Men who think about land

Story by E. M. Morrison
Photos by Rolf Hagberg

Mississippi Topsoils cofounder Brad Matuska, 28, is a passionate advocate for composting, which he considers a hallmark of environmental stewardship.

After earning a degree in biology, Matuska spent several years selling compost equipment all over the world. But his deepest environmental convictions were shaped by summers on his uncle’s farm near Tabor, S.D., and later, by a year and a half in China.

Matuska first visited China in 1993 as a college student. In 1995 he returned to teach English in Chongqing in southwest China. Here Matuska encountered an ethic of recycling that has maintained the land’s fertility for three thousand years: “You see it most prominently in public rest rooms. There’s always a man there with a couple of five-gallon pails scooping out the pit and carrying it to his rice field.”

Though Matuska doesn’t advocate this practice, which spreads disease, he would like to see America adopt that mentality of reusing organic wastes. “Zero waste — that’s the ultimate lofty goal.”

Matuska’s business partner, Math Miller, 52, is a kindred spirit. “Brad and I clicked right away,” says Miller, a longtime Cold Spring concrete contractor. Miller, who grew up on a dairy farm, also owns a golf course. “I’m interested in composting because I believe if we build healthy soil, we’ll have healthy grass.”

Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy people — these are the values that guide Mississippi Topsoils, Matuska says. “When you have kids, you try to figure out what kind of world they are going to inherit. I could go on for hours about why composting matters. But as Math says, it just makes sense.”