Virtue around the dung and soil: The path of circulation as seen in the ranch of regeneration (October 2002).

Virtue around the dung and soil: The path of circulation as seen in the ranch of regeneration (October 2002).

In 2002, as the Kyoto Protocol was about to take effect, Japan was beginning to take serious steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build a recycling-oriented society. Ahead of large-scale institutional reforms, a small circulation system was quietly beginning to take shape in a corner of the community, symbolized by a recycling farm.

In addition to raising beef cattle, the ranch produces 4 tons of compost per day from waste collected from local restaurants and food processors. The operator bears the cost of transportation, and the food waste is properly sorted and delivered to the ranch. There, it is mixed with cattle manure and other materials and aged for three months at controlled temperatures, and then for another three months. The resulting compost was smooth and odorless, and was described as "safe and secure.

The compost is sold to nearby farmers, who use it to produce vegetables and fruits. The harvest is then delivered to local processors and restaurants, and returned to their tables. In this way, waste, farmland, distribution, and consumption all come together to form an organic cycle.

What is important to note is that this is not just an environmental measure, but a business. The system of covering the cost of animal feed with the sales of compost embodies sustainability in the true sense of the word, which is possible without relying on subsidies from local governments.

At the time, the introduction of recycling equipment was a hot topic throughout Japan, but this farm showed that equipment is only a means to an end, and that true eco-business cannot be established without a system and economic circulation. As the voice on the ground told us, "The figure of circulation in a roundabout way was the core of the business.

This "small circulation" that appeared at the end of a mass-production and mass-consumption society created a stir in the larger concept of a recycling-oriented society. Cattle manure, an everyday discharge, became the key to revitalizing the local economy and environment, quietly changing people's lives. It was a story of the future that began in the countryside, and a form of "environmental philosophy" born at a turning point in 2002.