Earlier this year Rhode Island College hosted its annual Rhode Island Compost Conference and Trade Show. The Possibly team attended the conference to hear from some compost-enthusiasts about why they love turning food scraps into soil.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Earlier this year, Rhode Island College hosted its annual Rhode Island Compost Conference and Trade Show. We sent reporters Sedi-Anne Blachford and Nat Hardy to check it out.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: Hi, Megan!
Nat Hardy: Hey!
Megan Hall: So I love compost as much as anyone else, but why a whole conference and tradeshow about it?
Sedi-Anne Blachford: I was wondering the same thing, Megan. I kind of thought composting was pretty much figured out — you put your food scraps and yard debris in a pile, let it decompose, and then use it for your garden…
Nat Hardy: But it turns out there’s a lot to say about compost. And plenty of people excited to talk about it!
Isaac Bearg: It’s very accessible, and it’s kind of gateway to understanding, like, where our soil comes from, where our food comes from, the greater environmental, you know, benefits of all of the things that we’re doing.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: That’s Isaac Bearg, the program director for food, climate, and environment with the Food Policy Council, one of the hosts of the conference.
Nat Hardy: Isaac says the goal of the conference is to bring together backyard composters, food recovery organizations, regulators, legislators, students — all to get people excited about composting.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: But the folks at the conference didn’t seem to need much convincing.
Cindy Davis: Oh, my God, I love compost. I have the compost fever.
Martin Radcke: It’s so beneficial to the to the soil, we can really see the difference, like the plants are doing amazing and the soil is super healthy.
Larmie Coleman: I feel like, I think I got amazed of just the cycle of the cycle of life of trash into treasure.
Megan Hall: But, what about the smell?
Sedi-Anne Blachford: Not a problem!
Cindy Davis: I love the smell of it.
Jason Spitalnik: I have to say the smell. It smells so good.
Jayne Merner: I just love so when you take a whiff of that, and it’s like this earthy geosmin smell, that’s my favorite thing about compost.
Megan Hall: That’s not what I expected from rotting food and yard debris!
Nat Hardy: Yeah, a lot of people assume that compost stinks. But if you’re doing it right, it should have an earthy, foresty smell.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: Jayne Merner, the owner of Earth Care Farm in Charlestown, Rhode Island, says, If your compost pile smells gross, it’s probably not getting enough oxygen. You can deal with that by…
Jayne Merner: Making sure we’re turning that compost so that we have aerobic conditions without those odors. So dispel those myths! Compost is cool, it’s not gross.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: These “aerobic conditions” just mean the compost has lots of air in it. That lets the microorganisms that turn your food scraps into soil do their thing.
Megan Hall: Got it. But beyond smelling nice, what does compost actually do?
Nat Hardy: Well Brad Cheever, who was at the conference representing Ocean Hour Farm in Newport, Rhode Island, says:
Brad Cheever: It’s really important for cycling nutrients and making better soil structure. You kind of let it do its thing, and it just makes it a lot easier to grow food.
Megan Hall: What does he mean by soil structure?
Nat Hardy: It’s the physical make-up of the soil. If you just have a pile of dirt, it won’t hold onto the water and nutrients that plants need to grow. Soil actually needs to be kind of clumpy and full of air pockets.
Megan Hall: And compost can help with that?
Sedi-Anne Blachford: Exactly, it contains a lot of microbes, and their job is building those structures.
Nat Hardy: Domingo Morales, the keynote speaker at the conference, likes to say:
Domingo Morales: In 2015 I started working for the FBI. Some people call it the FBII fungus, bacteria and insects or invertebrates.
Megan Hall: So compost doesn’t stink, and can have real benefits for soil. I think I’m starting to catch the compost fever myself!
Nat Hardy: It’s hard not to!
Megan Hall: And what can I do if I want to start composting?
Sedi-Anne Blachford: Great question. There are a lot of resources out there to show you the way.
Nat Hardy: For people in Rhode Island, the organizers put together a guide called the Ocean Lover’s Guide to Compost. But they also have online tools for finding compost services near you.
Sedi-Anne Blachford: So even if you’re not totally ready to get up close and personal with the microbes, there’s lots of ways to get started turning your food waste into soil.
Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Sedi-Anne and Nat!
And thanks to Cindy Davis, Martin Radcke, Larmie Coleman, and Jason Spitalnik for telling us about why they love compost at the start of this episode.
That’s it for today. You can find more information, or ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, at askpossibly.org. You can also subscribe to Possibly wherever you get your podcasts or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or Bluesky at “askpossibly”
Possibly is a co-production of Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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