Future Fertility [PDF]

Future Fertility: Transforming Human Waste into Human Wealth describes the necessity of properly recycling human waste to maintain the fertility of food-producing soils. No agricultural system can be considered sustainable if the nutrients in human waste are not returned safely and effectively to the soil from which they came. Chemical fertilizers have replenished some, but far from all, of the nutrients lost to the soil when human waste is not recycled properly. These fertilizers are becoming increasingly expensive, less effective and, for many people, scarce.

Organic fertilizers, in contrast to chemical fertilizers, generally contain a wider range of nutrients, but neither’s production nor use is sustainable. Instead they require large inputs of nonrenewable fossil fuels to be produced, transported, and spread, which contributes to the ever-growing excess of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The fertilizer of the future, if we are to maintain fertile soils and a stable environment to grow our food, is the fertilizer we all possess — human waste.

The title of this book was originally The Tao of Poo: Transforming Human Waste into Human Wealth, but it has been changed because of legal considerations. Tao means the Way. Taoism sees the universe as filled with opposites (day/ night, good/ bad, assertiveness/ receptiveness, and so on). The Tao is the fluid, ever-changing balance between these opposites. By bringing the opposites into harmony in one’s mind, one can see the true nature of things and live in balance with oneself, others and the environment as a whole. A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh seems to live these ideals, always in balance with himself and whatever is going on around him. Poo (human manure), too, has its opposites, and hopefully soon we will recognize not only its negative aspects (smelly and full of disease-causing organisms) but its positive aspects as well (nutrient-rich, life-sustaining and soil-enhancing). By acknowledging its negative side and valuing its positive side, we Bears With Some Brains will hopefully learn to return our wastes simply and safely to the soil and live in healthy balance with the Earth.