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An answer claimed that (unprocessed?)human excrement is used for commercial farming world-wide. True or not?
5 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavourite answer
Yes very true human waste is being used as fertilizer.A very good resorce check out the state of washington and what they're doing with human waste.
Source(s): news - donfletcheryhLv 71 decade ago
The meaning of the term unprocessed will get us into some difficulty. Is it unprocessed if it is piled and the pile heats above 160F for several weeks?
Well, in some places it does not get that much treatment. But very simply, mankind has to recover the plant nutrients in our feces and urine to grow the next crop of our food.
When we pass our feces into a flush toilet and thus into a treatment plant, the solid part does sit around and heat up, so sterilizing it. But the water is mostly exposed to sunlight in lagoons, then used for irrigation to get the nutrients back to crops.
The alternative is to send that water downstream to go into the water intake of another town, or out into the ocean.
Norman Bethune in China set up a system in which households would have 3 large pails, with gas-tight lids. Night-soil put into the first of those stays capped for weeks as the next is filled.
The ammonia created in the pails would sterilize the product, which would be collected while the third pail is starting to be filled. the collected material would be piled to heat, but even if it were used right away on vegetables, it would be reasonably safe.
However, some people would still call this unprocessed. You have to evaluate that on the basis of effectiveness.
- 1 decade ago
All poor third world countries do this, always have. Ever hear of the E- Coli in the USA lettuce a couple of months ago. Well Mr. or Mrs. lettuce picker or their child just did'nt want to walk to the porta-potty ( are was their one even there?). E-Coli in the meat packing industry is very common, one cut of a knife just a few inches off and the shi- hits the floor and the butchered carcas.
Source(s): Im a cattle raiser/ feeder and take my steers to a Western Kansas feedlot. I hear all the bad on T.V. but never the good side. I guess everyone one day will eat tofou bugers, but hay! guess what, that soy-kurd can get it too! - 1 decade ago
yes thats where everything that comes out of you goes then they remove(thankfully by lazerguided machine) all non-human waste matter(including the urine) then goes to a vat and a thing swirls it around slowly from the bottom then the bigger particles drop to the bottom and is dried and used as fertilizer although they can use urine because it has all the nessicary chemicles that plants need
Source(s): Modern Marvels:history channel