Zero Waste Ecology Non-Profit Startup

The mission of Zero Waste Ecology is to provide home farming by converting low-income households' front and back yards to sustainable, edible, carbon sinking landscapes that are easy to maintain, while also developing urban community gardens to those without space to grow their own food. We will also be providing education and the tools to know how to cultivate your own food while lowering your carbon footprint using techniques that are based on indigenous knowledge while also addressing our plastic packaging problem by providing educational resources on how to lower our plastic consumption and reuse items.

There is currently 37 million people (11 million being children) in the US today who struggle with hunger and food insecurity. The IPCC released its 6th Assement Report where it was predicted that there will be a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in our global temperatures, with a sea level rise between 26-82 centimeters, causing an onset of natural disasters within 12 years. Changing the way we cultivate our food by practicing regenerative gardening will not only establish local food security at a low cost, but can contribute to the lowering of carbon emissions contributed by globalised, conventional agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is also less dependent on mechanized agriculture, where instead of using machinery for the growing of food, it depends on manual labor and basic tools to prep the area, resulting in less dependency on the fossil fuel industry, less disruption of the soil microbiology and soil food web increasing carbon sequestering and decreasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. This also localizes the economy and creates jobs.

The average annual salary of a farmer in the US in 2016 was $75,790 while the average debt of a farm in the US is $1.3 million while the average farm worker in the US makes $24,141 annually. Food and crop security for both conventional farms and farm workers is at risk. Zero Waste Ecology aims to address the economic and environmental insecurity of our food and farm systems, here in Oregon.

The proceeds will be used to pay the filing fees for the non-profit state application, our logo design and marketing tools, garden tools and business vehicle fees.

Thank you to all those who contribute and donate to the cause! We appreciate the support and belief in our mission. Peace, love and permaculture ✌