Composters Dreaming, Investors Scheming

Building Local Power

In 2022, in the small town of Alpine, California, Raquel Nuñez founded Cuatro Vientos, a community composting project that brings environmental and cultural solutions to the community. In this episode of Building Local Power, Raquel, and her partners Iriani Lopez and Aedan Lagillardaie, share how it has been a dream come true to reconnect with their heritage and the land through composting. However, over the last year, they have quickly learned that their biggest barrier to sustaining this dream is funding. Jessica Toth, Executive Director of the Solana Center, an organization driving environmental innovation, joins the second half of the episode to outline how food waste is both an environmental and a social issue and why the very people implementing solutions to lessen our carbon footprint — while providing jobs and education in a circular food system — are underfunded. Despite misaligned interests on the part of investors, environmental stewards, and policymakers, Jessica makes the case for economic incentives that can help the United States address the 40 million tons of food waste created every year in this country alone. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/