[UrbanCropCircle] Cedar Grove and meat in compost

Tue Apr 15 11:42:15 PDT 2008

Dear fellow gardeners,
I  wrote to Cedar Grove compost with my concerns about Cedar Grove making
compost with meat scraps collected from Seattle yard waste. I've attached
the response I got from Cedar Grove Compost flak, along with my response to
her email. Thanks for your patience if you waded through this
correspondence. I promise not to send such long emails again. Someone I met
at the Green Festival said that Cedar Grove wasn't really organic now since
it processes yard waste from yards where people make liberal use of
pesticides like Weed 'n Feed. Is anybody on this list a master composter?
What bad stuff can survive the hot composting Cedar Grove uses on yard
waste? Now that I've cancelled my yard waste service, what do I do with
nasty weeds like dandelions? My compost pile isn't hot enough to kill the
seeds. I thought I'd just put them in my garbage can, which is seldom full. 

Susan 

Cedar Grove's response:

Thank you for taking time to write out your comments on the subject of meat
and dairy items being added to Seattle's curbside compost collection
program. We are confident that our technology successfully converts normal
protein sources into a beneficial source of material for growing plants,
minimizing water usage, minizing chemical usage, and controlling erosion.

Under no circumstances do we accept any "recalled" or "bad" food products
from the food supply into our composting program. We depend on the work of
the USDA to ensure that such items will not make it to mass distribution or
will be recalled should they even suspect an issue.

When recalled, they are banned by local haulers, cities and counties from
the compost toter and do not come in to Cedar Grove for processing.

We truly appreciate your support for Cedar Grove in the past and moving
forward. We invite you to take a tour of our Everett site to learn more
about our operational practices and the Quality Testing we are continually
doing to ensure we produce an earth-friendly, WSDA registered organic
product. Let me know if you or any guests would like to do that, and I will
set it up.

Thanks again for your comments.

Susan Thoman, Director of Business Development and Marketing Cedar Grove
Composting

206.832.3083 DID,  206.832.3183 Fax, 206.755.8309 Cell phone,
<http://www.cgcompost.com> http://www.cgcompost.com

My response to Susan Thorman at Cedar Grove: 

Susan,

Thanks for your prompt reply. Given the fact that the USDA has been broken
for most of the Bush administration (see "Fast Food Nation" by Eric
Schlosser) how can you possibly rely on that agency to ensure safety in the
American meat supply?

The USDA does not prevent ranchers from feeding cow meat to cows, which is a
major way that Mad Cow Disease develops. The USDA does not inspect meat
slaughtering practices often enough to prevent e.coli from getting into the
meat supply.

The USDA is understaffed, underfunded, and directed by the executive branch
to impose as little regulatory "burden" as possible on the meat industry. 

You faith in the USDA is touching, but misguided. Even if the agency
verifies a food product as safe or organic, it may still make us sick. The
federal standards for certification of organic food produces are far below
those of the State of California, which, I believe, has the highest
standards in the U.S.

Don't hide behind a corrupt federal agency that has failed to do its job for
almost eight years. Don't pretend that USDA approval means that your compost
will be safe or organic. Once the yard waste you turn into compost is
tainted with ANY meat products, your compost will be unfit to use in an
organic garden.

I am still appalled and shocked that your company would even contemplate
collecting yard waste that contains meat scraps. The urge for greater profit
on your side, and lower landfill costs on the part of the city of Seattle
illustrate the law of congruent greed.

I will make sure every state agency, watchdog organization, organic food
store, hardware store, etc, knows that Cedar Grove Compost plans to sell
dirty, non-organic compost and claim that it is organic.  If you put meat in
your compost, I will never buy your product again, and I will tell everyone
I know to avoid your product.

Susan Helf

  _____  

From: urbancropcircle-bounces at lists.sustainableballard.org
[mailto:urbancropcircle-bounces at lists.sustainableballard.org] On Behalf Of
Sooz Appel
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 5:32 PM
To: Sustainable Ballard Urban Crop Circle
Subject: Re: [UrbanCropCircle] Cedar Grove and meat in compost

I encourage people who are concerned about the new compost with meat
products in it to address their concerns to Richard Conlin
richard.conlin at seattle.gov    . He is the City Council person who is
promoting zero waste and pushing the City to add more programs to get us
there. His aide is Sara Nelson sara.nelson at seattle.gov    
Also, at the Seattle Public Utilities (the City dept which oversees all
recycling, compost, etc.), contact  Marcia Rutan who handles community
recycling efforts. She can direct you to the right person.
marcia.rutan at seattle.gov    Or Carl Woestwin   carl.woestwin at seattle.gov
Carl is a long-time Tilth person, who really cares about the quality of
compost.

Sooz Appel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sustainable Ballard
<mailto:urbancropcircle at lists.sustainableballard.org> Urban Crop Circle 
To: Sustainable Ballard
<mailto:urbancropcircle at lists.sustainableballard.org> Urban Crop Circle 
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [UrbanCropCircle] Cedar Grove and meat in compost

Yeah, 

I went to the recent workshop with Ann Lovejoy, and she was saying they seem
to be getting a little too big to handle their compost without meat... it's
a bit clumpier than before.... and we don't want compost with less than
fully composted meat-- bleah (I'm a veg too.) Besides the veg bit...

I'm wondering if we can see if they have some guidelines and standards that
we can get for their planned meat inclusion, and if they will have a
non-meat options (doubtful if they allow everyone to include meat.) I just
wonder if they are really ready.

Alison

Sustainable Ballard Urban Crop Circle
<urbancropcircle at lists.sustainableballard.org> wrote: 

Hello fellow urban gardeners,
Sky is a great source of soil. I miss the soil one could get from Denny Hill
fuel at 90th and Aurora. Did you know you can get Ballard Tree Service &
most other tree services to dump the contents of their closed trucks into
your driveways? You can get yards of free wood chips for composting
ornamentals. 

I wanted to let you know that the City of Seattle is encouraging homeowners
to put meat and other animal products into the yard waste containers
starting in 2009. I am afraid that meat-tainted Cedar Grove compost (made
with City of Seattle yard waste) will contain e.coli and possibly prions
(Mad Cow disease.) Cows are forced to be cannibals and eat food up of other
cows. I don't want to risk of using soil that contains prions that may cause
Mad Cow disease. 

I've written to the City and to Cedar Grove Compost. I would never THINK of
putting animals meat scraps in my compost. I'm a vegetarian and an organic
gardener. I'm considering canceling my yard waste contract with the City and
never buying Cedar Grove Compost again. What do you all think? 

Susan Helf 

-----Original Message-----
From: urbancropcircle-bounces at lists.sustainableballard.org
[mailto:urbancropcircle-bounces at lists.sustainableballard.org] On Behalf Of
Sustainable Ballard Urban Crop Circle
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 10:22 PM
To: Sustainable Ballard Urban Crop Circle
Subject: Re: [UrbanCropCircle] Welcome to the UCC Group!

Rhonda,

Sky nursery in Shoreline on Hwy. 99 has good prices on dirt. When I was
buying dirt for my tiny garden plot/patch, we filled up the back of my
neighbors pick up truck with dirt and got a good bulk price. They have a
backhoe and just dump it in for you.

I am also excited to have other gardeners to talk with and learn from. I am
learning as I go and am having a lot of fun with my little patch of earth.
Swanson's Nursery has been really helpful and they often have Master
Gardeners on hand to answer questions.

Lisa

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008, Sustainable Ballard Urban Crop Circle wrote:

>
> Welcome everyone to Sustainable Ballard's Urban Crop Circle Gardening
Group!
>
> I don't know about you, but I'm really excited about having folks to talk
to about gardening. Even though I've read books and dabbled with planting
things over the years, this year I'd like to really plant a garden. To that
end, Jim and I are installing raised beds on the side of the house with the
most sun. The next step is bringing home the dirt, and if anyone has
suggestions for what kind of soil and where to get it from, I'd appreciate
it!
>
> Do let me know if you have any suggestions for this group. It really
belongs to all of us. If you have questions, or answers!, feel free to post
them here.
>
> Thanks, Rhonda
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Going green? See the top 12 foods to eat organic.
> http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN
> 51N1653A

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