This is a response Jim gave to a question regarding GMO foods or other products in our compost.  It maybe more information than you want :)GMO.  Genetically Modified Orgnaisms.  Yes our world is awash in them.  No my compost is not.  First it is good to know what has GMO content.  You can assume all corn Organic or not is contaminated to some degree with GMO genes.  It may not be as I have been saving an Open Pollinated corn here on the farm for 12 years or so and we shouldn’t have any GMO corn in our neighborhood.  Soybeans are mostly GMO.  The food waste we use is from an Organic soybean user so some of the waste will have tamari or tofu but it is organically sourced.  Horses don’t eat corn.  Horses eat hay.  The horse manure we receive is from a couple that have horses not children.  They are treated homeopathically for disease when it occurs.  They use natural wormers not Ivomectrin or the like.  Sugar beets are now all GMO, but I don’t see any sugar in the food waste.  Canola is almost all GMO and it is only used for oil and we sure don’t put oil into the compost pile.  The kale, caulifower, potatoes, rice, beans, peppers,lettuce, spinach and all the other human food waste that comes from the waste stream we feed the compost pile is NOT GMO.  By content the food waste makes up less than 10% of the pile.  The compost pile is a biological fire.  The micro-organisms are in a feeding frenzy cutting up,eating, digesting, and dying there way through the proteins, and carbohydrates that is the food we put out there for them to eat. In this process high temperatures are generated.  We try to keep the pile from going thermo-nuclear by adding water (we live in a desert so water is the limiting factor for our piles)  and turning the pile based on temperature and other characteristics.  We have been doing all of this for over 30 years and yes the world is changing around us with more corporate influence and the products they promote including those with GMO’s.  My family eats what I grow and i have fed thousands of people in Central Oregon for over 23 years.  They tell me I have the best Arugula they have ever tasted and the sweetest carrots best garlic and so on. Healthy soil is created by nature or can be helped by man with the inclusion of compost into the soil.  I like compost.  I have my hands in it all the time.

Farmer JimHead weeder