Sustainable Kitchen Compost, No Antibiotics
So we can probably all agree that cultivating a self-sustaining garden is an admirable goal, and one that’s pretty elusive. And maybe we can all also agree that producing your own compost is a big piece of the equation. What we do not eat (vegetable peels, coffee grounds, eggshells), we throw onto the heap; a season or so of active gardening later, and we’re essentially eating food grown from everyday leftovers. How sustaining!
But, if you’re like me, and your compost heap is across town — or if you’re still debating the merits of hosting worms in your apartment or on your precious balcony space — you need every extra motivation. So here’s another good reason to compost, compost, compost: there’s growing concern that vegetables fertilized with uncomposted animal manure can pick up trace amounts of antibiotics. The cumulative effect of ingesting this stuff — and of antibiotics pervading the foodstream, in general — is unknown, but it’s probably not pretty. Researchers have already found, though, that composting fresh manure reduced the amounts of antibiotics by 99 percent.
The take-away: Put your own personal kitchen waste to work. And, if you buy compost, buy composted manure. And, if you purchase any sort of fresh manure, throw it on the heap for good measure. In this last case, I guess I could play on words just a little more by saying, “Let patience sustain you!”
