Composting is the making of new soil. Composting takes waste products and turns them into rejuvenated topsoil for the earth. Nature does not have waste; everything that dies becomes food for something else. Composting is part of the natural flow of life, recycling essential nutrients back into the soil. It is estimated that 40% of food ends up in landfills accelerating climate change.

      Carbon Sequestration and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can occur through a variety of agricultural practices, giving farmers and ranchers options for having a positive impact on changing climate and becoming involved with the emerging carbon credit market. Practices such as: conservation tillage, organic production, improved cropping systems ( i.e. planting cover crops, crop rotations and organic productions), land restoration, irrigation and water management, composting waste stream substrates, and using them in fields to restore soils and reduce synthetic fertilizers are the practices in agriculture that can help turn back climate change. Primary sources of greenhouse gasses in agriculture are the production of nitrogen-based fertilizers, combustion of fossil fuels, lack of waste management, and enteric fermentation of livestock resulting in methane emissions.

      Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and converted to organic carbon through photosynthesis. As organic carbon decomposes, it is converted back to carbon dioxide through respiration. Through sustainable agricultural practices including composting and vermicomposting it is possible to drastically increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil.

       Fertile soils are a challenge to the world. Soils are one of the most important components for agri-food systems, but also one of the most fragile: the formation of a centimeter of land requires hundreds of years of work and can be destroyed in seconds. Therefore, modern conservation practices require the adoption of technologies to restore degraded lands and protect those that are still functional. Composting reduces pollution, reuses organic waste, reduces the cost of fertilizers and agricultural production inputs, and especially returns to soil the nutrients taken to produce food. The basis of all sustainable agricultural systems is fertile and healthy soil. At present, agriculture uses 11% of the land surface for crop production and the growth rate in cropping area over the last 50 years has been 12%. Agricultural production has grown between 2.5 and 3 times during the same period. This strong growth is due to a significant increase in the yield of major crops. However, global production gains in some regions have caused land degradation, reduction of water resources, and the deterioration of ecosystem services.

      Soil ecosystem services include carbon storage, storage and supply of water, biodiversity, and sociocultural  services. Improving soil carbon content is a long-term process which also decreases the rate of erosion and increases carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change. Agriculture and the use of compost has the potential to contribute to mitigating this global phenomenon. Faced with the challenge of food security, climate change and soil conservation, a more productive and resilient agriculture will require better management of natural resources such as water, soil, and genetic resources through practices such as conservation agriculture, integrated nutrition, preservation of organic matter, integrated pest and disease management and agroforestry. Recycling organic waste from forestry, farming, and cattle management production processes transforms waste into inputs that can then be returned into the soil, providing nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, improving water retention and cation exchange (CEC), and increasing production profitability. From the environmental point of view, this recycling of materials and their application to the soil, provides many benefits, such as increasing organic matter in the soil, reducing the methane produced in landfills or municipal dumps, replacement of peat as substrate, the uptake of carbon, the soil temperature control and increasing the porosity of the soil, thereby reducing the risk of erosion and desertification.

      Composting is widely accepted as a sustainable practice used in all systems associated with climate-smart agriculture. It offers enormous potential for all sizes of farms and agroecological systems and combines environmental protection with sustainable agricultural production.

      Organic matter is one of the most important components of soil. Although management at Soil Seed and Water,llc.  think of it as a single compound, its composition is quite diverse since it is the result of the decomposition of animals, plants, and microorganisms in the soil or in off-farm materials. It is this diverse composition that makes organic matter important since many different products are obtained from the decomposition process which acts as the bricks of the soil that build organic matter. Although there is no single concept regarding soil organic matter, it is defined as any matter of animal or plant origin returned to the soil after a decomposition process that involves microorganisms. It may be leaves, dead roots, exudates, manure, urine, feathers, hair, bones, carcass, and microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and nematodes that provide the soil with organic substances or its own cells when dead. (See appendix XIV Feedstocks) 

      These materials initiate a process of decomposition and mineralization and change their organic form (living beings) to inorganic form (minerals, soluble or insoluble). These minerals flow through the soil solution and finally are used by plants and organisms, or stabilized to become humus, through the process of humification. This same process occurs in a compost pile. In the soil, the organic matter composed of complex sugars (lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, present in plant wastes especially) and proteins (present in animal waste in particular), is attacked by microorganisms, that decompose it to form more microorganisms. This process also generates biomass, heat, water, and more decomposed organic matter. However, no reference is made to composting in the soil because the process can occur under aerobic or anaerobic conditions (such as rice crops under flood), and the typical heating phases (or thermophile or sanitation) are not present. This means that in the microorganisms present in a field such as cattle manure, for example, (when applied fresh on the field or leaving the excrement unturned) parasites’ eggs and cysts are left.

The organic matter can be applied to the soil in the following states:

•  fresh, as manure in the same plot,

•  dry, as mulch or dead coverage from crop waste (straw or cultivated fallow),

•  processed, whether as compost, vermicomposting, slurry or stabilized (for example, manure or guano). 

Once these substances have reached the maximum degree of decomposition, they remain in the soil, forming carbon complexes, highly stable and slowly degraded. This new material is humus. It is then, the most stabilized matter as humic and fulvic acids, having undergone a process of mineralization, involving microorganisms and then a humification process. Humic substances that are part of organic matter are formed by chemical and biological degradation of plant and animal waste and synthesis activities carried out by soil microorganisms. 

The content of organic matter in soils varies between 2 and 8 grams of organic matter per kilogram of soil; the first number corresponds to deserts, the second to peatlands, being common for mineral soils to contain between 10 and 40 grams of organic matter per kilogram of soil in the most superficial area. However, the amount of organic matter depends not only on soil microorganisms but also on the type of soil, vegetation, and environmental conditions such as moisture and temperature. A rise in rainfall or irrigation under average temperature conditions causes the multiplication of microorganisms that use more organic matter, and the decomposition continues. Therefore, the application of organic matter to soils must be a permanent practice, considering not only increasing the percentage of organic matter or feeding soil microorganisms, but also the various benefits to the soil.

      According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) there were over 144 million cows in the world. Overproduction has led to inappropriate manure disposal practices although manure is a valuable resource for organic fertilizer.

      Organic versus Conventionally grown produce each have their advantages and disadvantages. While organic crops have less protein their protein quality is higher. Organic crops contain significantly more vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus and significantly less protein, nitrates, and lower amounts of heavy metals. Organic produce typically has better taste, smell, and shelf life plus a more positive impact on animals and human health.

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