Esteban Monge - Composting in South America

Marcy Wright in Columbus, North Carolina, sent us the following email on December 10, 2009...

"At the end of November, we had about 400 people visit the barn as part of the annual benefit barn tour for our local equestrian and nature center. The main attraction was the composting manure system! The reaction was universal: 'It makes so much sense!' Many people pay to have their horses' manure hauled away and then pay again to have compost brought back. That makes no sense to me. With this technology, all of our objectives are being met. Even the 'learning curve' is fun, interesting and relatively easy with the technical support of the company. A bonus is the excellent fly and odor control derived from this system. Because of budget constraints that surfaced as the barn was nearing completion, we thought about cutting out the composting bins. Working wtih the team at O2Compost, we found ways to simplify the design and reduce the cost. Now, I can't imagine Barn Life without the system. We LOVE it!" Click here for more info on this system.

Ed Jessen in Huger, South Carolina, sent us the following email on September 30, 2009...

Jack Chambers and his wife Lois own and operate Sonoma Valley Worm Farm in Sonoma, California. Jack has spent a tremendous amount of time and energy developing a truly superior worm casting product for use in the vineyards of Northern California. Because of his efforts, Jack has become a leader, and popular speaker in the vermi-compost industry. By incorporating 1-cup of castings into the soil when planting new grape vines, vine loss during the first year has dropped from 25% to less than 2% and the growth response puts these vines into production a year in advance of non-treated vines. Jack also uses his castings to brew compost tea, used both as a root drench and as a foliar spray to successfully combat powdery mildew. Following construction of my prototype aerated compost bin system in 2001, Jack was my first O2Compost Training Program client. He has also become a very good friend.
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Gregg Twehues works with the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, a non-profit farm, educational center and restaurant in Westchester County, New York. It was created on 80 acres formerly belonging to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills by David Rockefeller and his daughter, Peggy Dulany. It is dedicated to promoting sustainable agriculture, local food, and community-supported agriculture. Gregg’s responsibility is to manage the farms compost system to process manure, landscaping debris and food waste from the Blue Hill Restaurant. O2Compost provided assistance to Stone Barn Center to develop an aerated compost system to process poultry offal, with an emphasis on efficient operations and odor management.
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Fort Lewis – Tacoma, Washington. In 2006, O2Compost completed an extensive pilot demonstration project in support of the U.S. Army’s goal of zero discharge from military bases. The objective of this project was to evaluate the compost ability of a wide range of organic waste materials, from municipal green waste and food waste materials to horse manure, biosolids and petroleum contaminated soils. This project included extensive training of operations personnel, on-call technical services, and presentations to staff. It has received awards for achieving recycling goals at Fort Lewis and is now considered a best management practice, soon to be implemented at other bases around the country.