The Oneida Composting Project

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: organic fertilizers
• Education and Training: demonstration, workshop
• Natural Resources/Environment: soil stabilization
• Pest Management: compost extracts
• Soil Management: composting

There are 15,272 American Indians living in the Outagamie County-Brown County area. Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to today the American Indian people living in this area have had much of their traditional agricultural culture stripped from them of which composting was a major part. This project will reintroduce various traditional activities related to soil preservation and enhancement and their effects on food production and nutrition. It is our belief that by bringing Native people back to their traditional food production and consumption methods we can improve their health, strengthen the community’s food sovereignty and food chain, and increase the community’s access to fresh foods. Our project would introduce several types of usable composting units onto our farm and make them available to the community as a means of disposing of food waste and later as a location where composted materials can be obtained for gardening and crop production. We would focus on the use of composters as tools not just for commercial or personal use, but as a tool for the preservation and protection of the environment. Our project would also, in addition to demonstrations, include the sharing of educational materials with local school districts.

1. To reintroduce various traditional activities related to soil preservation and enhancement.
   At our workshops, we not only demonstrated and presented composting handouts to the participants, but we also discussed the importance of soil health and various techniques to improve soil health. Some of the articles/topics discussed were: Healthy Soils = Healthy Food,
   What is Ending Up in Wisconsin Landfills, The World Waste’s 1 Billion Tons of Food a Year and Sustainability.
2. To assist Native producers, including farmers market producers to utilize compost production methods as a means of improving soil health and increasing garden production.
   At each of the monthly workshops we always were sure to not only demonstrate various composting methods, but also gave the participants literature that they could take home with them. Some of the topics discussed were: Things You Didn’t Know You Could Compost, A Beginner’s Guide to Composting, Easy Steps to Prevent Food Waste and Trench Composting With Kitchen Scraps. Partnered with Iowa State University to give access to the following YouTube videos: How to Take a Soil Sample, How to Test Soil Health, How to Complete the DIY (Do It Yourself) Aggregate Stability Test, How to Complete the DIY Bulk Density Test, How to Complete the DIY Water Holding Capacity Test, and How to Complete the DIY Earthworm Abundance Test.
3. To demonstrate several types of usable composting units and make them available to the community for their use.
   The demonstrations/workshops that we hosted in 2021 utilized a 106-gallon tumbler to demonstrate and create compost that the community participants could then take home with them and put in their gardens. We also furnished them with a food grade 5 gallon bucket for this purpose. A 2 Ton Fermenting Bin was also purchased with this grant, and we hope to utilize that in our 2022 demonstrations/workshops.
4. To introduce the next generation of agriculture producers to the idea of composting as a farming tool.
   We were able to arrange for a 10^th grade class from the Oneida High School to come out to our composting worksite and participate in a demonstration before school was let out. During the summer demonstrations we had 2 community youth that attended our demonstrations. During the early fall months, we purchased a publication entitled ‘Composting For Youth’ which we will distribute to the Oneida High School this spring.
5. To share our findings with local community through newspaper articles and on site demonstrations.
   We did share our finds through local newspapers including: the Tribal Kalihwisaks, Seymour Advertising News, Freedom Pursuit and Coffee News. In addition, we posted them on the Oneida Farmers Market social media outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google.