Located just two miles from the Cornell campus, the Cornell compost facility collects compost from a multitude of sources, such as the College of Veterinary Medicine, dining facilities, greenhouses, plantations and polo fields. In 2006, Farm Services, the organization that manages the compost facility, reported that the Cornell campus generated 6,337.84 tons of organic waste.

At his Worm Power facility 100 miles northwest of Ithaca in Avon, N.Y. Tom Herlihy feeds 20 tons of dairy cow manure to eight million earthworms each week. About 28 days after they are fed, the worms churn out “vermicompost” – a nutrient-rich organic fertilizer.  Allison Jack grad, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, has shown that vermicompost can suppress disease in crop plants.