Your cart
There are no more items in your cart
Today we'd like to introduce you to Jean-Jacques Fasquel. He's well known in the world of vermicomposting as a master composter. But that's not his only activity, as you'll see.
Hello Jean-Jacques, welcome to the Vers La Terre blog. Your background is a bit atypical, as you used to work in events management, and now you're into composting and everything that goes with it. Can you tell us about your background?
Yes, I had a thousand lives before I got into composting. First, I was a concert organizer, then a cinema manager, an events account manager, a program promotion manager for an internet service provider, and finally the director of Bercy Village, an open-air shopping mall in Paris. I was then touched by the grace ... of ecology.
After self-training, I launched my own business as a consultant and trainer in sustainable development and responsible communications. At the same time, I launched the first composting site at the foot of a building in Paris in 2008, and loved this fine illustration of the circular economy. I trained as a master composter and launched Compostory, which offers training in all types of composting and support in setting up composting projects at the foot of buildings, in schools, in companies, etc. Since then, I've also been developing the creation and implementation of shared gardens (landlords, companies) under the brand name JardinTheCity
What advice would you give to young and not-so-young people wishing to change careers?
I'd advise them to listen to their hearts. There's too much suffering in the workplace these days, and if they want to change, they should. But be careful, you need to have specific skills. Either you use your current skills in a sector more in line with your values, or you train for this new profession, as I did for composting. You can also join an association to validate your project and acquire your initial skills.
In addition to composting, you also have other talents, such as beekeeping. When you live in Paris, it's not necessarily the first thing you think of. How did you come up with the idea?
Following the installation of my composting site in my residence, I had the idea of creating a shared garden, which I did two years later. For me, the garden has become a place of learning and experimentation. It's managed like an eco-system, and pollination is important in a garden.
We set up beehives with a beekeeper, which I monitored with him for a while, and I trained myself to take over the management of this apiary on my own a few years ago. The bee and the earthworm are surely two of the most important animals for life on Earth, so it's not surprising that I wanted to look after both.
Jean-Jacques Fasquel
And with all these activities, you even found time to write a book entitled "Composter en ville" (Composting in the City), which features our City Worms. Was this a logical continuation of the workshops you've been giving all over the place?
I didn't really want to write a book, because there were already a few out there. But I responded to a publisher's request and positioned it as a work that presents all the types of composting that can be implemented in the city. Its approach is the one I use in my training courses: to explain things simply, without oversimplifying, and above all to inspire people to want to do it. The City Worms are featured prominently in the "worm composting" section, as I believe they offer the best value for money at the moment!
Do you have a favorite website, blog or book that you'd like to share with us?
Dare I introduce another book I published with Terre Vivante last November? Entitled "Carnets de WWOOFing" (WWOOFing Diaries), it presents this type of active, solidarity-based vacation that lets you discover the daily life of organic farms.
When we make compost, we're often interested in the production chain of what we eat. WWOOFing is a superb experience in this respect, not to mention the wonderful human encounters with these farmers.
And one last question to bring this interview to a close: if you were Minister for the Environment, what would your main reforms be?
I would honor the COP 21 objectives that France signed up to, and take steps to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. Citizens are already doing their bit, for example by starting to compost, but the State must make a real and frank commitment to this transition, especially as the solutions for reducing our environmental impact are well known. And if we have to regulate, legislate and even ban, we need to have the courage to do so. This is the spirit of the Manifesto of Authors for the Climate, which I signed in May.
Thank you very much Jean-Jacques Fasquel for all these details, and we'll certainly see you at a future event!
Comments (0)