On October 29, I was part of a Green Education presentation on the political economy of wasting in the US. I discussed many of the key influencers of the recycling movement and the precursors to the zero waste movement. I’d like to add acknowledgements for these additional important leaders; Mary Appelhof and Jerry Goldstein had a considerable impact on our recycling, composting, reuse and Zero Waste movement.
Jerry Goldstein
When the Waste to Wealth Initiative of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance started in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Northwest Washington, DC in late 1973, the first projects were a recycling enterprise for aluminum cans and newspaper and a compost project to manage the food discards from the two community food stores. Starting drop off recycling was old hat by then with thousands of similar sites starting across the US since Earth Day 1970. But there were no easily available comparable composting sites to learn from. However, there was Jerry Goldstein nearby in Pennsylvania.
Jerry had worked for Rodale Press for over two decades as Executive Editor of Organic Gardening & Farming and Executive Vice-President of the company. He started The JG Press in 1978 with his wife Ina Pincus. JG Press took ownership of Compost Science, a journal Jerry started at Rodale Press in 1960. The publication was renamed BioCycle in 1981. Jerry and Ina’s daughters, Nora and Rill, joined the family business in 1978. BioCycle remains the authoritative voice of composting in the US. BioCycle, as did Compost Science, and reaches an international audience.
From the outset of his career Jerry focused on establishing careers in business and research for young people, hoping to set them on a life course of meaningful work in what would become to be known as a sustainable lifestyle. The JG Press began publishing In Business in 1979, perhaps the first journal to focus on sustainable, green and community enterprises.
I was one of the young people that Jerry enthusiastically encouraged and supported. He tutored me in the three “bin” (cinder block bunkers) system and guided the nascent Waste to Wealth Initiative’s first modest ‘how to’ booklet. His journal, In Business, focused on green businesses and what we now consider Zero Waste enterprises. He published my first articles on burgeoning recycling enterprises and mounting efforts to end garbage incineration (which destroyed instead of conserved the environment and nature).
One of Jerry’s colleagues wrote: editorials, book chapters, Letters to the Editor — that have influenced and shaped so many elements of resource conservation, soil preservation, composting, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, locally grown and healthy food, and much more. But print and conference presentations were not his only communication outlets. Jerry testified before Congress and state legislatures, paid many visits to federal agencies and initiated campaigns — all to influence public policies that would benefit or might hurt composting, recycling, organic agriculture, renewable energy, food quality, energy consumption and urban and rural renewal.
Certainly, Jerry earned the honor of being an Ecopioneer. He certainly was ahead of his time with his focus on conservation of healthy soils and health food, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and local food production. Jerry was both a localist and globalist, including the core ideas and ideals that are now common knowledge shared in Zero Waste activism and entrepreneurialism. Jerry was a serious man who took on the responsibility of protecting the environment and people. He had a soft voice and a congenital smile, which only added to his charisma as a scientist, teacher, activist and humanist.
Mary Appelhof
Charisma was Mary Appelhof’s middle name. It showed as a public high school teacher, as contributor to international scientific conferences, and as a businesswoman, writer, lecturer and feminist. She became a prominent expert on the biology of worms and a leading educator and practitioner in the field of vermicomposting.
Mary Frances Fenton was Mary Appelhof’s life partner, business partner, co feminist and co-author. Mary Frances was a university professor and artist, a professional watercolor painter, bronze sculptor and illustrator.
Mary’s popular books became standard works for teaching young people about the science vermicomposting. Worms Eat My Garbage: “How to Set Up and Maintain a Compost Bin”, 1982, and its sequel “Worms Eat More of My Garbage” remain among the best, perhaps the best books for teaching the biology of worms. She then endeared herself to many more young people when she donned a worm costume and starred in “Wormania”, 1995, an educational video that explained how worms thrive of the bacteria from decomposing food scraps. “A fast-paced educational and entertaining video viewing worms in their natural habitat and how they help the environment.”
Mary was an accomplished scientist who was awarded a PhD despite the prevalent prejudice against women in science. She was a dedicated feminist as acknowledged by the Kalamazoo Gay and Lesbian Resource Center and the National Organization of Women. She headed the Kalamazoo chapter of NOW. She also worked extensively for the Michigan Women’s Music Festival. She was an equally ardent environmentalist.
Amazingly, just before her sudden passing in 2005, she started a vermicomposting business in the Soviet Union — a seemingly impossible task! When I learned this I was flabbergasted. I was trained as a Kremlinologist (Institute for Sino-Studies, The George Washington University) and knew well the byzantine totalitarian nature of Soviet political economy. (Winston Churchill famously said of the Soviet Union, “It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”) How could she have done this! Sadly, I never go to ask her about her matching wits with the Soviet economic apparatchiki. I can only imagine that her scientific acumen and charisma of her winning smile carried the day.
Mary also knew how to hit a baseball. Once she was in Washington, DC and played on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s softball team. She hit a hard RBI single through the left side of the infield and ran the bases well and scored. Mary was and will remain a part of my family. She stayed at our house during her trips to DC. Naturally, she introduced my kids to the world of worms; we built a worm bin which both kids used for school science projects. The wooden worm bin is gone, but we still have a worm bin in the kitchen and they continue to thrive on our food scraps.
If you missed my discussion with Mary Lou and Dan please cue up the recording and sit back to watch and listen. We have so much to learn from history when building our future! Although it may not be a smooth forward trajectory, there are many successes along the way and so much inspiration to give us hope for the future. We can each look to ourselves and our local communities for resilience and strength.