NTAE: Creating a Composting Culture Feature Story

Through its “Creating a Culture of Composting in Greater Chicagoland” initiative, University of Illinois Extension is committed to making composting as second-nature as recycling has become in the communities it serves. This publication describes the multifaceted programming (such as Pumpkin Smashes and a composting summit) that the team has created to spread the word about composting among residents, businesses, and community leaders in the Chicago area.

The publication is excerpted from the New Technologies for Ag Extension 2022-2023 Yearbook, which documents dozens of projects funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. NTAE is a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation.

This work is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.