Our Tale:
A Compost Love Story
Long ago… the tale of Farmer Pirates Compost began in 2012 by a group of urban farmers in Buffalo, NY on the search for compost. Read on to learn our history.
Our Mission
Farmer Pirates Compost is a Buffalo based worker-owned cooperative dedicated to diverting food scraps from landfills and transforming them into nutrient-rich compost. With our partners across WNY, we aim to build a sustainable community that manages food waste responsibly and empowers local growers to restore and replenish our soils.
The Farmer Pirates Compost Tale
Sick of trucking in low-quality compost from rural areas, Farmer Pirates Compost was unofficially started in 2012 by a group of urban farmers who had the need for high-quality compost to use on their farms in Buffalo.
It seemed crazy to bring compost in from outside of the city when there was so much organic material leaving the city every day that could instead be used to create a rich, nutrient dense, organic fertilizer the farmers so desperately needed.
With a bold idea and limited resources, we created a Kickstarter campaign and with community support, we started composting!
The originial Farmer Pirates crewFrom humble beginnings using repurposed buckets from Wegmans, an old pickup truck, and simple flyers, we spread the word and began our residential program with just 20 members. We now run a fleet of 4 vehicles that run routes around Western New York 5 days per week, collecting waste from businesses, schools, and households.
As we’ve moved away from managing urban farm sites, keeping compostable waste out of the landfill has evolved into the core of our mission. In 2024, we diverted nearly 1.5 million pounds of compostable waste! As well, while our values have always stood to be inclusive, democratic, and empowering, we formalized those tenets in 2023 when we became a Worker-Owned Cooperative (read more on that below!).
We are a passionate team that believes wholly in what we do. We are excited to continue expanding our services and explore what is out on the horizon for the Farmer Pirates!
The FPC team todayOur grassroots beginnings, making compost on a small scale for urban farms.
2012
2014
We registered as an LLC!
We were finally able to purchase a front-loader, after years of flipping compost piles by hand. Our capacity to accept food scraps increased exponentially!
2016
NYS passed the Food Scrap Recycling Law, requiring some NY businesses to start composting - this really helped us to jump!
2022
FPC became a Worker-Owned Cooperative and won the contract for the City of Buffalo Scrap It! Curbside program.
2023
FPC provides composting servies to 2,500 households, works with 3 municipalities, partners with 40+ commerical organizations, and sells 600+ cubic yards of compost each year!
today
What is a worker-owned co-op?
Worker cooperatives are businesses that are owned and democratically controlled by the workers. Worker cooperatives are “values-driven” and place worker empowerment and community at the core of their business.
Workers collectively and democratically make key governance and management decisions: one person, one vote. Workers own financial shares in the company, and make decisions about how profits are distributed. Workers are empowered to make financial decisions for their personal and collective benefit as well as the company’s.
Farmer Pirates Compost currently runs a variety of food scrap collection services:
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Commercial Composting
service for 40+ businesses, schools, and organizations
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Residential Pickup
service to 5+ suburbs in greater Buffalo
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Municipal Compost
in three areas, including the City of Buffalo’s ScrapIt! Curbside program serving 2,000 households
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Neighborhood Drop Off
service for residents, with 10 different compost drop-off locations available throughout the region
Did You Know?
In 2024, we collected and composted 1,417,011 pounds of food scraps to make approximately 700 yards of finished compost to feed local farms and gardens!
Becoming Farmer Pirates
People ask us all the time: “How did you get the name Farmer Pirates Compost?”
Farmer Pirates was born out of a farming cooperative by the same name, Farmer Pirates Cooperative in 2012. Although we have grown and evolved since the beginning and we are no longer cooperative members and farmers, we still hold to the same values which can be articulated by this quote from farmer, author, and painter Lynn Miller, the founder of the renowned Small Farmer's Journal and author of Farmer Pirates and Dancing Cows:
“As farmers and homesteaders, we’re growing for ourselves, we’re creating for ourselves, we raise our own chickens for our own eggs, and we’ll do it outside of existing institutions. If that makes us pirates, then so be it.”
Learn More About Us
Our Crew
We think our crew is pretty cool. Find out why!
We’re Hiring
Wish to join the crew? Check to see if we have an opening.