Across the River of Chicken Poop--The Compost Revolution in Mima County, Tokushima (1994)

Across the River of Chicken Poop--The Compost Revolution in Mima County, Tokushima (1994)

In the early 1990s, as momentum for environmental preservation was growing throughout Japan, the pollution problems faced by the local livestock industry were becoming more apparent. In particular, in Mima County, Tokushima Prefecture--a quiet farming village surrounded by the Shikoku Mountains, a serious environmental destruction was taking place behind the development of the poultry industry.

Mima County is one of the largest poultry farming areas in Japan, with more than 300 farm households producing as much as 140,000 tons of chicken manure annually. However, much of the manure was not properly disposed of and was dumped in mountains, forests, and riverbeds. Water pollution in the surrounding area has increased, and in the summer the air is filled with a foul odor, prompting the residents to cry that the entire county will become a "feces-polluted area" if the situation continues as is.

In 1993, the Basic Environmental Law was enacted, and the following year, 1994, the concept of "sustainable society" and "recycling-oriented society" was emphasized in the government's policies. In response to this national movement, poultry farmers in Mima County rose to the occasion. Agricultural cooperatives, related companies, and the government joined hands to establish a third sector, the Mima Compost Center. With government subsidies, composting facilities were set up at eight locations in the county, and a system was established to collect and recycle the entire amount of compost.

The compost center is more than just a waste treatment facility. The collected chicken manure was transformed into high-quality compost through fermentation and maturation, and supplied to vegetable and fruit tree growers in the prefecture. This has led to the promotion of organic farming, which reduces dependence on pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the idea of a recycling-oriented society in which "waste becomes a resource" has taken concrete form in the local community.

This initiative attracted nationwide attention as a symbolic example of the compatibility of livestock farming and environmental conservation in a rural area. Against the current trend of mass production and mass disposal, Mima County paved the way for "sustainable agriculture" through local wisdom and cooperation. Chicken manure, an often-avoided substance, eventually revived the fertile land that nurtures life--a small revolution that restored the relationship between nature and people that was being lost.