Highfields Composting Home Page

At Highfields we work to close the loop on community-based, sustainable food and agricultural systems, thus addressing soil health, water quality, solid waste, farm viability, and climate change.

We provide technical services for on-farm composting and comprehensive food waste recycling programs, which include action-based environmental education.

Please use the menu at the top of the page to tour our website, learn about our programs and technical services, workshops, and upcoming events.

Our Mission Statement

Highfields' 2011 Fall Workshops a Rotten Success!

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Highfields Awarded $12,500 Farm to Plate Initiative Grant

Highfields Center for Composting will purchase a Mobile Compost Screener which will be made available to composters around the state at a reasonable price. Screeners remove clumps, bones, rocks and any undesirable materials that may have entered the material, making it a more desirable product for farmers, gardeners and landscapers and thus commanding a higher price in the market.

More on the Farm to Plate initiative

Highfields Delighted to Host Serbian Delegation

Highfields recently hosted a delegation of 19 people from non-profits and municipals governments in Serbia. The delegates, tasked with working on solid waste issues in their home country, traveled to VT and Wash DC while in the U.S. and made a stop in Hardwick to visit with Highfields and learn about community composting infrastructure.

(click to enlarge)

Vermont Business Magazine
recognizes Highfields' Tom Gilbert as one of its Rising Stars: Vermont's Outstanding Young Leaders

Hardwick and the New Frontier of Food

Yankee magazine takes a close look at Hardwick's New Frontier of Food.

"The most interesting agriculture experiment in the country"
- Bill McKibben

Read the story >>>
( go to page 82-83)

Mad River Valley businesses join Highfields' Close the Loop program

Read the story >>>

"The fact that Mehuron's has joined with Highfields Center for Composting may not seem like it's is such big news - but it is.

Mehuron's and the 1824 House Barn Door Restaurant are working with Highfields Center for Composting and the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District to collect food waste and scraps for compost."

From WBUR Boston :
'The Town That Food Saved'

Listen to the story
at NPR's daily news
e-magazine
"Here and Now"

(Click on the "Listen to The Story" button at the site)

Slideshow

Watch it Now

eaarth

Twenty years ago, with The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming.

.....Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen. We've created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may as well call it Eaarth.

The Town That Food Saved:

How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food

Local author, Ben Hewitt, explores the Hardwick food system with depth and honesty.

The work of Tom Gilbert, Executive Director of the Highfields Center for Composting, is featured in the book.

Copies can be purchased from the Galaxy Bookshop (just below Highfield's office).

Read a story about Ben's new book at the Vermont Times Argus >>

NEW - Seven Days Magazine reviews Bens Book - "Harder Look at Hardwick">

Fox Business Interviews Ben Hewitt

"Dan Rather Reports"
A segment featuring Hardwick's local food systems.
Part 1 | Part II

More composting-related articles on our Media Page >>>

™Close the Loop
A Community Based Composting Program

Support Healthy Food Systems -- Donate to Highfields

The Highfields
Community Supported Compost Program

More Info >>>

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"Compost Only"
is our hipster video
on gettin' down
with the rot thing.

Check it Out>>>

"Do The Rot Thing"
is a composting guide for teachers designed to introduce composting concepts and methods to students of all ages.

(Document provided by Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District)

A four part video series covering all aspects of
Livestock Mortality Composting, including technical information
and a step-by-step demonstration of the process.

Watch it Now >>>