Finally getting a vacation!  I’m off Sept 1-8, woo hoo!  I’ve been feeling rather burned out, so I’m hoping this is just what the doctor ordered.  Thursday Ebeth and I leave on a trip, she still hasn’t told me where we’re going (other than it’s in the US!)

Tomorrow I’m gonna bike down to Chesterfield Farms in Crofton, MD and check out their farm and old composting facility.  They had a 6 acre facility that accepted 60 tons of mixed organic waste (yard, food scraps, etc) each day!  And they’re expanding to a 76-acre site…whew!

But I will try not to do too much tomorrow, as well!  This vacation will be a relaxing one, not jam-packed with too much stuff!

Chapter 3: Microhusbandry – Harnessing the power of microorganisms

Generally speaking, there are four ways to deal with humanure: 1) Treat it as waste and “dispose” of it, 2) Apply it raw onto fields as a fertilizer, 3) slowly compost it over an extended period of time, 4) Thermophilic (high heat) composting, which is more rapid and helps ensure an environment in which pathogens cannot survive.

As mentioned before, some Asian societies have used raw humanure (called night soil) on their fields, and it causes the crops to flourish, but also leads to human health problems. He quotes a Dr. Scharf, public health officer in Singapore, to this extent, and also quotes him as saying that a water borne sewage system is the ideal goal. I imagine Jenkins rolling up his sleeves here and getting ready to clock the good doctor! The World Health Organization also discourages the use of raw night soil.

This reminds me of a conversation I had at work a while ago…a few coworkers were talking about composting, and I mentioned humanure composting (of course) and one of them got completely grossed out, flustered, and even upset. She travels a lot in Southeast Asia for her work, and sees (and smells!) places where people are playing in or drinking from places contaminated with human waste. So from that side of it she was super passionate about how disgusting human excrement is, and she certainly has good reason to. But she didn’t know about how it can be properly maintained (and rather simply, as well.)

So Jenkins reminds his readers that this book is about composting humanure, so they don’t have to worry about this night soil business. Now, he mentions composting at relatively low temperatures, at or below that of the human body (98.6 F). Given enough time, this should be safe, but he somewhat timidly recommends that if anyone is concerned they could use such compost for trees and flowers and things, instead of food.

“ Thermophilic composting is the fourth way to deal with human excrement. This type of composting involves the cultivation of heat-loving, or thermophilic, microorganisms in the composting

process. Thermophilic microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, can create an environment in the compost which destroys disease organisms that can exist in humanure, converting humanure into a

friendly, pleasant-smelling humus safe for food gardens. Thermophilically composted humanure is entirely different from night soil. ” (p. 26)

I think it is a bit awkward to say that the environment destroys pathogens that can exist in the pile…I would say that a minimally managed compost pile cultivates an environment where pathogens cannot survive. It’s not likely that these things are being added to an individual family’s pile if the family members aren’t sick!

Here’s a few definitions of compost that he puts forward:

The On-Farm Composting Handbook says that compost is “a group of organic residues or a mixture of organic residues and soil that have been piled, moistened, and allowed to undergo aerobic biological decomposition.”

The Compost Council adds their two-cents worth in defining compost: “Compost is the stabilized and sanitized product of composting; compost is largely decomposed material and is in the process of humification (curing, turning into humus). Compost has little resemblance in physical form to the original material from which it is made.” That last sentence should be particularly reassuring to the humanure composter.

J. I. Rodale states it a bit more eloquently: “Compost is more than a fertilizer or a healing agent for the soil’s wounds. It is a symbol of continuing life . . . The compost heap is to the organic gardener what the typewriter is to the writer, what the shovel is to the laborer, and what the truck is to the truckdriver.” 4

I think this Rodale quote is a good one. He is a famous name in composting, with his book “FILL THIS IN” but he does not address the humanure concept, and also incorrectly says that a number of types of foods (oils, fat, meat) should not be composted. He did not really go into the thermophilic concept, which handles all of these things just fine. If a pile is kept in decent condition, thermophilic bacteria will thrive, the pile will get hot, and once that period is over, all the other fun bugs and bacteria will take over! He says it’s almost miraculous how it works, and I agree that it’s pretty darn amazing!

He follows this by a great little section putting all this in historical perspective. Thousands of years ago our ancestors stared up at the sky and were amazed at what they saw and did not understand it. Just as the universe is an amazing thing, so is the microscopic world which is like another complete universe we are largely unaware of! “Our ancestors had little understanding of the vast, invisible world which surrounded them, a world of countless creatures so small as to be quite beyond the range of human sight” (27). He points out that yeasts have been used for several centuries, but that the intentional use of bacteria by humans is relatively new (I might add that fermentation to produce alcohol is probably one bacterial use that humans have used for awhile.) Bu it really is neat how this whole world of microscopic organisms keeps our planet going and are the “worker bees” of recycling for our planet! (Hmm, makes me wonder if nanotechnology could ever do something like this, or even if people would bother since microorganisms already do such a great job)

I like the next little section, “Solar Power in a Banana Peel” – He points out that every scrap of food and agricultural products contain solar energy in a way, since the sun allows things to grow in conjunction with photosynthesis in plants. So that banana peel that we throw away (I use “we” to mean “not me” in this case, haha) still contains useful energy created from photosynthesis and the sun! Anything that was once living or was made from something that was once living, can compost! Another way of putting it is that anything that can rot can compost. So manure, plants, leaves, sawdust, peat, straw,

grass clippings, food scraps, urine, cotton clothing, wool rugs, rags, paper, animal carcasses, junk mail and cardboard.

Apparently, Jenkins named his compost pile “Gomer.” This next part will cover what it takes to keep Gomer happy, and why he is made up of layers of different material. A pile is useful for many reasons, including water retention (will absorb water and not leach it), will hold in heat, looks neat and tidy, and is easy to cover with fresh organic cover material that will prevent odors. Moisture is important because the various bacteria and fungi need the water to survive, and (this is super cool) actually use moisture to travel! Turns out that the moisture forms a thin layer on the various materials in the pile and they can swim along it using their little flagella things! You can also put up wood or straw bales around your bin to further insulate for winter time (so you can build it within a wooden structure to begin with, or insulate it somehow during winter, or just not worry about it at all). The point is that piles are simple and easy to manage and look wonderful. (I will attach pics of my two piles! I fill one up until I feel like it’s enough then I start the other pile going and let the first pile sit for an extra period of time).

That wraps it up for now…this is a long chapter so I will continue with the rest next time. Coming up next is a more detailed discssion about the needs of the pile: moisture, oxygen, temperature, and a balanced diet (food for the microorganisms).

So it turns out that the first link that comes up when you google “Christian Healthcare” – Christian Healthcare Ministries – is in fact the program Shane Claiborne enrolls in and that paid his bills when he had to go to the hospital.  Turns out it was b/c he was mugged living in a rough part of PHilly trying to practice resurrection.  So his interview on Wolf Blitzer’s “The Situation Room” is available at the link below.  Check it out!  It’s short and sweet – 3 mins.

http://www.theordinaryradicals.com/blog/archives/726

This is a two-part post I submitted in reverse temporal order so they could be read in order on the blog.  (I submitted part 2 first, and part 1 second so part 1 would appear first, above part 2.   It makes sense, really)

Anyway, a wonderful lady from my old church in Raleigh, Raleigh Mennonite Church (RMC) sent out a great letter about Health Care Reform to the church.  I thought it was a great letter and felt a strong desire to respond, so I am posting them both on this blog.  I hope Kathy doesn’t mind!!!  Her letter starts below, and then my response to her and the church is in the next entry (Part 2)

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Dear RMC,

This summer I have been working on health care reform (specifically the public option).  This issue effects many families, and it is a personal issue for my family and the preschool families that I work with everyday who are struggling on the edges of poverty.  My brother who is only 45 years old has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gerig’s Disease).  He has been working as the sole income earner and health insurance provider for his family for the last 25 years.  His company has been very generous and extremely gracious about his illness, but soon, he will no longer be able to work and will thus lose the income and health insurance for his family.  His home has also been up for sale for over a year with no offers in sight.

The delegates at our Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009 overwhelmingly approved a resolution encouraging congregations and members to urge their congressional representatives to support legislation that would extend access to health care to all Americans particularly the working poor.

I would like to encourage all of us as Christians to get involved in some way with this issue and take a step that would positively impact and affect the debate about health care reform.

Chris Dreps sent out an email about President Obama’s Conference Call with religious leaders on health care on Wednesday. Here is the audio of that call.  I missed it on Wednesday, but was able to find it on the web today.  President Obama speaks for ten minutes near the end of the call.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2009/08/the-obama-conference-call-with.html

There is also a “Faith-Inspired Vision of Health Care” document that we as Christians are being encouraged to read and sign.  Here is the URL for that document:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1973/t/7355/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1851

and the organization behind it: http://www.faithfulreform.org/

Kathy,

Thanks for this very helpful email on health care, it is nice to see a personal story behind it, and how it affects both your family and many families you see at the preschool.

It really is interesting all the dirt/misinformation that is being created about this, especially the public option like was evident at the town hall mtg. in PA with Arlen Specter.  How strange that people there thought that this health care effort was “going against the Constitution” making us “socialist like Russia” (I could see a comparison to France or Western Europe, but Russia???) and people saying (in anger) that “God would judge him [Specter]” for his efforts in reform.  Wow.

I am also curious to learn more about healthcare options that various Christian groups set up that are “off the grid” so to speak – co-op types, I guess they would be referred to.  I just googled one right now http://www.cbnews.org/howitworks.asp (Christian Healthcare Ministries)  but of course I can’t vouch for this group in particular (I am always wary of scams), but it is just neat to know there are groups out there trying to provide alternate networks as well, with a love-based focus and an emphasis on Christians (and others) sharing each other’s burdens.

I even got a call from the Democratic National Committee asking for a donation to help fund their effort to get the legislation through and provide clear education and outreach on the issues.  The only thing that can get really confusing for me is all the bureaucracy, special interests, and other factors that can “touch” or influence the process.  This is where I think it would ideally be better if somehow the Church (universally) could provide support and healthcare, but of course that is tremendously complicated and is like I said an ideal.  But one that apparently people successfully pursue.  I remember a story from Shane Claiborne about how he participated in a Christian health care fund, contributed to it regularly, and then when he needed a procedure, it swooped in and paid for his costs!

Certainly a public government plan is something that Christians (in my humble opinion) should push for, it’s just always a little scary because who knows what the final product may be – but as long as it’s better than what we’ve got now, that’s something everyone can be proud of.  I recall projections of just how much healthcare will be costing the country in 10, 20 years and it is mind-boggling…

I know this was a long reply to a long letter, but it really sparked some thoughts and I wanted to share them with you all!  I happen to be in town in Raleigh this weekend and am looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning at church!

Much love,

Ethan

Humanure Handbook Chapter 2 – Waste Not, Want Not

“America is not only a land of industry and commerce, it’s also a land of consumption and waste.” We produce between 12 to 14 billion tons of waste a year, (and remember that a ton is already a large quantity, 2000 pounds!) As much as 50% of this waste is organic (meaning “once living” or containing carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen compounds shared by all living things…this usage of “organic” is not the same as “organic produce” for instance) – these include food residues/scraps, municipal leaves and yard material, agricultural residues, and human and livestock manures. These are all very valuable, both economically and in terms of agricultural productivity and sustainability.

These are all resources, not wastes. They only become wastes when we throw them away and treat them as such. Waste (technically speaking) is not recycled – resources are recycled. An aluminum can is not waste, it is a resource that reflects the work (smelting, processing, mining, etc.) that went into it, and much of this work can be recaptured and reused. Feces and urine are also natural, beneficial, organic materials excreted by animals after completing their digestive processes. Like other resources, they are only wastes when and if we discard them. Interestingly enough, they become more of a threat to the environment and to long term human health when we DO discard them, instead of utilize nature’s natural cycles to take care of them and transform them into compost, or humus.

The author hopes (and I do too!) that “waste” will become a less common and less mis-used term. We speak of yard waste, of food waste, garden waste, human waste, municipal waste, etc. Even people who are in the recycling and composting businesses call these things waste, but they turn them into something that’s not! A DC group called the Institute for Local Self Reliance (www.ilsr.org) has a program called Waste to Wealth which aims to solve two problems in cities: environmental damage and unemployment for the “left-out” classes – the poor, homeless, and those getting out of prison. It focuses on ways to start small businesses in recycling electronics products, metals, garbage, and other “wastes” in ways that can sustain a business and employees at a decent wage. This also provides hands on training and a path to an education or experience that can lead to other work. (I hope to get to know the folks at the ILSR better…hold me to this! ) [the bit on ILSR was just from me, not in the humanure book]

Throughout history, human waste has in fact been used as an agricultural resource at various times and in various places. When discarded, it is waste, but when recycled it is a resource. Asian societies have used raw human manure spread directly on fields, or alternatively buried in the ground with other materials and harvested for use on fields. This has been called “night soil.” But humanure (human manure) can be composted and easily turned into a resource that is clean, pleasant smelling, and extremely beneficial to the soil. Night soil and the raw use of humanure have significant drawbacks and potential health concerns. (So that’s not what this book is about overall)

Humanure vs. sewage

These are two different things – sewage is everything that goes down our drains, pipes, etc. and is discarded into our water-borne sewage system: industrial chemicals and waste, discards from garages and hospitals, heavy metals, oil and grease, pharmaceuticals, and also of course humanure. But the point is that in sewage, humanure is mixed in with all of these, creating even more of a waste in the true sense of that word (not good for anything, cannot be recycled or harder to recycle, etc.). Some places do compost sewage sludge, but there are potential concerns based on all the other stuff that can end up in there).

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is agriculture where the fertility of the soil is maintained or increases naturally over time by the addition of (composted) organic materials back to the soil. Compost is much better than synthetic chemical fertilizers for a host of very important reasons, which will be covered later. But it is key to point out that when the agricultural and animal byproducts made from the food grown on a given piece of land are returned to that land, then the soil’s fertility is preserved, and no other amendments are needed. The author asks why spokespeople for organic/sustainable agriculture ignore the humanure topic. (I really need to write Michael Pollan of Omnivore’s Dilemma about this book to see if he knows about it or is interested in the topic! I’ve been meaning to do that……) One reason is a lack of knowledge about the human nutrient cycle and the need to keep it intact in order to provide a truly sustainable agriculture. A sustainable agriculture would include us doing the following: a) grow food, (b) eat it, (c) collect and process all organic residues, and (d) return this to the soil, allowing more food to be grown. This cycle can continue indefinitely (even improving soil quality over time), and mimics nature’s cycles. There is no “leaf waste” for instance, in a forest. All of this breaks down and adds its nutrients back to the soil. (See diagram from book at the end of this post)

Food “waste” (scraps) should also be composted with humanure. 22 million tons of it are generated per year in cities, 48 million tons per year nation wide. Vast majority of this goes to landfills or is incinerated (poor efficiency- one reason, it’s wet!) Landfills are filling up, getting more expensive, pollute the environment around them, and are the single largest contributor of methane, a potent global warming gas (20-30 times worse than CO2). In Brazil, 99% of solid waste is discarded in dumps. 90,000 tons per day goes in open pit dumps. In the US, many landfills are now lined with a leach-proof lining – kind of like a huge diaper we’re putting all our waste into. This does not compost due to the extreme concentration of products there, the varied nature of materials (organic and non), and especially the lack of air throughout the “pile.” They do decompose slowly, but give off nasty juices and methane that are waste products. 10,000 landfills have closed in the US since 1982, 20% are hazardously contaminated sites that require special Superfund regulations. A Florida report showed that for unlined landfills, the contamination plumes extend for 3.4 miles, and over 500 public water sources in that state are within one mile of the landfills, and 2,700 are within 3 miles. This suggests groundwater contamination.

So not only are valuable resources being lost, they become a large environmental and stewardship problem when treated as waste and concentrated in the same area! Estimated value of world humanure in 1990 is $19 billion! If this were used on the world’s farming land, could have enough for over 1000 lbs per acre! Interestingly, the amount of farming land is not increasing (I guess unless you count clearcutting forests), while human population and humanure are, so the amount of humanure per acre is increasing. Not taking advantage of this resource is a huge waste of agricultural potential, not even including savings in fertilizers, and the many environmental hazards associated with these. Chemical fertilizers are the largest diffuse source of water pollution in our waters, sttreams, lakes, rivers. Up to a quarter of the nutrients put in the soil with chemical fertilizers wash out, and even more for nitrogen (up to 75%). Farmers also err on the side of overfertilizing, and the amounts of fertilizer they use are staggering! (Omnivore’s Dilemma gives an example of that!)

There’s a bunch of info about water pollution, how little drinking water we have in the US, how we use so much more of it daily than we replace. How water sanitation is a huge problem in many other countries, and how silly it is to pollute fresh groundwater with our feces and use it to transport it all over the place.

Raw humanure is not appropriate for fields. But composted, it is great. Also other animal manures benefit first by being composted. (Horse and chicken manure, for example, are often applied directly to fields and this is ok because they don’t pose a human disease threat. But if it is practical, composting first increases the efficiency and positive value of the soil). Jenkins stresses the point that there are abundant microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, etc.) that absolutely love our own excrement and are ideally suited to safely break it down in a symbiotic relationship with nature and with us. People just don’t know this!

Let’s see if I can post some pictures for this, too.  Ah hah!  The “upload picture” button!  Sweet.

Thanks to Brian Gorman for the reminder to get my crap back in order…his comment, “Ethan!  Hurry up, I’m waiting on the edge of my seat waiting for crap to happen!”  How apropos.  So without further aDOO…

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Chapter 1 – Crap Happens

Jenkins opens the book with the observation that some have compared the human race to a sort of pathogen toward the earth (I think of Mr. Smith in the Matrix here). “it seems that the human race is displaying uncanny parallels to the behavior of pathogenic, or disease-causing, organisms. If looked at from the perspective of the entire planet, we may look like a bunch of little organisms that are excessively multiplying, mindlessly consuming, and generating toxic waste – all of this with no regard to the well-being of the host (just like deadly pathogens).”

I think this is a powerful analogy, and although I wouldn’t swear by it, I think it is something that should give us pause to think and look at our activities on a global scale. He notes that pathogens do have their role in nature to weed out the weak and to keep populations under control, but that there isn’t a parallel to our situation as human pathogens to the planet (i.e. there is only one earth!)

“In the case of pathogenic organisms that kill their host, the behavior is predictable: multiply without regard for limits, consume senselessly and excrete levels of waste that harm the host. When this is translated into human terms, it rings with a disquieting familiarity, especially when we equate human success with growth, consumption, and material wealth.” (Think about it – economies must always grow, technology always progress, standards of living rise higher and higher, etc.)

He also points out that infected organisms have an immune system to fight back against pathogens, and part of the response is a rise in temperature (fever) that increases the activity of the immune system. He makes a comparison that I’ve never thought about and am skeptical of if taken literally, that global warming is a sort of “fever” the earth is experiencing and the things its systems will pump out – “insect pests, new straings of deadly bacteria and viruses” – are its ways of combating us.  I doubt that these effects are the earth’s way of combating us, but they are certainly symptoms of an unhealthy balance from humanity’s side!  He does point out that if we don’t care about this, and the environmental effect on other species, food shortages or disruptions in local ecosystems, then we really are acting like lethal pathogens!

Some stats on the rapid growth of the population and human consumption from his book:

• From 1990 to 1997, human global consumption grew as much as it did from the beginning of human civilization (10,000 or how many ever years ago) until 1950.

• The global economy grew more in 1997 alone than it did during the entire 17^th century

• By 2000, half of the world’s forests were gone. We lose forests at a rate of millions of acres per year

• Falling water tables, eroding farm land, rapid extinction of species.

• “Population growth (80 M per year) without foresight, management, and respect for the environment virtually guarantees increased consumption and waste with each passing year” (3)

• Background rate of extinctions estimated to be 1-10 species per year. 1000 per year is current. A significant percentage of current plants, animals, primates, etc. are threatened with extinction.

Consumption is why we do all this. More is better, wealth is often the (unstated or stated) goal of humanity:

• The 225 richest people have as much wealth as the poorest half of the planet’s population (3 billion people)

• The wealth of the three richest individuals is equal to the combined output of the 48 poorest countries combined

• The U.S has 1/20 of the world population and uses 1/3 of its resources.

Despite all this, Jenkins predicts that humanity will learn to live in symbiosis with the planet. It will take humility and concern to change our ways, and we can do it now, or wait until it is forced upon us by backlash from the environment and all the strife it will eventually cause.

His last paragraph is worth quoting in its entiretly:

“It is ironic that humans have ignored one waste issue that all of us contribute to each and every day – an environmental problem that has stalked our species from our genesis, and which will accompany us to our extinction. Perhaps one reason we have taken such a head-in-the-sand approach to the recycling of human excrement is because we can’t even talk about it. If there is one thing that the human consumer culture refuses to deal with maturely and constructively, it’s bodily excretions. This is the taboo topic, the unthinkable issue. It’s also the one we are about to dive headlong into. For waste is not found in nature – except in human nature. It’s up to us humans to unlock the secret to its elimination. Nature herself provides a key and she has held it out to us for eons.”

Me speaking here:  it is interesting that poo is such a taboo or gross topic.  I was happy, however, that after a few good conversations in the house here in Hyattsville (and getting over the snickering and poo jokes) that there were some good questions and answers brought up, and that everyone is rather openminded.  Our toilet downstairs in the basement is going well, and I just put up a curtain for privacy last weekend, so now EVERYONE in the house can try it with NO worries! 

I just think that taboo topics in general are really interesting, and it’s interesting to see why they are taboo.  I also gave a little talk in church not too long ago about some of this stuff, and one small point was that in facing the taboo on poo (that was a real popular phrase) perhaps we can also face taboos on people such as the homeless, who sometimes smell bad or are disgusting.  I will post that later.

Thanks again to Brian for reminding me not to be a SLACKER with my blog!  I’ve got to make this a habit!