Compost Man Stan - “The Revolution Was Televised & I Missed It!”

I teach composting. I’m biased but I think my job is important. Dwindling resources, nutrient density, water quality, wasted food and climate change are just some of the ways composting can help. It’s a critical skill for individuals, cities and even countries, and yet composting is not a thing for most Americans.

It’s easy to ignore because it’s the back side of the cycle. Sir Albert Howard, the father of modern composting, gave us the Law of Return. It means that you can’t take without giving back in equal measure.

We live on the green side of the grass and it’s easy to ignore the other half of life. What’s the balance between light and dark- life and death?

It has to be 50:50. It’s been almost 100 years since Sir Albert’s law and the needle doesn’t seem to have moved at all.

I’ve often joked that I’m stuck on step A. That is, I’m always teaching Compost 101. That’s because Americans mostly ignore some rock hard truths about themselves and about life on a finite planet!

That’s a bold and damning statement but it’s objectively true. For most of us, public education never broached the topic of what it means to be alive, drawing nutrients from the Earth and leaving waste behind. As a biology teacher. I had too much to cover to get into broader truths like we’re all connected, the Earth is our mother, as you sow, so shall you reap, etc…

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Stan and Terry in their matching 4-H shirts circa 1958. They had just given a demonstration on caring for a baby pig at a district competition.