ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

and chemical commodity, saving farmers money and helping them establish
connections with composting entities.
A fundamental part of this process would be identifying and dissolving
institutional barriers to using municipal yard waste and compostable food
waste for agriculture. The current popularity of recycling of inorganic
material would not have occurred without top­down institutional support
from local governments, and an organic analog in composting would be no
different. Organic food and yard waste from residences and businesses could
be collected right alongside recycling bins by simply adding a receptacle per
household to contribute to the composting network on a large scale.
Large­scale composting networks may also be done outside the
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involved with composting results from high enough volumes to make
collection worthwhile. This makes more sense at a county level to collect
composting materials from large processors like Rich’s, from supermarkets,
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13. Facilitate Agriculturally Focused Municipal Memorandums of
Understanding (Low Priority)
The County, under the leadership of the County Executive and the
Legislature, should work together to broker alliances and a cooperative
agreement between municipalities in order to achieve a regional goal of
protecting the rural character of the county. Considering the vast farmland
that overlaps municipal borders, in order to more effectively protect them in
their entirety from development, there must be an agriculturally­based system
of understanding between decision­makers in Erie County municipalities.
In light of New York State’s status as a home­rule state and with
the goal of facilitating conservation easements in mind, Memorandums
of Understanding among localities would inform individual municipality
decisions. For example, food procurement policies that incorporate
requirements to purchase local foods for state institutions could be
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