Editing Compost (section)

== History ==
[[File:Compost Basket.jpg|thumb|upright|Compost basket]]
Composting dates back to at least the early Roman Empire and was mentioned as early as [[Cato the Elder]]'s 160 BCE piece {{lang|la|[[De Agri Cultura]]}}.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cato/De_Agricultura/A*.html|title=De Agri Cultura|last=Cato|first=Marcus|date=|chapter=37.2; 39.1|access-date=19 February 2021}}{{dead link|date=August 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Traditionally, composting involved piling organic materials until the next planting season, at which time the materials would have decayed enough to be ready for use in the soil. Methodologies for organic composting were part of [[Traditional agriculture|traditional agricultural systems]] around the world.

Composting began to modernize somewhat in the 1920s in Europe as a tool for [[organic farming]].<ref name=":7">{{cite web|title=History of Composting|url=https://web.extension.illinois.edu/homecompost/history.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004232552/https://web.extension.illinois.edu/homecompost/history.cfm|archive-date=4 October 2018|access-date=11 July 2016|website=Composting for the Homeowner|publisher=University of Illinois}}</ref> The first industrial station for the transformation of urban organic materials into compost was set up in [[Wels]], Austria, in the year 1921.<ref>Welser Anzeiger vom 05. Januar 1921, 67. Jahrgang, Nr. 2, S. 4</ref> Early proponents of composting in farming include [[Rudolf Steiner]], founder of a farming method called [[biodynamic agriculture|biodynamics]], and [[Annie Francé-Harrar]], who was appointed on behalf of the government in [[Mexico]] and supported the country in 1950–1958 to set up a large humus organization in the fight against erosion and [[soil degradation]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gETbAwAAQBAJ&q=Annie+Franc%C3%A9-Harrar+compost&pg=PA86|title=A History of the Garden in Fifty Tools|last=Laws|first=Bill|year=2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226139937|pages=86|language=en|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=13 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713211322/https://books.google.com/books?id=gETbAwAAQBAJ&q=Annie+Franc%C3%A9-Harrar+compost&pg=PA86|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Sir Albert Howard]], who worked extensively in [[India]] on sustainable practices,<ref name=":7" /> and [[Lady Eve Balfour]] were also major proponents of composting. Modern scientific composting was imported to America by the likes of [[J. I. Rodale]] – founder of [[Rodale, Inc.]] Organic Gardening, and others involved in the organic farming movement.<ref name=":7" />