Sipping a coffee or slurping an oyster in Victoria could contribute to the latest study in returning local nutrients to local soils.
Brought together by a Synergy Enterprises connection, FED Urban Agriculture is conducting a research study on site in partnership with upstart business Shellter Rapid Composting Inc. in a side-by-side comparison on FED’s farm in Vic West. Rows of plants will be studied by both organizations, as well as a second set under the scrutiny of UVic PhD candidate Brooke Hayes and her team.
“We are going to use our modular growing system to set up a control, and assess the impact of this fertilizer to inform future products and help to support this entrepreneur who is looking to divert a sizable amount of waste from Hartland Landfill, while creating an affordable and sustainable fertilizer,” explained Alistair Howes of FED Urban Agriculture.
FED has a number of sister not-for-profits, including Synergy’s Project Zero, which focuses on implementing circular economy concepts, where Raj Behari and his Shellter Compost were part of the business incubator program.
Howes said that led to the partnership testing what he’s “casually calling Raj’s magic beans.”
In the deep cold of the Prairies, scientists developed the fertilizer using a fast-acting compost machine and several techniques during development, including temperature changes to deactivate different pathogens.
The oyster shells' lower pH level balances out the acidic coffee to make a soil product rich in nutrients.
Now, FED will test the theory, using the new product on one row and their usual fertilizer on another, tracking the plant productivity and soil health as they grow.
The Shellter product is made of local waste, combining coffee chaff (the outer layer that comes off the beans during roasting) and other coffee-related waste along with shells diverted from the trash at Victoria restaurant Shuck Taylor's.
“Our goal is to develop the work of taking local waste sources to grow food and improve the soil,” Behari said, noting around 40 per cent of B.C. garbage is organic. “Which means that it can be used over and over. Nature has essentially been recycling nutrients for billions of years, and right now humanity is putting a lot of these organics in the landfill.”
On the farm, a site on the Dockside Green Bosa development, they currently use a less-local fertilizer. It’s created a few snags in recent years with supply chain issues. It’s just one more small potential upside if this fertilizer works out well.
That’s alongside diverting from the landfill and reintroducing nature to nature. There’s a lot of nutrient loss on the Island, province, and even across the country, Behari noted.
“We have to eat more fruits and vegetables to get the same amount of vitamins that our grandparents were (getting),” Behari said. “What’s really exciting is that we can use waste management as a vehicle to reintroduce nutrients to the soil. Thank you to FED for giving us the opportunity to demonstrate that.”
