“I feel so proud of my work in making this India bed (plants from India) emerge from a bed of weeds”. Athira Sivan
On the first day of our new internship at Earth Matter, we did not know what to expect. We were told by our internship coordinators to dress professionally and so we did just that. Decked out in fancy dress pants and open toed heels we made our way off the boat to have Marisa tell us “Wow you guys are, uhm….not appropriately dressed…” We were initially surprised and admittedly disgruntled as we struggled to gather eggs from pecking hens, walked through a small pile of food scraps, and chased after two unruly, slightly chubby, a tiny bit spoiled, incredibly adorable goats- all in dressing pants and heels. However, we began to learn more about Earth Matter and realized that New York City needed to “green up”. What we do at Governor’s Island is the first step.
As our logo symbolizes, Earth Matter promotes the natural cycle of composting. We collect food scraps from twelve different locations on Governor’s Island. Some of it is eaten by our chickens and goats and the rest is composted. On our original location (closed to the public due to construction) we make large piles of food scrap and wood chip lasagna known as builds. Our heaps of compost an estimated 1170 lbs of food scraps! The work is hard under the hot summer sun but we are proud to say we make a great difference.
Landfills fill up fast and a good percentage of it is from food waste which emits methane, a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Instead, by composting food scraps we not only prevent this but also create rich soil for our Earth. More than ever, our world needs to change its wasteful ways and Earth Matter can show individuals like us how it can be done.