Compost, compost test results, photos
Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
2013

In 2005, Chicago’s Department of Environment officially declared all city soil unsafe for food production. Testing for nutrient load and various forms of contamination of specific sites is very costly and safe, healthy soil is now the most expensive line item of any urban growing operation from back yard to community garden. Compost laws in Illinois are stringent about what can be composted and in what amount. Relaxing these laws is the current push. Most organizations and individuals are composting anyway knowingly or not in violation of these ordinances.

The compost you see piled in the gallery is the amount required to fill a generous-sized urban plot of 100’sq which is 20x less than required to sustain an individual’s food needs.

If every square foot of Chicago’s land mass of just under 150,000 acres was cultivated (assuming the land was clear of all built structures, people had moved to the suburbs to allow the land to be used for farming, the soil was safe and healthy and the working team of urban farmers had the combined skill set of: growing-processing-storing-distributing) Chicago would only be able to produce enough food to sustain 8% of its current population.

All commercial producers of compost are required by law to test once every 5,000 cubic yards of compost they produce, but the results of those tests are not readily available to consumers.

I submitted compost samples from three local sources – Growing Power, Waste Management and a backyard composter for U.S. Composting Council testing at one of their approved labs. The blind results are posted.

The proof is in the pudding.