Fertilizer....Human waste

Kolo

If you don't eat meat, and just eat non processed foods, can you put your own waste in the compost bin and use as fertilizer?
Hypothetical of course, I'm not going to try it! Just curious

jape

Can't see that being too appetizing!!

raah!

I don't see any reason why not. The idea of collecting your faeces in a bin though....

it's brilliant!

maameeo

Without proper treatment, the use of human feces as fertilizer is a hazardous practice because of disease-causing microbes it contains. Nevertheless, in developing nations it is a common practice. Parasitic worm infections, such as Ascariasis in these countries are linked to night soil, since the larvae are in feces. There have also been cases of disease-carrying tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables being imported from undeveloped nations into more developed nations.[citation needed]
Human waste may be attractive as fertilizer because of the high demand for fertilizer and the relative availability of the material to create night soil. In areas where native soil is of poor quality, the local population may weigh the risk of using night soil.
The safe reduction of human waste into compost is possible. Many municipalities create compost from the sewage system biosolids, but then recommend that it only be used on flower beds, not vegetable gardens. Some claims have been made that this is dangerous or inappropriate without the expensive removal of heavy metals. There are other simple yet effective ways to process the compost into safe and usable material. One method, that has been successful, is known as "humanure" where the material is composted with kitchen refuse and high-carbon materials such as yard waste, heated through biological activity and kept for an optimal period of time whereby the pathogens are destroyed. Many people in the United States and other countries have been practicing this method for over ten years now without any negative consequences.[1]
^^ quote from wiki

dont think eating veggie makes a diff to your eh waste... look on wiki link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_soil

raah!

Why are there not these diseases from elephant and cow poo then? I guess I can look it up myself

maameeo

we're just evil creatures filled wit chemicals i guess

-lala-

What a delightful topic. I'm so glad I clicked on it and read the whole thing while eating my lunch.

Sapsorrow

Really not a good idea, different type of bacteria favour different environments as habitats, the digestive system of a herbivore/ruminant is very different to our own and so will have a different microflora. Also bacteria that originated from the human intestines that may be pathogenic are obviously adapted for that environment so if you then consume them through polluted food they are much more likely to survive in the conditions provided by your stomach and therefore infect you making you sick. Human faeces can contain any number of seriouly dangerous bacteria, Salmonella, E. coli etc..
Really wouldn't reccomend it to anyone, pee onthe other hand is ok, but still wouldn't use it on food intended to be eaten raw.

Sapsorrow

Actually the pimary cause of food poisoning is seafood (because of human faecal waste being pumped into the sea) and fresh raw fruit and veg (from manure) is the next biggest cause, meat and dairy are actually quite far down the line.

henryporter

Of course there is a way - it's called Humanure - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanure for a basic run down.

DonnieScribbles

While looking up B12 sources after reading Linguo's thread I came across this: (from http://www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html)

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Human faeces can contain significant B12. A study has shown that a group of Iranian vegans obtained adequate B12 from unwashed vegetables which had been fertilised with human manure. Faecal contamination of vegetables and other plant foods can make a significant contribution to dietary needs, particularly in areas where hygiene standards may be low. This may be responsible for the lack of aneamia due to B12 deficiency in vegan communities in developing countries. [/SIZE][/FONT]

Seems to be a lot of mixed information about whether this is safe.
That's one way to counteract deficiency though

rubadub

Did anybody see the documentary on food last night on BBC? It had a setup whereby fish and plants were grown together, a sort of symiotic setup, the plants grew hydroponically, I think the fish were eating the roots, and the fish waste matter was collected and filtered and used to feed the plants.

Aquaponics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics

I wondered what vegans would think of such a setup

DonnieScribbles

rubadub wrote: »

I wondered what vegans would think of such a setup

Because the plants were fertilised with fish waste?
I'm not sure...
I'd wonder how happy the fish would be with the situation!
What was the name of the documentary? I didn't see it but I could try locate it...

rubadub

DonnieScribbles wrote: »

Because the plants were fertilised with fish waste?

Yeah, that the plants were sort of grown using the fish, a sort of secondary product. I did wonder about if some vegans were against food grown in regular manure too, or animals used to harvest or plough land.

The documentary is called "the future of food"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m9xjc

DonnieScribbles

I'd never thought about this before to be honest! I don't think it'd bother me particularly... I'm not sure how easy it would be to find out how well animals used for harvesting etc are treated.
Maybe someone else on here knows better, we shall see