Being pioneers on the Kansas City urban farming scene can be a tough row to hoe, admitted Brooke Salvaggio noting the challenges she’s faced with Urbavore Farm and Compost Collective KC are just the latest season on an evolving agricultural landscape.
“More or less, we’re rebels,” explained Salvaggio, who along with her husband, Dan Heryer, planted Urbavore — a 13.5-acre farm on Kansas City’s east side — in 2011, after owning Bad Seed Farm in South Kansas City and Bad Seed Farmers Market in the Crossroads.
“I always say we were rebels with a cause,” she continued. “We had these environmental and social ethics. We were activists and food was our vehicle. And in those early days, I think we did a lot of trailblazing, and in some cases, breaking a lot of rules for the greater good.”
Today, a variety of code changes reflect work Salvaggio and Heryer cultivated to normalize (and legalize) urban farming, she noted, as they faced early pushback from neighbors at Bad Seed Farm and a number of barriers to building Urbavore at its location about five miles east of the Country Club Plaza.
“Urban ag is so much more accepted now,” Salvaggio continued. “There are so many legislative changes that make it easier for farmers to grow food within the city’s landscape, and Bad Seed had a lot to do with that. So we’re proud of that.”
But they haven’t plowed through all those challenges.
Salvaggio and Heryer have confronted a months-long fight to continue operating their urban composting site at Urbavore — rallying support against violations from the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and once again seeking to pioneer a solution that allows city codes and processes to grow along with their farm and the budding industry.
“Getting in trouble and creating some drama around any situation brings it to the public’s eye,” Salvaggio said. “Composting is still a new concept. It should be as ubiquitous as recycling and it’s not. So I think this is bringing composting to the forefront and aiding communities in addressing our climate resilience.”
“I think there will be some changes in compost legislation down the line,” she added, “so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen to someone else and so that it doesn’t happen to us again.”
At the root of the controversy
On the farm, Salvaggio, Heryer, and their two full-time and three part-time employees grow “pretty much every type of veggie you can imagine that would grow in this climate,” Salvaggio said: apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, a variety of flowers, plus raise 250 hens for pastured eggs and anywhere between 15 and 30 pigs for pastured pork. They then sell the produce, eggs, and pork through CSA shares — they have 110 members currently — and in their online shop with customers picking up their orders once a week at the farm.
Compost Collective — which Heryer runs with 16 employees, three of which are full-time — offers free community drop off bins on the farm and a curbside collection service for $30 a month. They serve around 3,000 individuals in some capacity, Salvaggio said.
“They’re two sister businesses that have sort of a synergistic relationship,” she explained. “It’s the people’s waste that literally fuels the fields of Urbavore. Our fertility is people’s food waste and it’s such a cool system.”
But that system is now under fire since an inspector for the City Planning and Development Department leveled four violations against Urbavore in the spring, prompted by complaints of noise, odors, and high traffic by neighbors.
Three of the violations don’t have to do with the compositing site; they are regarding retail sales of products not made on their farm, gravel driveways not being paved, and shipping containers being used for storage on the farm, according to Salvaggio.
“It doesn’t address any of the neighbors’ concerns — those violations,” she said.
“The biggest, like, ‘Oh, crap; violation is — just in and of itself — the compost site,” she added. “That threatens so many things.”
The majority of the immediate neighbors support the farm, Salvaggio said, with the complaints being lodged by three neighbors, two of whom moved into the neighborhood after the farm launched.
“This farm cannot be a nuisance,” she explained. “It was never meant to be and it simply isn’t. We have worked really hard to keep it that way. We work really hard to make sure that smells are mitigated at the compost site. We work really hard to make sure that our animals are managed really well and moved frequently, so there aren’t foul odors. We are mostly hand powered. We run some equipment, but very little. There aren’t motors going on all day. We’re environmentalists; we use less energy on this farm than these households.”
One major complaint is the traffic from the farm making it dangerous for kids in the neighborhood, Salvaggio continued. But she’s asked young people if they feel unsafe crossing the street or if the farm puts them in danger, she said.
“And they’re like, ‘No, this is the best thing about the neighborhood,’” Salvaggio recalled. “Kids from the neighborhood come over here and play. We’re a big institution for kids in the neighborhood.”
‘Unthinkable’ options
The violation against Compost Collective — which states that the composting site has become the primary use instead of an accessory use on the property — is the most frustrating for Salvaggio and Heryer, she said. It could force them to sell the compost business or — what the city is recommending — go through rezoning, which would require a $30,000 master development plan and approval from the city.
“The compost site is a quarter of an acre,” she noted. “The farm is 13 and a half acres. Every bit of this farm is used for agriculture. The compost — the product — is applied to the farm fields to grow the food. In any way you want to look at it, it seems pretty obvious that the primary use on this property is agriculture. The farm also predated the compost site.”
“An inspector from (the city planning and development department) is the one who issued the violation,” she added. “And it’s that same department that approved it two years prior.”
Salvaggio and Heryer buying Compost Collective in 2021 and building out the site — which was a $500,00 investment — was contingent on the city’s approval, she explained.
“They’re trying to get us on the amount of volume that we’re composting,” she continued, “but it’s explicit in the emails and the (compliance letter) that they approved a certain amount of volume and we’re not even at that point yet.”
The Urbavore duo believes that the violation was a mistake by the inspector and wants the city to dismiss it, Salvaggio said. Or if the city is going to require rezoning, they would like the city to help with resources for funding the plan.
“It’s unthinkable for us to have to cave after the investments we’ve made,” she added.

Dan Heryer, Brooke Salvaggio, and Brian Platt during a visit by the KCMO city manager this fall to Urbavore Farm; photo courtesy of Brooke Salvaggio
They have been frustrated by the lack of communication from the city, including from Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of city council, Salvaggio noted. But they have found support from the City Manager’s office, with several members — including City Manager Brian Platt — paying a visit to the farm earlier this fall.
“As city manager, Brian is likely busier than all those folks,” she explained. “And I feel like he had to come in and clean up the mess they should have been responsible for. This was definitely a Third District and Fifth District issue and those reps were stone-walling us despite 1000-plus letters and dozens of phone calls (from supporters). I’m just really annoyed at being dragged through the mud for the last six months.”
An email from Startland News to Mayor Pro Tem and Fifth District Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw received an out-of-office reply and no repsonse.
Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz said Platt’s office is grateful for the patience of all parties involved.
“We are working hard on resolution here and don’t want to jeopardize the progress by discussing this publicly at this time,” she continued.
Throughout this tense time, Salvaggio said, she’s been heartened by the support of the community. Through the Save Urbavore site, residents have submitted more than 1,000 letters of support and a call to action from the city.
“I’m always blown away by the KC community for how much love they give us,” she added. “I feel like they are the ones who recognize what we’ve contributed to Kansas City, not the city itself. And that still blows my mind.”
A vision for what comes next
Salvaggio can’t fathom losing access to the compost, which she calls the key ingredient for success at Urbavore. Having on-site compost the past couple of years has been a game changer, increasing their yields and allowing her to hire more labor.
”If this valuable life-saving, soil-building nutrient is taken away from me, my yields will go down by 50 percent,” she explained. “I don’t think I’ll be able to feed the same number of people in this space. I know that I will have to use more water and more resources to grow the food if I don’t have access to the compost.”
“It would just change the whole economic situation out here drastically,” she added.
But the compost isn’t just feeding Urbavore, she noted, it’s helping gardens and lawns across the city.
“The compost is getting out into the community,” she continued. “It’s bringing people together. It’s growing things all over the city. It’s such a major part of building a resilient city. And it’s really just unthinkable for me if it goes away.”
Composting is also the most accessible climate action that everyone can take, Salvaggio said.
“Lots of smart people who don’t own businesses — even the UN says this — know that composting is one of the most important actions your everyday individual can take to combat climate change, and it’s something we can do in our own kitchen,” she said.
Once a resolution to the violations becomes clear, Salvaggio said, she hopes the increased conversation with city officials leads to continued connections and potential partnerships.
“We recognize that no independent, mom-and-pop owned compost business or initiative is going to do nearly as much good for the city unless they’re working directly with the municipality,” she explained. “We need a partner with KC to bring curbside composting to the entire city and we need to find a way to fund that both from their resources and other grant funding.”
“We’ve always wanted to do a pilot program with KC and I think, finally — now that we’re in deep trouble, threatened to have our compost site shut down — simultaneously, these conversations about partnering are happening,” Salvaggio said. “So that is ironic and hilarious.”