Interview with the Evanston Valley Enterprises Founders (part 7)

Q: So how do you go about impacting that next generation, whether it be the next generation of farmers or others?

Doug: That is a very good question.  Robin and I went to a composting meeting in Veedersburg, Indiana.  The Indiana Composting Council sponsored a field day.   We visited a farm where they have been doing regenerative farming techniques for 17 years.  The owner has been to Washington DC to testify before various committees.  He said, “to make our humus compost the most effective, we need to make a compost extract.”  And what you're doing is pulling the microbes, that is the life, out of the compost, and you're suspending it in water.  This then becomes a liquid that can be sprayed when you plant your corn.  I said, “I don't know how I can't convince any farmers to even try it.”  They say, “Oh, it's too expensive.”  This farmer told us, "Make two passes with the sprayer on.  Then turn your sprayer off, and make two passes.  Then turn it on again, and make two passes.”  He said, “The results will sell themself.  You've got their interest now.  It'll wake them up to see the difference it makes."

I've seen it with grass. We've done it in yards.  Seeded with compost in a seeder.  We fine screened that compost, mixed it with our seed, and then spread half of the yard with compost, and the other half the yard with chemical fertilizer.  And our side outperforms the fertilizer side 10 to one.  It's just unbelievable the difference it makes.  I'm sold.  I've seen it.

Q: You grew up on a farm. So how does that history impact your thoughts concerning compost production?  Because a lot of farmers in this area don't see the advantages of compost, but yet you see advantages. Why is that?

Robin: Well, because I grew up on the farm and I was one of the people that actually sprayed the RoundUp, and you watch what the chemicals do to those plants and you start to see the impact the repeated use is having on the soil. I really believe that by using the compost, you're actually revitalizing the soil and you're making it better.  When I was farming growing up, we were plowing everything every spring; every field got plowed.  I've learned since then that you're just destroying the soil as you plow it that deep, and you're breaking it up in a way that it can die.  And I've watched it go from plowing all your fields every fall, then all of a sudden it was, “Well, let's just till it up and then plant it.” Then it went to no till.  And for a lot of years around here, it was no till.  But now I'm actually seeing it going back to where they're starting to till the ground again. The studies I've read indicate that's it’s not good for the soil. From a farmer’s perspective, I see that compost and regenerative farming is a big benefit from what I grew up with.