Every year Highfields’ site hosts hundreds of visitors, from school field trips, to last year’s Compost Operator Certification Training, international delegations, entrepreneurs, and aspiring farmers. People come because we are are a working compost facility that’s here to share how we do what we do well, and to figure out how to do better, what needs improvement, not just at our own operation, but in the world at large. With our new Advisory Board and a second plant pathogen suppression project with the UVM Plant and Soil Science Department already underway, our site’s research & education mission is headed full bore into exciting new territory. Thanks to the help of out partners and sponsors, we are developing composting techniques that would mitigate the use of agrochemicals by selecting for biologically unique composts that growers could use to promote soil health and prevent disease.
This year the site will also develop and test several heat recovery systems, designed to harness biologically produced heat from composting, a vastly abundant and under utilized resource. These are two out of six research areas in which Highfields is enlisting the help of technical experts, farmers, and funding partners to develop and promote 21st century composting tools which will empower communities to CLOSE THE LOOP on our local food system!