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Pataskala,OH

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37396355/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/?gt1=43001

7/10/2010 3:12:10 PM

Bloomington, IN

When it comes to the reduction in fertilily of our farm lands and the reduction of nutritional quality of produce grown on it, one thing you never hear talked about is returning the nutrients contained in human manure to the soil from which they originated via composting. Think about all the nutrients being removed from farm lands in the form of produce only to be eaten, excreted, then flushed away without concern, eventually being landfilled. Not to mention all the water wasted doing it. Doesn't seem like a wise practice does it? Composting is a very viable way of returning those nutrients to the soil without creating a health hazard.

http://weblife.org/humanure/

http://humanurehandbook.com/videos.html

7/10/2010 6:13:39 PM

Pataskala,OH

Doesn't that add heavy metals to the soil.

7/10/2010 9:22:34 PM

Pataskala,OH

Remind me never to eat any vegetables at your house. ROTFL

7/10/2010 9:24:45 PM

Bloomington, IN

1. Your thinking of sewage sludge, which contains industrial wastes as well.

2. That seems to be a common phobia in our society. The sheer thought of eating something fertilized with what USED to be human manure seems repulsive, and yet a lot of these same people have no problem with cow manure, even when used raw...

Have you actually checked out the links I posted? You should give that book I linked to a read, its well worth it.

7/10/2010 11:58:11 PM

Bloomington, IN

While the reasoning in that article may hold some merit, I think the major reason behind the decreasing fertility of our farm lands and the resulting decrease in nutritional quality of our food is largely due to the fact that the agricultural nutrients found human manure are never returned to the land. Notice how the parts of the world experiencing this decline in food quality also happen to be the same places that dispose of humanure instead of recycling it. Take China for example, ever heard of their produce's nutritional quality going down? Probably not. Why? Might have something to do with the fact that China has been recycling its humanure for 4000+ years. Granted, the way they do it is rather outdated. They spread it raw in the feilds...ick. Ever notice how chinese food is always cooked? lol. Needless to say they've had disease issues. COMPOSTING is the solution to that problem. Finished humanure compost is no different in appearance and no less sanitary than any other compost. I could hand you a bucket of finished humanure compost and you wouldn't know it had once been humanure unless I told you.

Ok, I'm done rambling, lol.

7/11/2010 12:13:00 PM

Pataskala,OH

That makes sense but there are probably less disgusting ways of adding nutrients to the soil. Nitrogen fertilizer is made from air.

7/11/2010 1:08:19 PM

Fresno, CA

Don't know if composting would break down the pharmaceuticals legal or otherwise that show up in human waste. Groundwater in some areas is contaminated with hormones, cocaine other drugs and also broken down components from septic leaks even after percolating down through soil. I don't know how many of these chemicals would be taken up by plants if distributed in manure.

7/12/2010 10:25:01 AM

Bloomington, IN

Nic, have you watched any of those videos yet? The whole process isn't nearly as disgusting as the average joe might think. This video does a pretty good job explaining it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_DQyO2CPV0&feature=player_embedded

As for other ways of adding nutrients to the soil, sure there are other ways, but you won't find another method more sustainable than humanure composting. And isn't that what the whole environmental movement has been about? Sustainability?

EndlessTrail, you'd be amazed at how very capable the microorganisms in a compost pile are at degrading toxic chemicals.

http://weblife.org/humanure/chapter3_12.html

7/12/2010 6:04:39 PM