Reprinted with permission from The Reporter

Sunday • March 23, 2003

Organic compost business is booming in Vacaville

By Mary Lynch /Reporter Staff

An innovative compost company in Vacaville has quietly been turning out a product that is selling so well and drawing so much interest around the state, the nation, and the globe, that the company deemed the timing right to give the product a name.

Four Course Compost, a product of Jepson Prairie Organics, is an organic, nutrient-rich compost derived from a unique process reflected in its new brand name.

A nutritious meal for soils, the compost delivers the four key soil nutrients of nitrogen, phosphate, potash and organic material that helps grow stronger plants. The feedstock from which the compost is derived is none other than the leavings of multi-course meals served at San Francisco and Oakland's finest restaurants.

Yearly, 80,000 tons of kitchen trimmings, plate scrapings and other food scraps from restaurants, hotels and markets in the two cities on the bay, together with scraps gathered from the cities' residents, arrive at Jepson Prairie's facility in Vacaville where they are transformed, at the end of a decomposition and curing process, into 30,000 tons of organic compost a year.

"We've experienced 70 percent growth in terms of finished product this year, and we may exceed it next year," said Chris Choate, corporate operations manager for Jepson Prairie, illustrating how an ecologically sound business can also do good - and profitable - business.

National and international media have taken notice. CNN, KRON4 and PBS have all trekked out to the Vacaville site to learn more about Four Course compost.

And, at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, Four Course Compost is prominently featured in several booths, including the San Francisco Department of the Environment.

"Interest in the compost has been exploding in the last six months," said Robert Reed, director of corporate communications for San Francisco-based Norcal Waste Systems, of which Jepson Prairie is a wholly owned subsidiary.

"And it's all about what's happening in Vacaville," said Reed.

The compost, already prized locally by farmers, gardeners and landscapers, has seen its market increase in recent months.

"What I really like about using the compost is that it makes a circle: we send all these truckloads of fruits and vegetables down I-80 to San Francisco five or six times a week. They come back to us in the form of compost made from their trimmings and scraps by Jepson Prairie. We use the compost to fertilize new crops of produce, which enter the same cycle. All the nutrients come back to the soil. There's no waste," said Nigel Walker, an owner of organic Eatwell Farms in Dixon. The farmer had just received four trailer-loads of the compost at his 65-acre farm in preparation for spring planting.

Jepson Prairie sells the compost wholesale to landscape and supply operations, who then sell it to their customers.

At Crown Hill Materials, in Vallejo, Four Course Compost is the house recommendation, and is sold by the bag to contractors, landscapers, and local gardeners - and to the cities of Vallejo and Benicia, who use the Solano County product in their landscape projects.

"It's the best. It's nutrient content is higher than other composts," said Raju Sidhu, operations manager at Crown Hill, adding that requests for the compost have shot up by 50 percent this year.

Sidhu praised the quality of the compost, noting that other brands often contain non-organic materials like plastic, which landscapers don't like.

"It's less smelly, too, which is desirable," Sidhu said.

Lemuria Nurseries in Dixon uses Four Course Compost in its potted plants, shrubs and trees. Owner Peter Fink recommends it to his customers.

"I honestly believe it's the wave of the future. Pretty soon we'll have no choice but to use recycled compost, given what's become of our waste systems. What better way to use green waste than in compost?" said Fink.

The compost is in increasing demand by California's top vineyards.

In the California wine regions of Napa, Sonoma, El Dorado and Amador counties, an increasing number of vineyard managers have been using Four Course Compost in the soil feeding their vines.

"Organic compost helps increase the growth of microbial populations in the soil. Microbes help break down the nutrients in soil, making it available for uptake by the plants," said Linda Hale, vineyard manager for Madrone Vineyard Management in Sonoma County.

Closing the recycling loop, from food scraps to fine wine, is a top agricultural priority for Hale.

"It brings the process full circle, from dining tables in San Francisco to compost put down around the grapevines and vegetables in the fields, and back to those tables once again. This process makes good sense," said Hale, who manages a range of vineyard properties in Sonoma, from small garden vineyards to some of the larger commercial properties in the county.

Tom Meadowcroft, a vineyard manager for Buckland Vineyard Management in Napa, agreed.

"Clients are more and more driven to sustainable farming practices that are beneficial for the long term to our lands and environment. These are issues that go beyond farming. It's part of our stewardship of the earth," Meadowcroft said.

Convictions like these led him to choose Jepson Prairie's compost, which is certified by the Organic Material Review Institute as appropriate for use on organic soils.

"I was looking for a source of organic compost, free of herbicide and pesticide residue," said Meadowcroft, who oversees the vineyards for both major producers and smaller investors.

A simple olfactory encounter with the compost, he said, signalled its high quality. "You can tell that they regularly turn the compost because it smells sweet and aerobic, not sour and anaerobic."

The innovative waste-treatment program that produces Four Course Compost was rolled out a year ago as a pilot program launched by Norcal in response to the state's 1989 mandate that cities and sanitation companies divert 25 percent of waste from landfills by 1995 and 50 percent by 2000 or face daily penalties of $10,000.

In December of last year, San Francisco officials, announced that they had exceeded that goal, with 52 percent of the city's waste now diverted from landfills. So serious is the city about its environmental ethic that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has set itself the new goal of achieving a 75 percent recycling rate by 2010.

The company has been fielding calls from cities as close to home as Portland and as far flung as London and South Korea, all looking for the creative waste management solution represented by Jepson Prairie's food-scrap derived compost.

Officials from South Korea toured the Vacaville facility earlier this year, and Hong Kong has expressed strong interest in viewing the process. Officials in the United Kingdom have contacted the company seeking information about making a high-quality compost in short order.

Closer to home, Portland, Seattle and San Diego have all inquired about the Solano County compost and its manufacturing process.

The City of Los Angeles has requested guidance from Jepson Prairie and Norcal in replicating the food scrap collection and composting program, with 200 restaurants (out of the city's 10,000) ready to participate. The inquiry follows a city ordinance prohibiting restaurants from putting food scraps down garbage disposals, and increased resolve to divert food waste from landfills.

As more and more municipalities make innovative waste management a priority, the recycling of food scraps into compost could become a more widely implemented solution.

"You're taking material destined for the trash and turning it into a useful product. It changes the whole economics of garbage collection," said Jepson Prairie Manager Choate.

Mary Lynch can be reached at business@thereporter.com.