How farmers use your scraps to grow your food
Imagine a world where the scraps from today’s veggie soup transform into lush green land that feeds cattle. Picture your garden clippings transforming to nourish the very food that lands on your plate. This is the powerful reality of composting.
Simon Falkiner is a farmer at Freshwater Creek, just outside of Geelong. The farm, called Poplar Grove, has been in Simon’s family since 1970. When Simon and his wife took over the farm from his father, he knew he had to address the degraded state of the soil.
For 25 years, they have improved the soil by ploughing in a conditioner mix with recycled compost. This compost is made from the scraps and garden clippings put in food and garden organics bins across Victoria. This improved the subsoil and increased soil depth. Deeper soils generally provide more water and nutrients to crops than shallow soils.
Despite a recent dry growing season, Simon’s canola crops still managed to see a 30% yield improvement. He attributes this to the better-quality soil and its increased ability to retain water.
It is a similar story over in Gippsland on the farm of Timothy Missen.
For the last 10 years he has been using around 250 tonnes of recycled compost per year. This nutrient rich compost helps to improve the condition of his soil which is key as Tim says he is ‘in the business of growing grass.’ While he raises cattle, Tim knows that without healthy soil to provide grass for grazing, he is out of a job.
One of the best things about using recycled compost is that it provides a smorgasbord of nutrients for the soil, making it far easier to maintain and avoid leaching (the loss of excess nutrients into the water systems). From your plate - to bin - to compost - to field - to crops - to animals - to plate. When we understand our role in the circular nature of our food and food waste, everyone benefits.
Both farmers stress that if we want better quality soil, we need the right ingredients to make it into the soil. This starts with what we put into our food and garden organics bin. Our food scraps and garden clippings are nutrient-rich and perfect for repurposing into compost.
'For communities to have clean, healthy food, they must correctly dispose of the waste they produce - it's as simple as that.'
Keeping contaminants like plastic out of your food and garden organics bin makes it easier to compost. It also ensures farmers are not removing contaminants further down the line.
Plastic and the chemicals found on plastics negatively affect soil fauna, such as earthworms and other microorganisms. As plastic pollution increases it can cause permanent damage to the soil and can undo some of the positive effects of using compost.
We want healthy and fresh food from our farmers. Helping create high-quality compost by keeping rubbish out of our food and garden organics bin, is a small act that has a big impact for all Victorians.
