Whitten Family Farm in Winthrop is launching a food waste collection service. The food scraps will be converted to compost at their farm, providing a precious resource for local growers.

“We provide buckets and bins to residents, businesses, organizations – any entity generating food scraps, collect them on a weekly basis and provide clean containers for the following week”, says Farm Owner Cherie Whitten. 

The Whitten family will be constructing a composting system that integrates vermicomposting using worms, mechanical aeration, and heat capture to make high quality compost and harness the heat and nutrients generated through the decomposition process. 

Reimagining food waste as a resource can lead to many benefits for local communities. All organic material, when buried, creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. When the same organic material undergoes the composting process, it has the ability to sequester carbon in the soil, while improving soil structure (reducing run-off issues), and provides a nutrient rich amendment for plants resulting in a reduced need for imported and synthetic soil amendments. The world is currently facing a serious fertilizer crisis, making it more important to capture these locally generated, high quality nutrients.  This will help to ensure local food security.  Not only does this project have a positive environmental impact, reducing the amount of food waste in landfills, but is also a regenerative local resource business that should return a high economic multiplier to the local economy, without depleting natural resources.

The Whittens are working with AdkAction’s Compost for Good project, Clarkson University, and the Town and Village of Potsdam through the Potsdam Climate Smart Communities Task Force.

“Managing food waste through composting  is essential for resource recovery and sustainable agriculture”, says Susan Powers, Director of Clarkson’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment.

“Cherie Whitten’s commitment to her community is truly inspirational. With her vision, work ethic, thoughtful design and sense of personal responsibility, we have no doubt that she will be generating beautiful, high quality compost, while saving money for residents who would pay for their scraps to go to a landfill”, said Compost for Good Cofounder Jennifer Perry. 

“This isn’t just about growing local food and keeping food waste from a landfill, it’s about providing the best products for our community, keeping money in our local economy, and utilizing our resources as best as possible.  We want to form a partnership with you, a relationship, to harness this food waste energy and start a positive environmental and economic movement in our area”, says Whitten

The service is offered through monthly or yearly memberships. To learn more about composting, this new service, or to sign up visit www.WhittenFamilyFarm.com or contact Cherie Whitten at:   WhittenFamilyFarm@gmail.com

-Jennifer Perry, Compost for Good

Whitten Family Farm Compost customers can take advantage of convenient drop off as The Potsdam Co-op will serve as a bucket swap location. Details coming soon!