Good news this week: I have one restaurant survey today, and then one with a hospital garden next Thursday, and one with a university in November scheduled. I know it is only three out of the twenty I am trying to get, but I will take any little piece of progress I can get. I also had one organization respond by email with qualitative data which is nice (although not that useful for creating my P budget).
This week I organized a little follow-up science communication training to invite other graduate students in my department to work on 30 second science talks (based on the Liber Ero training I did in September). Only a few people showed up but I think they appreciated the activity, and I think I also made some progress on my little pitch. Here is the latest version:
Farmers 200 years ago recycled their waste because it was a valuable resource to grow food. Today most of us are no longer farmers and live in cities and we have stopped recycling this valuable waste. Now it mostly ends up in landfills or in waterways. I work on how urban agriculture can help us decrease waste and increase recycling of such valuable waste because it contains lots of essential elements for food production. One of these important resources is phosphorus. It is a great element to focus on to study the role urban agriculture in a more sustainable food system because we have a limited supply of phosphorus and can also cause water pollution.
Sustainable Resource Management Lab 