COMPOSTING FOR A COMMUNITY GARDEN: HOW LEADERSHIP CAN CURVE CLIMATE CHANGE

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Abstract:

In this paper, I will be discussing how the social issue of climate change and leadership can be addressed. I will go into detail about the history of Earth and its climate, facts about the state of Ohio, and how humans have caused a drastic growth in climate change. I will dig into my personal leadership experiences to create a small, manageable plan to create a community garden and greenhouse. In the end, I will discuss a possible new program within the State of Ohio.

Background:

The Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago from gravity pulling in swirling gas and dust for outer space (NASA, 2019). Outer space does not have different weather conditions or variable climates like we do in 2021. Humans have faced harsh conditions, and some have lived through different climates during their lifespans. How can you live through different climates? The answer is climate change – “changes in Earth's temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind, clouds, and precipitation patterns over time” (GALE, 2018).

Natural Causing Climate Change:

Natural caused climate change was discovered in the early 19th century. Natural causes include volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, Earth's orbital changes, solar variations, and internal variability. These factors do occur frequently, but humans are influencing the climate more.

Human Causing Climate Change:

Human causing climate change has had a drastic change in the mid-20th century. For example, “over the last century, the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide” (NASA, 2021). Earth will become warmer on average, which will lead to more precipitation and ice melting, which will raise sea levels. Generally, humans also cause deforestation – “the purposeful clearing of forested land” (National Geographic Society, 2019). Humans will cut trees down to get wood and to expand infrastructure for the growing population. However, deforestation will affect the world because trees provide oxygen, which will worsen the air quality, destroys the quality of water, and ruin wildlife.

Facts About Ohio:

Ohio is a midwestern state where cold and warm fronts meet to give most of its precipitation. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, about one-third of the state is covered by forestland. Where deglaciation, or the melting of ice, has occurred, there are several various trees still standing (n.d.). Approximately 50 percent of the state is farmland, with soybeans and corn as the state’s main ash crops. Manufacturing is one of the state’s most important economic activities.

Leadership Introduction:

According to Northouse, “there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it” (2021, Chapter 1, Section 1). However, generalized leadership is “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2021, Chapter 1, Section 1).

Personal Background:

I am from the small village of West Jefferson, Ohio, where all citizens received recycling bins six years ago. As a huge contributor to my local community, I can personally attest that Northouse’s definition of leadership is accurate. My biggest role in this small, close-knit community was being the Ox Roast coordinator. This position had duties not limited to multiple meetings a year, ordering and calling various vendors, and running the weekend full of fun and food. However, we are a festival that only runs for three days, but the Ox Roast committee only puts out trash boxes. We can see that only part of the community has slowly become climate aware because they have only introduced village-wide recycling in the past six years.

Action Step:

As the coordinator of the Ox Roast, I believe that we should be able to have recycling bins out as well. This step in the set-up of the festival does not take too much extra time and will help curve climate change because “recycling uses less energy, which translates into fewer fossil fuels burned and reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses” (North Carolina Environmental Quality, n.d.). The festival is only three days long, so we might not see the change that is needed.

However, we can also include the village to help purchase a compost dumpster for every resident to contribute to help create a nature-friendly community garden and greenhouse. “Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants” (Hu, 2020). Composting can be huge because we have plenty of farmers and farmland in and around the village. Since West Jefferson is near the state capital of Ohio, we can use composting to help fight climate change since it is harder for big cities to fight due to population size and growth. “Compost benefits the climate in a few different ways, including by reducing greenhouse gas emission at landfills, by promoting the uptake of carbon dioxide by vegetation, and by making our projects and garden resilient to the effects of climate change” (United States Composting Council, n.d.).

Why a Community Garden?

A community garden would be beneficial for the village because it would help members of the area who may be financially unstable to receive fresh produce. For those individuals or families who may need help financing food, it is easy to get non-perishables from food banks. However, fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive.

Community gardens should be accessible by every resident within a small distance of most members of the community. “In Paris, dedicated sites are mostly vacant lands temporarily abandoned, before a new assignation or a planned construction” (Torres, et al., 2017). Being able to compare different gardens around the world allows us to easily choose a spot that is widely reachable to everyone.

Gardens can help more people than just those that are under financial stress. “Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life” (Twiss, et al., 2003). If more people were to eat healthier, it would help our climate significantly. According to the University of California, Davis, and Amy Quinton, “cattle are the number one agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. Each year, a single cow will belch about 220 pounds of methane” (2021).

“Community gardens should be prioritized element of green infrastructure to improve adaptation to climate change. Community gardens can reduce urban heat islands, provide various ecosystem services, and increase stormwater retention” (Clarke, et al., 2019).

Building a small, household garden from scratch is already time-consuming. However, we can utilize every resident or business. Whether we utilize the extra food scraps at restaurants to compost, or we have members come to create the garden, there is something for everyone to help curve climate change.

How Can We Make the Action Step Possible?

As a community organization, we have the power to create more recycling options during the festival by just ordering boxes or recycling dumpsters. However, when it comes to composting for a local garden, we would need to talk to local officials (i.e., mayor, village council, and public service committee), since utilities and land is managed by them.

We would want to form a committee of village residents, farmers, and restaurant owners to present data and figures to show officials that composting for a community garden is a great option. This option would be great because it would help the soils of the new garden and greenhouse and would eliminate food waste.

We will conduct surveys with village residents to gauge their opinions on composting. There would need to be data from other villages or cities across the United States with their garden that shows a benefit. A project like this always needs to include others’ voices on how it will benefit them, or officials may not approve. As you are starting a new project, you need to be transparent with those who may be affected. Transparency is important, especially when we talk about money. We will research various options on cost, as we will try and minimize the cost of the project. We will make sure that each resident is understanding of the process of, the pros and cons of, and the cost of composting or the project. When we get all the necessary data and statistics, the committee will ask to be put on the council agenda to present the idea. Asking questions is an important step in the process. During the meeting, the committee will ask for this project to be funded by the village or any government funds, but we can fundraise for this cause. We will be open to any questions, comments, and concerns from residents, village council members, and scientists.

Why Adaptive Leadership:

Adaptivity is needed because outcomes may not be reached for months or even a few years. We can call this adaptive leadership – “focuses primarily on how leaders help others do the work they need to do, to adapt to the challenges they face… concerned with how people change and adjust to new circumstances” (Northouse, 2021, Chapter 11, Section 1).

Being adaptable can be important when working towards a goal with multiple people with various backgrounds. You can develop new strategies while understanding the different views of each member of the group to allow for new approaches, which will show how motivated you are to try new things and learn new skills.

Being adaptive throughout the project can prevent stress when a company may bail last minute on bringing recycling boxes or dumpsters to the Ox Roast. When researching various options, you should still contact the companies that you will not be using to ensure that they can handle the big surge of boxes or bins due to a potential outfall with the other company.

In the composting project, the organizer needs to be understanding that people will come and go. This may lead to a portion of the project being all on you. When surveying the community, you may run into numerous weather patterns (i.e., snow squalls, downpours, and a 30-degree temperature difference in 12 hours). Residents will see how passionate you are towards the plan that they might be more willing to help you fight for change.

You can also use adaptive leadership when talking about money. Some parts of this plan will be more cost-efficient than others, and you will be researching different options on how composting and building a garden or greenhouse can be done in the village. Fighting for this cause with the village leads to being more adaptive than you have ever been throughout this entire process. Local officials and community members will be asking you questions, voicing their concerns, and may vote down the idea at that time. You will have to take what they and other members of the community say back to the drawing table. You and your committee will need to go back to changing things as early as step one. Everyone must be flexible and adaptive during these stages, as disagreements may and most certainly will arise. Without these changes, when presenting the idea again to officials, they will not look at the issue, and then the project will become a failure. A failure in a formal setting may result in the project being discontinued or pushed back years.

Downfalls of Composting:

According to Grant and Dyer, composting is a big job to handle (2018). That is why we would work with local farmers to help us do this. In return for their help, we would be willing to run a local farmers market that is only local farmers and produce from the new community garden. Another issue with composting is that it can be very stinky. We would have multiple composting dumpsters around the village, but far enough away from most residents where the smell will not be as bad. If the smell gets too bad, it can attract bugs and rats. Although there are a few downfalls, there are plenty of pros to composting.

Pros of Composting:

According to the Climate Policy Watcher, composting has many advantages if it is properly used (2021). Compost has an abundance of nutrients, which can be used in various locations or products. Composting also increases the water content and infiltration and retention of a variety of soils. It also has less nitrogen than other stabilization processes due to the loss of ammonia during composting.

Possible New Program:

After creating and organizing a new community garden or greenhouse, I believe it is possible to create a program that is like one in Kentucky. This program is called Kentucky Double Dollars and is run by the Community Farm Alliance. The Community Farm Alliance has a mission statement which says:

“The Mission of the Kentucky Double Dollars program is to remove obstacles for WIC FMNP, SFMNP, and SNAP participants to increase the purchase and consumption of locally-grown food with point-of-sale matching incentives at multiple access points across Kentucky, including urban and rural farmers’ markets, Fresh Stop Markets (community-driven, sliding fee scale farmers markets), and pilot retail sites” (n.d.).

Currently, this program is funded through a combination of federal funding through the USDA GusNIP (Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program) Grant, state, and private funding. The USDA GusNIP “allows the Secretary to provide funding opportunities to conduct and evaluate projects providing an incentive to increase the purchase of fruits and vegetables by low-income consumers” (USDA, n.d.). This grant must be matched (i.e., if the grant was for $1,000, then the Community Farm Alliance must find an additional $1,000 from somewhere else to put into the program. If the Community Farm Alliance can get the $1,000 match, the Kentucky Double Dollars Program will have a total of $2,000 towards it).

I believe that a program like this would be very beneficial to the state of Ohio because according to the United States Census Bureau, the state has a 13.1% poverty rate for towns with more than 5,000 residents (n.d.). This program would be able to help many Ohioans receive healthier meals. With multiple healthy meals a week, the well-being of an individual will change.

Conclusions:

We have discussed the background of the Earth and different variables in the large-scale policy issue of climate change. Natural causing climate change can happen, but anthropogenic causes are the leading cause of climate change around the world. Then we discussed the statistics about the state of Ohio. Afterward, the introduction of creating an action step to curve climate change was created. The big action plan is to start recycling more within the Village of West Jefferson, Ohio and start composting for a new community garden. This community garden can provide new opportunities for those in the area who may not have chances to receive any produce because of expenses. The adaptive leadership approach is an important key to working on a project like this with others because it allows you to be more flexible with other options and understand if an issue arises. There are pros and cons to composting, as there is to everything else in the world, but composting will allow less harmful chemicals to be introduced to the atmosphere, which will continue global warming. Finally, the opportunity to create a program like the Kentucky Double Dollars can happen after we initiate the first plan. This action plan will benefit not only the people who have low socioeconomic status but also the farmers that are providing to other communities around the state.

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Updated: Dec. 10, 2021, 10:37p.m. | Published: Dec. 10, 2021, 10:37p.m.

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY - CLEVELAND, Ohio

By: AJ Hymiller