Deal With It
~ This article first appeared in The Leader Vindicator newspaper. ~
In my previous article I discussed the folly of poop management. Infrastructure and technology have become so effective at removing waste that society is accustomed to avoiding the subject entirely; even small quantities of poop are considered hugely offensive. Paradoxically, strategies to avoid poop worsen the problem by concentrating bio waste into huge, toxic quantities.
Society is pretty darn desperate for some working solutions to rampant environmental degradation. We cannot achieve eco-equilibrium while creating toxicity out of the waste stream, which, fundamentally, is the fertility driver of life. Dung needs de-stigmatized.
Which is easier to accept: People poop, or animal poop? My guess is that folks are slightly less averse to animal poop, so this crap revival might as well start there.
If you’re thinking that’s a low hurdle to clear, think again. Shepherds in the mountains of France are facing an uphill battle as people move into the country, lured by idyllic images of those very Shepherds and their flocks on gorgeous terrain. It doesn’t take long for the proud new landowners to realize that sheep pictured in the real estate brochure don’t poop, and real sheep do. They curse at shepherds when the sheep cross the road and leave poop, they complain when sheep are grazing near their picnic spot because the sheep poop, and they throw royal fits if, heaven forbid, the flock approaches the property they bought and manage poorly; they don’t want yukky poop on it. Public aversion to livestock forces domesticated animals off the landscape.
Such a conflicting scenario indicates to me that the future of environmental farming is completely doomed unless large swaths of society can radically transform their tolerance. The collective goal of the ‘urban concerned’ should be to purchase tracts of property with the intent of getting the landscape pooped on, and then lease the holding to affiliated farmers who will steward and respect it. Deliberately eliminating ecological intolerance will stabilize the carbon cycle, the water cycle, the mineral cycle, and the food cycle.
Could you deal with a little manure on the Mercedes when you visit the country? Statistics say no. Remedying this aversion needs to be the primary focus of modern humanity.
Now we’ll get even more uncomfortable: People poop. I have no trouble dusting three-dimensional cow manure off my hands and then eating a sandwich, but I feel the desire to take a Clorox bath after wiping my kid’s butt. So I’m with you on the high end of the squeamish scale here. The topic, however, is worth pursuing.
No matter how skilled I become at using my grassfed herd to regenerate the landscape, I’ll never achieve total nutrient cycling. This is, broadly, for two reasons: First, what remains of the carcasses after they’re butchered is sent to a rendering plant to be turned into other products. Second, the beef we eat is pooped out and discarded somewhere else. What if we could return those nutrients?
A composting toilet is not a terribly complicated device. One primary attraction is that utilizing such a latrine eliminates the need for water; there isn’t a more ridiculous activity, if you think about it, than pumping clean water into our house so we can dirty it. Another attraction is saving nutrients.
Composting poop destroys the pathogens that come along with waste. Modern science helps us avoid waste-related illnesses that plagued people in the past. When the composting is complete, there is no resemblance to the, uh, ingredients that originally went into the heap, so discomfort is minimized except for the mental knowledge of what it is you’re working with. Applying composted human waste to pastures or orchards will provide several extra layers of distance between the waste and the food it will grow.
Would you eat an apple grown in soil fertilized by composted people poop? How about a steak from a cow that consumed people-poop fertilized pasture? These are questions that, though uncomfortable, need answered.
There isn’t much hope pouring out from the environmental crowd these days because none of the solutions being implemented are good. An ‘eco friendly’ car that turns off the motor each time it stops rolling is a joke. What is it really accomplishing, other than adding complexity to technology?
Deliberately funneling nutrients back into the landscape is not a joke. If we can get a handle on this one thing, nature will accomplish for free everything we’re failing to mitigate with technology, from air quality to water quality to quality of life. No such shift will occur until people learn to mentally accommodate poop. So deal with it.
Dealing with poop requires a major dose of humility. Can you imagine high income communities in which each household is willing to stoop low enough to take a turn at emptying the latrine into the compost heap? That is the greatest fantasy I’ve ever heard. Equally ludicrous is the thought of communities embracing livestock and farmers as neighbors. Nobody wants to change themselves; it’s easier to listen to the environmental sham created by world leaders and nonprofit environmental juggernauts. As long as their policy remains popular, we’ll continue down the road of no results.
Want to actually make a difference? Buy land. Get it pooped on. You’ll (learn to) love it.