This time of year in my neighborhood, the streets are lined with piles of leaves, waiting for the city trucks to remove them. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over 15,000 tons of leaves are picked up and composted by a local company, Purple Cow Organics, and sold back to the...

In February of 2019, I was living the life. I had rented an 1840 log cabin on a 130-acre farm and had a small vegetable garden. My dog, Remy, and I would go for daily walks around the farm and go exploring in the surrounding woods. The landlord wanted a long-term...