Composting’s Colonial Roots and Microbial Offshoots, in Edge Effects, April 7, 2020.
Current methods of composting came out of colonial plantation agriculture, but have become a key way of practicing polyculture and imagining multispecies communities. In this essay, I trace some of that history through the writings of Albert Howard, one of the British founders of the organic agriculture movement.
Image: Compost piles often steam because soil microorganisms produce heat as they break down organic matter. Photo by Christine Matthews, 2016.
Michelle Niemann 