Your Food Grown With Human Poop?

[longknife]

I really had to chuckle when I read the headline of this piece from the Canadian CBCNews. Why not? It's been going on well before recorded history for goodness' sake! Animal waste has been used as fertilizers to increase crop yields.

All of a sudden, someone is worried and upset by this? And in Canada of all places?

Now, having some dumb desk jockey sitting in a drab, windowless office in D.C. At the EPA would not surprise me. Especially is he or she was one of those Organ Food nuts who had absolutely no idea that growing food organically means no “artificial” fertilizers. If they aren't “artificial”, what are they? Why animal poop, of course!

Anyhow, read the story @ Earth Day: Is sewage sludge safe for farm fields? - Canada - CBC News

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Huge Mistake! I would never dare use human excrement as a fertilizer for food to be consumed by people. This is why you are seeing outbreaks of E. Coli - diseases - sickness increasing, etc. This is just one link with a few smart people weighing in on why one should not use human excrement as fertilizer. So why are we being told it is alright? Because the Chinese do it. Never buy any food grown in China - stay away from fish farmed or processed in China as well. That would be most of your frozen fish boxed at grocery store too - do not buy it. Very bad news.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120209173114AAljq3U

Oliver S answered 2 years ago
Because cows and humans don't share the same diseases, for the most part. Poo contains live samples of whatever diseases the poo-er has. Breaking the "fecal-oral" route of infection has been the most important advancement in public health in the last.... well, ever actually. Its why worms, tapeworms, cholera, typhus, and host of less famous pathogens are now uncommon.

In theory, you could process human to sterilize it and then use it as fertilizer. Its not impractical for many bacteria, but some are able to rapidly construct remarkably durable encapsulation. To eliminate those and the viruses of interest you have to pretty nearly incinerate the poo, which destroys its value as a fertilizer. And then, to remove the many tons of various medicines our fellow citizens are swallowing and mainly excreted unchanged each day, would require incinerating the poo.

Even if all that were solvable, there a further problem in that modern diets contain too much fat and animal protein, most of which is excreted unchanged. These are undesirable in a fertilizer and have a negative effect on crop growth.


This comment from Oliver is quite good and explains the reason cow manure is good and human excrement is NOT. In order to make it safe it would be worthless as a fertilizer anyhow. Do not allow the Chinese govt to force the rest of the world to lower their standards of safety to meet their own ( which should be illegal ) . They have no regard for the consumer. This has been proven already.

 

[Moonglow]

The thing is, any fecal matter can be bad if used during it's hot or green stage, the secret is to let it set until the fecal matter is not as secreted with ammonias and nitrates...which means about 6 months to a year, like making humus..

 

[martybegan]

Huge Mistake! I would never dare use human excrement as a fertilizer for food to be consumed by people. This is why you are seeing outbreaks of E. Coli - diseases - sickness increasing, etc. This is just one link with a few smart people weighing in on why one should not use human excrement as fertilizer. So why are we being told it is alright? Because the Chinese do it. Never buy any food grown in China - stay away from fish farmed or processed in China as well. That would be most of your frozen fish boxed at grocery store too - do not buy it. Very bad news.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120209173114AAljq3U

The sludge is not human waste anymore. it is the excess bacteria and the breakdown products from those bacteria that have fed on human waste. It has been processed to a point where pathogens are no longer present. Its effectively compost (just more liquidy).

The biggest risk with sewage based fertilizers is the heavy metal content, and that depends on the areas that produce the waste. (its mostly from industry). NYC sludge, for example is very low in metals, due to the low ratio of industry to residential/commercial property.

 

[martybegan]

The thing is, any fecal matter can be bad if used during it's hot or green stage, the secret is to let it set until the fecal matter is not as secreted with ammonias and nitrates...which means about 6 months to a year, like making humus..

Ammonia and nitrates and other forms of nitrogen are what you WANT in a fertilizer. What you don't want is the pathogens or unfixed (i.e undigested) organics in the mix.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

So by using human excrement like the Asians do you increase your chance of getting tape worms, cholera, typhus, E coli bacteria, what else? Hepatitus! Do you need more reasons not to buy food grown in human excrement? Do not buy tomatoes grown in Mexico either. Grow your own.

 

[Moonglow]

The thing is, any fecal matter can be bad if used during it's hot or green stage, the secret is to let it set until the fecal matter is not as secreted with ammonias and nitrates...which means about 6 months to a year, like making humus..

Ammonia and nitrates and other forms of nitrogen are what you WANT in a fertilizer. What you don't want is the pathogens or unfixed (i.e undigested) organics in the mix.

But they can not be so concentrated they literally burn up the plant roots...

 

[koshergrl]

Fucking city dwellers are idiots.

Seriously.

 

[koshergrl]

I recommend that we thouroughly douse all produce shipments going into the cities with human crap, if they like it so much. Let them eat it.

 

[koshergrl]

And it is not historically correct to say that humans have used their own excrement as fertilizer. Unless they are absolutely starving and there's nothing else available, humans of the past have been intelligent enough to recognize the inherent danger of eating their own shit via their carrots. Even the natives used food to fertilize corn...and food was not super abundant...before they'd use their own crap.

 

[martybegan]

The thing is, any fecal matter can be bad if used during it's hot or green stage, the secret is to let it set until the fecal matter is not as secreted with ammonias and nitrates...which means about 6 months to a year, like making humus..

Ammonia and nitrates and other forms of nitrogen are what you WANT in a fertilizer. What you don't want is the pathogens or unfixed (i.e undigested) organics in the mix.

But they can not be so concentrated they literally burn up the plant roots...

That's a lot of ammonia, particularly in a solid matrix. Plus this waste comes from biological sources, so the ammonia concentration it can reach does not approach toxic levels, unless you use artificial means to concentrate it.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

And it is not historically correct to say that humans have used their own excrement as fertilizer. Unless they are absolutely starving and there's nothing else available, humans of the past have been intelligent enough to recognize the inherent danger of eating their own shit via their carrots. Even the natives used food to fertilize corn...and food was not super abundant...before they'd use their own crap.

The Chinese must be laughing at us to think they can get away with this so easily. Just unbelievable that Americans do not realize they are trying to make fools of all of us. Wake up, people! You do not need to buy food that has been fertilized by way of some cesspool! This is an insult to our intelligence! Don't allow it.

 

[koshergrl]

It's like they want to eat their own shit. They feel that guilty about their existence.

 

[Moonglow]

maybe that's why your water in the city taste funny.....

 

[MikeK]

Huge Mistake! I would never dare use human excrement as a fertilizer for food to be consumed by people. This is why you are seeing outbreaks of E. Coli - diseases - sickness increasing, etc. This is just one link with a few smart people weighing in on why one should not use human excrement as fertilizer. So why are we being told it is alright? Because the Chinese do it. Never buy any food grown in China - stay away from fish farmed or processed in China as well. That would be most of your frozen fish boxed at grocery store too - do not buy it. Very bad news.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120209173114AAljq3U

Oliver S answered 2 years ago
Because cows and humans don't share the same diseases, for the most part. Poo contains live samples of whatever diseases the poo-er has. Breaking the "fecal-oral" route of infection has been the most important advancement in public health in the last.... well, ever actually. Its why worms, tapeworms, cholera, typhus, and host of less famous pathogens are now uncommon.

In theory, you could process human to sterilize it and then use it as fertilizer. Its not impractical for many bacteria, but some are able to rapidly construct remarkably durable encapsulation. To eliminate those and the viruses of interest you have to pretty nearly incinerate the poo, which destroys its value as a fertilizer. And then, to remove the many tons of various medicines our fellow citizens are swallowing and mainly excreted unchanged each day, would require incinerating the poo.

Even if all that were solvable, there a further problem in that modern diets contain too much fat and animal protein, most of which is excreted unchanged. These are undesirable in a fertilizer and have a negative effect on crop growth.


This comment from Oliver is quite good and explains the reason cow manure is good and human excrement is NOT. In order to make it safe it would be worthless as a fertilizer anyhow. Do not allow the Chinese govt to force the rest of the world to lower their standards of safety to meet their own ( which should be illegal ) . They have no regard for the consumer. This has been proven already.

Rice paddys on Okinawa of the mid-1950s were fertilized with human excrement. While American GIs didn't consume any of the food grown there, and were cautioned against eating in native restaurants, I can tell you those farmers grew some incredibly potent marijuana.

 

[Moonglow]

YOu can eat your own poop and will not contract disease..

 

[koshergrl]

You go right ahead, loonglow.

 

[longknife]

I will never - EVER - forget the long, back-breaking hours I spent scooping up Cow Patties and putting them into a wheelbarrow. Those and the big ones our horses dropped. Wheeled them over to a huge mulch pile where, on cold morning, you could see the steam rising into the air.

Then, when it was nice and ripe, we used the same scoop to load it into a manure spreader and then hook it up to our little Ford tractor.

Within a month, the alfalfa was blooming and bees coming from all over to gather up the nectar. One of my buddy's father raised bees and put a couple of colonies near the pastures. Some of the best honey in the world, especially right out of the comb.

 

[Moonglow]

You go right ahead, loonglow.

mmm, yummy, a little spongy, now it's your turn.....

 

[Moonglow]

I will never - EVER - forget the long, back-breaking hours I spent scooping up Cow Patties and putting them into a wheelbarrow. Those and the big ones our horses dropped. Wheeled them over to a huge mulch pile where, on cold morning, you could see the steam rising into the air.

Then, when it was nice and ripe, we used the same scoop to load it into a manure spreader and then hook it up to our little Ford tractor.

Within a month, the alfalfa was blooming and bees coming from all over to gather up the nectar. One of my buddy's father raised bees and put a couple of colonies near the pastures. Some of the best honey in the world, especially right out of the comb.

Round here it's cheekin litter.....