Crapy Compose pile

[Dave]

There is no contamination possible after composting.

Composting certainly does not remove all possible contaminates. Done properly it will kill most pathogens but not all. And not all composting is done properly. In fact the majority of home composting is not done correctly.

 

[farmerjan]

Thank you to all that quoted my reply. I did not mean that I am against the bio-solids, I totally agree that any human manure waste should be used in places/ways that is does not come in direct contact with vegetables that humans consume. I couldn't think of the words, human pathogens, that can be passed. There are several farms in this area that have gone the route and gotten the permits and all to spread it on their farmland. I don't know all the details. And yes I do realize that due to being from sewage plants, and industrial type waste, that is where the heavy metal and other contaminents come from, that wouldn't be in a "human waste compost". I just would not want to take a risk that some thing could not be composted properly and could cause someone to get sick from it, especially maybe a child....Let's face it, they have to spread it somewhere, dumping it in the ocean is not a very good option, even with the "dilution factor", although it is probably still done alot. But I think that anyone who has an ounce of common sense, would not incorporate it into their general compost heap. Most do not know how or are not able to get the composting "done right" to kill the pathogens. Yes it has been used in many counties for years, and probably still is today. But not in my vegetable garden....

 

[TexasBred]

Much of that beautiful Mexican produce many of us eat during the winter comes right out of those fields fertilized with human feces. That's also why you don't drink the water unless they have a water purification plant in the city.

 

[wbvs58]

I think we live in a too sterile world these days, kids are brought up in sterile environments and then go into child care during the day where they pick up every cold a flu that goes around but don't get much exposure to soil organisms and will often get phobias to dirt. My daughter is married to an American that was brought up in Las Vegas and he is now a germ freak, he won't move into a new apartment until my daughter has disinfected from one end to another and yet he is a grot himself but his dirt is OK. His phobia cruels any plans they have to travel and do things, just too hard work.

I grew up in Brisbane just after the war and expansion was very rapid. Early in the Pacific war it was the major staging point for US forces and a lot of army camps were turned into suburbs with no sealed roads and no sewerage systems. We had outhouses for toilets and the "Dunny man" came early in the morning once a week to change the can and yes it was called "night soil". We played in the back yard amongst the oveflowing "grey water" household sump that never soaked in and we were perfectly healthy. I never new exactly what happened to the night soil but suspect it was composted and used on market gardens.

Dad always tells of where he grew up in Sydney near Botany Bay and the flats behind the beach were all Chinese market gardens or "Chows" as he called them and how whenever the old sewerage pipes burst the Chows would be there scooping up the raw sewerage and carrying it back on the two buckets on the stick over their shoulders for their market gardens. They had no trouble selling their produce direct to the public, it was highly sought after, I guess an early form of organic farming.

Look now most large cities have sewerage treatment plants that treat the waste water to different levels, some for farm use but also to the next level that then goes back and mixes with our drinking water. It is happening now, what we don't know don't hurt us.

Our kids just have to toughen up a bit. Farm kids are probably an exception but city kids are just Pansies.

Ken

 

[TexasBred]

We had most of that on our place as a kid too but we did not run around playing in the human shyt as it didn't run out on the ground. Even back in those days most had a septic system.

 

[mwj]

Melorganite has been a staple in the organic community for years. It makes you wonder why more towns did not do the same thing.

 

[farmerjan]

Milorganite as a fertilizer has been made under controlled conditions from the start to utilize the treated waste from their treatment plants. It is also heated, dried and then made into a dry fertilizer. It is NOT approved for certified organic farms, and is recommended for use on lawns and flowers and such. I think that it is a very smart product and if more places did it there would be less problems with the waste treatment plants. The thing about it, it is HEATED and dried and the pathogens are killed, which they would not be in the "homemade compost pile"...
Again, a good use for something that will not go directly on the soil that vegetables are directly in contact with.

 

[mwj]

You can ''compost'' your dead livestock because it heats enough to render it harmless. We may be talking about different things, but a composting pile supplies its own heat.

 

[lavacarancher]

Folks, I could be way off base here but I believe that the tomato and other vegetable contamination problem we had several years ago was traced to farmers using human waste products from a sewer treatment plant as fertilizer on their crops. I think this came from California. I don't remember any details.

 

[skyhightree1]

 

[farmerjan]

Yeah, Sky there are several farms in this area that also post these signs and do use the bio solids. I don't know first hand but have been told that it is spread on some pasture and some crop ground. That would be for corn or beans or hay ground. That's all good since it has to go through several "layers" before getting to the human consumption stage. Pasture-cows-meat, or corn-silage-cows-meat, or hay ground-cows-meat, that type of thing....Have been told that it really does the ground some good.