"The Soil Will Save Us..."

Once upon a time, there were two kids, Conner and Betty. They lived on a beautiful, modern farm with their parents. But after years of using the latest, "best" farming methods, their land was not what it used to be. Years of tilling and treating the farm with chemicals had turned the beautiful green fields into dirt.

    One lazy Saturday, the Greenes were having a big family breakfast. It included coffee and tea for Mom and Dad, milk for Conner and Betty, and eggs, fruit, and a little bit of bacon for everyone. The breakfast had been so big that all the leftovers had filled a whole garbage bag all on their own.

    "Conner, will you go put the garbage bag into the trash can outside?" his mom asked. 

    "But it's heavy!" he whined.

    "Fine. Betty, you go with him." their mom was getting a little impatient. So together they went, dragging the bag along with them. But guess what? When they got there, the garbage can was already full. And it was starting to rain.

    "I know!" said Betty. "Let's put it in the big farm field dumpster over there!" 

Conner looked where Betty was pointing. There was a big green dumpster. So, they hauled the bag across the newly seeded field, and when they got to the dumpster, they stopped. But as they looked back to where they had been walking, they saw a long trail of fruits, tea bags, coffee grounds, and eggshells. 

    "Oh no!" Conner exclaimed.

    "Should we clean it up?" Betty wondered. 

    "I think it's okay. The rain can wash most of it away." Conner said.

    "But what if Mom and Dad notice? We'll get in trouble for not cleaning it up." Betty replied.

    "No, we won't. C'mon, Betty. It's raining. Let's just go inside," he said.

Finally, Betty agreed, and they went back inside.

Luckily, their parents didn't notice the trash until the storm was over, and by then, it was gone. But, a few weeks later, something strange happened. The plants in one patch of ground were growing taller, stronger, and healthier. Conner and Betty realized that it was the very same patch were all the trash had been. But their dad was 100% confused.

    "What happened?" he wondered. 

    "Should we tell him?" asked Conner.

    "No! We'll get in trouble." said Betty.

But they felt guilty and told their dad. Surprisingly, he wasn't mad at all! In fact, he was super happy to know what had happened. He even got more of the same leftovers from the trash can to toss onto the field. But there wasn't enough.

Their dad ran to the kitchen, where their mom was making lunch, to see if what she was making would be good to use as fertilizer. But they realized that it wouldn’t be enough. So they started calculating how many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners they would need to have enough “leftovers” to fertilize their whole farm. After realizing that it would take months or even years, their mom looked out the window, feeling hopeless, when she saw their neighbor Mr. Lee feeding his farm chickens, and she realized, “Of course. The answer is right in front of us, or more specifically, around us.” 

“What do you mean?” their dad asked. 

“Our neighbors, our community,” replied their mom. “We could come together and help each other to use other people’s waste and repurpose it for other people’s benefit. 

We could use Mr. Lee’s eggshells, Ms. Harrison’s milk, and coffee from Bytes n' Bites. We could even ask Mr. Lopez to let his farm animals walk around and lightly graze our fields and their pee and poop could also be fertilizer."

And so, they called for a town meeting. Everyone in town got together and they talked about how they could work together and make it a win-win situation. Some of the ideas that they came up with were: If Mr. Lee, Mrs. Harrison, and Bytes n' Bites all gave the Greenes their garbage, they could get rid of garbage knowing that it was for a good cause, and the Greenes could get some fertilizer. If Mr. Lopez let his animals roam on the farm, then they could eat natural grass instead of grains. The Greenes would get more fertilizer.

    "But Dad!" Betty said. "The animals will eat all of our crops!"

    "We will put them in different places every time to renew the soil only" her dad replied. So everybody agreed.