For John-Paul Maxfield, enriching the soil isn’t just a business.

“If we’re going to feed 9 billion people by 2050, we’re going to have go find new methods. Soil has been neglected throughout industrial agriculture. Anytime we harvest, we take something away and our agricultural model has been that we don’t need to put it back. We’ve got to go back and repair that.” More »

The United States has a topsoil problem. About 75 percent of it is gone, primarily because the large, single-crop farms that dominate American agriculture rely on chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to produce their harvests, depleting natural soil systems in the process.

John-Paul Maxfield thinks compost can help solve this problem. Environmentalists love compost for several reasons, including that it helps divert waste from landfills — the world’s largest source of human-produced methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. But for Maxfield, composting organic matter isn’t so much a waste-reduction issue as it is an ecological and agricultural one. He wants to create a market solution to get compost back into the soil. More »

Founder John-Paul Maxfield wants Waste Farmers to play a major role in shifting practices in agriculture away from the long accepted trend of reliance on synthetic fertilizers. “Our approach involves the decentralization of agriculture.” He explains. “Rather than mine, process and transport these ingredients, we are harvesting them from the waste of our local communities and creating products that can further push food security while reducing environmental impacts.”

Enriching soil at the Microbe Brewery

Waste Farmers continues to harvest the organic material from the trash of local businesses, schools and restaurants. They source out the initial composting and take that material to their Microbe Brewery, where the ingredients for what Maxfield calls ‘living soil’ are cultivated. “We create living soil products — an environment where beneficial microorganisms and soil microbes can thrive to promote a complete Soil Food Web to ensure healthy soils, healthy plants, and healthy communities.” He continues. “This is why we call our production facility the Microbe Brewery and it is why our marketing and branding will position us as a craft manufacturer of quality organic fertilizer products — in the same manner craft microbrews of the beer industry differentiate their products over conventional larger brewers.”

Global communities connect with BoldLeaders

This year Waste Farmers has been one of eight host sites in the Denver metro area for the Bold Food Fellows visiting from Africa. The Bold Food Fellowship is an exchange program between American and African professionals working in various aspects of food security. The program was developed by international community organizers, BoldLeaders, with the support of several other organizations and funding from the U.S. State Department.

BoldLeaders’ Project Manager and Facilitator Ashara Ekundayo placed Michael Akhwale with Waste Farmers and it was a perfect match. He works for the Ministry of Agriculture at the Kenyan Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) in the Western Provence of Kakamega. Mr. Akhwale has a Masters Degree in Agronomy and Soil Science from the University of Kentucky and he has done research in sustainable agriculture.

Waste Farmers Director of Operations Aron Rosenthal felt that they hit the jackpot with the opportunity to work Michael Akhwale. “We had this amazing soil scientist for three weeks and he helped us to put together comprehensive growth trials and helped us to refine our distinct soil recipes.”

On the last day of Mr. Akhwale’s visit with Waste Farmers he gave the other Bold Food Fellows a tour of the Microbe Brewery and spoke to them about what he had learned while working with John-Paul and Aron. “One of the biggest problems that contributes to food insecurity, not only in Kenya, but in Africa as a whole, is poor soil; soil that is devoid of nutrients.” He goes on. “When I came to Waste Farmers I heard their story and thought, I am in the right place.”

Mr. Akhwale went on to tell of the organic sources of nutrients that Waste Farmers were using in place of the chemicals found in inorganic fertilizers commonly used in Kenya by the farmers who could afford them, and he concluded. “I now know that when I go home I know how we can assist each other as Africans to improve productivity by improving our soils.”

The organic materials used by Waste Farmers in their Microbe Brewery that this soil scientist saw as the answer to major problems affecting food security in Africa, were also said to be readily available with little expense to farmers there.

Changing the mind-set

To think that this little operation, working with the bio-waste of an urban center like Denver, could discover breakthroughs in creating healthy organic soil; breakthroughs that could contribute to constructive shifts in agricultural practices as far away geographically and culturally as Kenya? It really is mind-boggling.

John-Paul Maxfield says that boggling the mind-set of people who aren’t farmers and aren’t in the habit of contemplating food sources and waste streams is a big part of the mission at Waste Farmers. “There is a lot of skepticism in our society related to how waste is an ecological term and getting back to how in nature waste doesn’t exist, rather one system’s waste becomes the nourishment for the other.” He explains. “It’s an education process in our culture; beginning with convincing people to keep organic material out of the landfills and then showing them what it can be turned into and how it can be used — not only on farms, but in urban households.”

Waste Farmers was founded with a great deal of vision and very little money, but make no mistake about these gentlemen in the Carhartt overalls. The future of Waste Farmers is a well-crafted plan, backed up with solid numbers.

The agricultural practices they have set out to change are not just bad news for the earth and for our health — inorganic fertilizers are becoming bad business. Studies show that production of inorganic materials used in fertilizers, like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, has dropped in the US. To fill the gap we now import a great deal, adding the expense and environmental impact of fossil fuels used in transport to the already unsustainable equation of the profit margins driving big industrial agricultural business.

Putting a farm in every household

The growth of Waste Farmers’ own profit margin has certainly not been left to the providence of good karma. Their business plan establishes a well researched market position with the seemingly modest strategy of bringing their flagship ‘food for soil’ products — the premium potting mix and planting mix — to market, while scaling the Microbe Brewery production capacity to establish a position as a ‘craft’ manufacturer of organic fertilizer products. John-Paul Maxfield has actually said that he wants Waste Farmers to put a farm in every household. Sound familiar? Another audacious entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, made the same proclamation about computers in our households during the early development of Apple.

In just three short years Waste Farmers has grown their partnerships from the little urban village of Glendale to the Global communities working towards food security and sustainable agriculture. They know what they are doing and why.

Aron Rosenthal says that the African Opportunity Trade Agreement Forum , involving some 30 sub-Saharan African countries and the United States, are trying to decide where to have their conference. The Bureau of African Affairs from the State Department will be coming to Denver to visit three organizations: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory , the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Waste Farmers. “This sort of interest has developed around Waste Farmers in just a couple of years and not because our production is so fantastically impressive; it’s just because if we don’t handle waste in a different way and we don’t put all of this organic waste back in to the soil to feed the next generation of plants to feed us, we’re all in huge, huge trouble.”

About Infinity Park
Infinity Park is a municipally-owned sports, entertainment and events campus located in Glendale, adjacent to the City’s municipal buildings and courthouse. The Park comprises most of a two-block area located two blocks east of Colorado Blvd., with its borders extending from Kentucky Ave. to Mississippi Ave. on the north and south, and Cherry St. to Birch St. on the east and west. Infinity Park includes an events center, a fitness and recreation center, a high altitude athletic training facility, an expansive outdoor park and a 4,000-seat rugby stadium.

About The Glendale Raptors
The Glendale Raptors Rugby Football Club is a member of the Western Rugby Football Union. The team’s home stadium is Infinity Park in Glendale, CO, which opened in 2007. Infinity Park has hosted dozens of national and international rugby matches and USA Rugby National Championship events, including the Churchill Cup, an alliance between the England’s Rugby Football Union, Rugby Canada and USA Rugby. Today Infinity Park hosts league play and tournaments for men’s and women’s rugby teams from across the globe. The Glendale Raptors men’s team recently won the National Club Championship, which brought 12 teams and over 4,000 spectators from across the country to Infinity Park. The Raptors organization includes men’s D1 and DII teams, the Raptor Women, U19 boys and girls teams, and the Raptor Rugby Academy for children..

Read more here »

In our summer series, Backyard Farmers, we’re talking trash — banana peels, coffee grounds, yard clippings, all that icky stuff most of us throw away without thinking. Organic waste makes around half of what cities send to their landfills. But that could change, as cities begin to embrace large scale composting programs. Before that can happen, CPR’s Megan Verlee reports the industry has to overcome some big hurdles first. More »

To the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Maxfield said, “For our company, it begins and ends with the soil, as it does in life. One of the tenants of the great agrarian society that Jefferson envisioned was rooted in the belief that the cultivation of the soil provides direct contact with nature. It is in this re-connection where we see hope for the future. It is here where we are reacquainted with the notion that we are part of the natural system and not removed from it; where we seek to learn from nature, rather than find ways to extract from it. This reconnection provides an understanding that in nature, there is no waste. ” Read the full speech here.

To Accion Colorado, he said, “The story of these entrepreneurs is that of the Founding Fathers of the United States. They were a group of passionate entrepreneurs whose vision defined a country, and a spirit of innovation that lives on today. And though what these founders created has grown into an incredible enterprise, capable of securing arguably more debt than necessary, they would have been hard-pressed to find a conventional lender willing to take the risk to get them off the ground. However, this story and that of the founders represent the intangibles that go beyond the balance sheet and financials, the HUMAN SPIRIT. It is this value that Accion truly embraces.” Read the full speech here.

The idea was revolutionary, their passion contagious, and their willingness to achieve their goal, despite insurmountable odds was unshakeable. The founders of this enterprise diligently wrote a business plan with such foresight and attention to detail, that their success defied logic and the market conditions of the time.

The market they sought to enter was one that was overwhelmingly unfavorable. Their main competition had an advantage at every level. They were better capitalized, had complete dominance in markets locally and abroad, and their workforce was better trained and equipped with superior technology.

The founders were a diverse group, representative indeed of the enterprise they would give birth to in the months and years that followed. Some were merchants, others speculators. Some were politicians, and others simple farmers. To say that they had experience running the enterprise they sought to create would be an understatement of great magnitude.

Did they have 2 years financial statements? Absolutely not, they were a start-up with dreams to rival their passion, but no financial history for loan committees to trace performance.

Did they have collateral? No, they rented their property from a tyrannical landlord that additionally created a tax structure that would cripple any modern day corporation.

The story of these entrepreneurs is that of the Founding Fathers of the United States. They were a group of passionate entrepreneurs whose vision defined a country, and a spirit of innovation that lives on today. And though what these founders created has grown into an incredible enterprise, capable of securing arguably more debt than necessary, they would have been hard-pressed to find a conventional lender willing to take the risk to get them off the ground. However, this story and that of the founders represent the intangibles that go beyond the balance sheet and financials, the HUMAN SPIRIT. It is this value that Accion truly embraces.

I reference this, as our company faced similar circumstances, and Accion was our light of liberty. Our company is Waste Farmers, and we too are fighting a revolution of sorts. We are fighting against a short-sided “revolution” set in motion by the Industrial age, which gave birth to notion that pollution and environmental degradation are inevitable by-products of human progress.

Like the founding fathers, we did not have 2 years financial statements. The small amount of collateral and savings we owned were invested in the business. The market forces facing our company were formidable, though not insurmountable. However, we are forever inspired by the story of our founding fathers and the great entrepreneurs that have shaped this county and their legacy of optimism and passion bleeds through our veins in a way that no balance sheet can capture. A passion that was almost extinguished from the unrelenting “No’s” we heard from lenders at larger banks, or leasing companies. “No” was a word repeated with such frequency that it almost lost its meaning.

Lisa Adams, and Accion were a beacon of hope. They offered us a chance to prove our credit beyond what was in our bank account or on our financial statements. They saw value in our passion and determination to succeed, and in so doing, helped to fuel it further. They helped us finance a piece of equipment that has allowed us to grow from 1 to a team of 4 passionate members, and achieve month over month revenue growth of 38% since the loan in January. Their willingness to work with us and belief that we could succeed, further instilled our desire to pay them back, not as a creditor, rather, out of gratitude for taking a chance and for giving us an opportunity to pursue that American Dream, defined by those visionary Forefathers so many years ago. Further, it strengthens our desire to give back to this wonderful group should we be fortunate enough to succeed, so that Accion can work with other entrepreneurs and dreamers, and keep that spirit alive.

Thank you to Lisa Adams and the rest of the Denver team. Waste Farmers would still be a dream were it not for your willingness to look beyond conventional standards. We are forever grateful, and you can trust that we will give back when the time is right so that others can have the same opportunity.