A Compost Mandate

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Compost could be an answer to the coming food shortage. This incredibly insightful and informative Gary Paul Nabhan piece in yesterday's New York Times explains how -
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/opinion/our-coming-food-crisis.html?src=me&_r=0#h[]

Can compost save farmland
"One strategy would be to promote the use of locally produced compost to increase the moisture-holding capacity of fields, orchards and vineyards. In addition to locking carbon in the soil, composting buffers crop roots from heat and drought while increasing forage and food-crop yields.

 By simply increasing organic matter in their fields from 1 percent to 5 percent, farmers can increase water storage in the root zones from 33 pounds per cubic meter to 195 pounds.
      
And we have a great source of compostable waste: cities. Since much of the green waste in this country is now simply generating methane emissions from landfills, cities should be mandated to transition to green-waste sorting and composting, which could then be distributed to nearby farms."
 
Click over to the link and read the entire article.

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