Community Hero October 2024: Fertile Ground Cooperative
Welcome to Biobag's Community Heroes series!
Each month, we will highlight community heroes that are making a difference in their communities and working to make their local environments cleaner and healthier.
This month, we are taking a look at Fertile Ground Cooperative in OK!
Fertile Ground Cooperative is a composting service based in Oklahoma City. Biobag Associate spoke to Ofelia Ochoa with Fertile Ground Cooperative about the organization. Their interview is transcribed below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
Terry Craghead (founder of Fertile Ground Cooperative): I got into composting by trying it out first in my backyard to compliment my new vegetable garden. Not long after starting my backyard pile, I met urban farmers, Lia Woods and Allen Parleir, who pulled me into their organizing team for CommonWealth Urban Farms and Closer to Earth. I composted Coop Ale Works beer grains with Allen and his youth group Closer to Earth for a summer while we were meeting and planning CommonWealth. At the end of the summer, when Wholefoods opened up, I volunteered twice per week composting their produce on a vacant lot near CommonWealth with other Closer to Earth and Commonwealth volunteers. Seeing how much food waste one grocery store produced was the seed for the idea of Fertile Ground.
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
We service homes and businesses in Oklahoma City. We have drop-off locations in Edmond, Norman and OKC. We have added 20 community drop off locations Summer 2024. Visit www.fertilegroundok.coop or call us at 405-633-0264 to get started.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
About 100 cubic yards per week.
We are a Worker-Owned Cooperative (or Worker Co-op)!
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
A worker cooperative is a values-driven business that puts worker and community benefit at the core of its purpose. The central characteristics are that 1) workers own the business and participate in its financial success on the basis of their labor contribution to the co-op, and 2) workers have representation on and vote for the board of directors, adhering to the principle of one worker, one vote. Candidate employees must work with us for a year-long candidacy period, go through training, and pay for their share or agree to a payment plan to buy-in to the co-op before they are eligible to be voted in as a worker-owner.
Worker co-ops are more productive than traditional workplaces because workers are not just trying to do the bare minimum to get a paycheck, they reap direct rewards at the end of the year through surplus dividends, which can be reinvested in their internal account in the co-op or distributed as cash. They also have control over the conditions of their work, so morale stays high. I love worker co-ops because they can be a tool for redistributing wealth (community development) in a way that is empowering to people who are locked out of the mainstream economy.
If you would like to be featured in a future edition of Community Heroes, please email us at marketing@biobagusa.com.
