Food Waste is NOT Waste with Virginia O’Gara of CUSP

The NeighbourFood Podcast

“Food waste shouldn't be waste. The way we see it is a resource that is full of nutrients and it should be kept here for us to make it into something usable.” And that’s what CUSP, the Cork Urban Soil Project is all about. It is a living laboratory for a strong, environmentally driven community made up of friends, creatives, workers and supporters and a small aerobic bio-digester.

So today, we are chatting to Virginia O’Gara, who along with her husband Donal are My Goodness, the much-loved raw vegan food company based in Cork city, whose business are the founders and partners of this project.

And what the team are hoping to do here is completely close the loop by composting all of their waste, turning it into healthy nutritious soil and build a small urban micro farm right between My Goodness HQ and the Marina Market, which for anyone who is familiar with this site, might think it’s an impossibility. It’s located on a dark, very steep slope in the Marina Commercial Park, which is grounds of the old Dunlop’s factory. Sure it’ll never work!

So this is a story of hope, it’s a story of community. It's the story of the challenge this group of ecologically driven people are taking up. A group who genuinely believe that it is always the right thing to challenge the status quo, to rethink the fate of waste and prove to us all that there is a healthier, ethical and more sustainable way to live.

In this conversation with Virginia we talk about her rebel upbringing in Texas, her time in the Americas, her pilgrimage to permaculture, the hilarious suspiciousness people have about veganism and her motivations for a plant based diet. But ultimately, we are talking here about a great big circle which brings us back to the importance of soil health, eliminating food waste and the motivation behind the Cork Urban Soil project.

Social Links:

https://www.urbansoilproject.com/

https://twitter.com/thecusp_ie

https://www.instagram.com/urbansoilproject/

https://www.facebook.com/Cork-Urban-Soil-Project-624787484670448/

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