinator, Caitlin Cummins, wanted to find a food waste recovery solution for her community. Since 2018, she has been working with N.C. Cooperative Pitt Extension in Pitt County, local government, East Carolina University (ECU), and other community groups to initiate a local composting program. It began as a way to process organic food waste from ECU's dining halls and retain ECU students after graduation but direction changed due to COVID-19 when Caitlin lost student interns and grant funding. Caitlin is now shifting her focus to a private composting business that supports residential and commercial compost collection and benefits Pitt’s community members and farmers.
Many farmers buy compost from larger corporations that often contain human and animal waste and biosolids, a product from the wastewater treatment process used as fertilizer. “Ours [compost] will not have any biosolids in it, which can be a concern to some farmers because biosolids can contain heavy metals,” said Caitlin. She will produce a cleaner, safer compost option for farmers that will also support an entirely local circular economy, where compost will comprise of locally grown food scraps and waste from local farms and restaurants then sold to local farmers to use as a soil amendment to grow more local foods. At this time, Pitt County has limited options for composting, especially if farmers want a localized solution. There is no infrastructure or hauling capabilities within a 50-mile radius that could manage the amount of food waste generated by Pitt’s community, let alone ECU’s dining halls. Caitlin is hopeful that her adapted business model will address the needs of farmers and support a more sustainable local food system.
Over the 14-month learning and planning period, Caitlin leaned into the resources made available through N.C. Cooperative Extension in Pitt County. She volunteered with Community Garden Technician, Jonie Torres, to assist her with programming while gaining a better understanding of composting. At the gardens, Caitlin was also educated on other food waste recovery methods such as vermicomposting and black soldier flies. “It [Extension] helped guide me to what kind of business I ultimately wanted to pursue,” said Caitlin. She also commended Extension’s leadership and guidance in helping her feel more capable and confident in starting a composting business that serves the community. Pitt County’s Extension Director and appointed member of the Farm and Food Council, Leigh Guth, supervises Caitlin. Leigh has been an excellent resource for Caitlin in forming relationships and advocating for her business plans.
If you are hungry for more knowledge, Rhonda Sherman is the Solid Waste Specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University. Her areas of expertise include vermicomposting, composting, and recycling. She is Extension’s ultimate resource for food waste recovery and composting, authoring 65 publications on these topics and organizing the world’s only annual conference on large‐scale commercial vermicomposting. She has also written a book, The Worm Farmer’s Handbook: Mid- to Large-Scale Vermicomposting for Farms, Businesses, Municipalities, Schools, and Institutions, and is the founder and director of a two‐acre Compost Learning Lab (CL2) at NC State University’s 1,500-acre Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory. The lab offers hands-on training and workshops that are available to Extension educators, farmers, teachers, Master Gardener℠ volunteers, and anyone else from the public. The lab opens on June 7, 2021. Email Rhonda at sherman@ncsu.edu to make an appointment today.
