November 15, 2024

This month, Montgomery County launched the latest phase of its initiative to reduce food waste by encouraging businesses and residents to compost instead of discarding food scraps in the trash. (See a short video later in this article.)

Food scraps account for about one-quarter of the county's total trash volume. In 2023, the county estimates that approximately 90,000 tons of food waste ended up in the trash, most of which was incinerated at the county's facility in Dickerson.

Composting food scraps is an environmentally beneficial practice (and thus, a no-brainer), but it requires significant changes in behavior for households and businesses, as well as adaptations to the county’s waste management systems. The county has been running a pilot composting program for several years and now plans to increase participation and enhance its infrastructure.

Part of this effort includes allowing residents to “recycle” food scraps at the curbside, just as they do with glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard. The collected scraps would be transported to a central location, likely the Dickerson yard trim compost facility.

This article is excerpted from the Autumn Harvest Season 2023 issue of Plenty Magazine.  We present the initial portion of the article. You may then link to Plenty’s website to read the remainder of the piece, and see the charts and photos that accompany it.

The Montgomery County Council was uniquely visionary in 1980 when it protected 90,000 acres, nearly one-third of the county, for agricultural purposes. Now is the time to create more opportunities in the Agricultural Reserve for robust food production.

Stepping into a supermarket in 2020 or 2021 was a surreal experience—and wearing masks was only one reason. Empty shelves glared out at us. Where were the neatly shrink-wrapped packages of chicken? Why were there no eggs to be had? Peanut butter was in short supply, as were coffee and milk. There were many factors behind these shortages, but according to the Center for Strategic Studies, “The U.S. Food supply chain is highly efficient with low levels of redundancy, meaning that a small disruption in one part of the system can have cascading effects and cause food shipments to be delayed by days or weeks.”

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” Leonardo Da Vinci

This article is excerpted from the Spring 2024 issue of Plenty Magazine. We present the initial portion of the article. You may then link to Plenty’s website to read the remainder of the piece, and see the charts and photos that accompany it.

Stand outside during the tail end of winter and the local landscape is quiet, a palette of soft grays and browns—dormant-seeming, except for the scurrying of squirrels or a line of honking geese overhead. Deciduous trees are largely bare, apart from oaks and beeches, whose dead leaves cling to them for most of winter—a strategy dubbed marcescence—but that’s another story. No new sprigs of green, no burst of floral colors. By early March, many of us are desperate for spring, overflowing with signs of its rebirth.

But just below our feet lies an entire world whose activity barely shows all winter, a vital realm brimming with as much life, if not more, than we can see in plain sight. In reality, there are more living organisms in the soil than all the other life forms above ground! When we aren’t disrupting their work, the nourishment they help liberate is ready the moment the soil warms enough to activate growth in plants and to awaken seeds. In fact, “Soil is alive. Much more than a prop to hold up your plants, healthy soil is a jungle of voracious creatures eating and pooping and reproducing their way toward glorious soil fertility,” says Kathy Merrifield, a retired Oregon State University scientist.