Please, tell me it aint so!

[WJT]

On a thread in South Western France (Gammon), there is a discussion about farmers using human waste from Fosse Septiques on crops. I have been meaning to ask about this and thought I would post it here as well.  A few weeks ago while in France, I had THREE separate people tell me that a local farmer would be more than happy to empty our Fosse because they use the contents on the fields!  Does anyone know anything about this? If so where can you buy produce in France that is guaranteed not to have been fertilised with the disposal of human waste. By the way we are located in the Dordogne.

[Leschenauds]

That's nothing new, they've been doing it in the UK for years. 25 years ago in Buckinghamshire, 'Cinagro' tankers supplied human waste products to local farmers and, if I remember rightly there was a bit of a hooha in the local papers when someone descrambled the name into 'Organic' adn started to ask questions. The story petered out after a while ane the tankers were repainted and renamed (like Sellafield). I suspect it't still going on.

[Clarkkent]

When I were a lad (round about dinosaur extinction time) all the sewage in my home town of Grantham was pumped onto fields a few miles outside the town - this was called the "sewage farm"- and the fields were used for agriculture. People followed the milk cart to collect the horse manure. And the quality of the rhubarb ...

Can't have been all that bad, look at Margaret Thatcher - but then on the other hand ...

[JohnM]

What's the difference between human waste and animal waste? It's nature, just don't spend too long thinking about it.

 

[Boiling a frog]

Its better than having untreated sewage pumped into the sea.My nephew thought the words to Paul McCartneys song"Mull of Kintyre" was "mince rolling in from the sea" a reference to the untreated sewage ending up on the beaches if the currents and tides were wrong.

Glasgow up until recently dumped its sewage at sea and I suspect many other places in the UK do the same. 

[Harley]

I think I'd be more concerned about genetically modified crops and animals going into the food chain than something flushed down the loo a few months ago that has already begun to break down.  Lets face it, you see french people relieving themselves all over the place.  I can't help thinking there are more important things to worry about. 

[WJT]

What's the difference between human waste and animal waste???

Well, outside of pigs, horses and other farm animals are not fed other dead animals. I for one am not interested in eating food that has been fertilised by human waste, which of course many humans eat god knows what! With all due respect, if this is the way you feel why bother washing your hands after using the toilet!

[SaligoBay]

"why bother washing your hands after using the toilet!"

LOL does anyone remember an article about a survey on après-toilet hand-washing?  Apparently a high percentage of people don't bother if there's no-one around to see them.

Funny the things that stick in your mind.  Or even on your hands lol

[Weedon]

[quote]On a thread in South Western France (Gammon), there is a discussion about farmers using human waste from Fosse Septiques on crops. I have been meaning to ask about this and thought I would post it her...[/quote]

You can rest easy as this is a complete wind up.

They appear to spray human waste on the fields but in fact only go through the motions!!

Weedon(53)

[JohnM]

[quote]What's the difference between human waste and animal waste??? Well, outside of pigs, horses and other farm animals are not fed other dead animals. I for one am not interested in eating food that has...[/quote]

Wind up or not, I don't particularly like the thought either, but it's nature so I don't think about it. I am not sure the analogy between, washing hands after using the loo and eating veg which has drawn its nutrients from decaying matter, is a very good one. A plant may absorb poisons (heavy metals) etc while it is growing, but I don't think it absorbs bacteria. As an aside (and an even more unpleasant thought) it seems that "usually" the bacteria in waste from healthy humans, will NOT cause illness in another individual. The problem only occurs in the case of unhealthy individuals - we actually only NEED to wash our hands when we are unhealthy... but as we sometimes don't know that we are unhealthy until it's too late, it's far better to always wash our hands. I shall continue to do so even when not being watched!

 

[Boiling a frog]

Some facts

The disposal of human excreta and other waterborne waste products from houses, streets, and factories. Conveyed through sewers to sewage works, sewage has to undergo a series of treatments to be acceptable for discharge into rivers or the sea, according to various local laws. Raw sewage, or sewage that has not been treated adequately, is one serious source of water pollution and a cause of eutrophication.

In the industrialized countries of the West, most industries are responsible for disposing of their own wastes. Government agencies establish industrial waste-disposal standards. In most countries, sewage works for residential areas are the responsibility of local authorities. The solid waste (sludge) may be spread over fields as a fertilizer or, in a few countries, dumped at sea. A significant proportion of bathing beaches in densely populated regions have unacceptably high bacterial content, largely as a result of untreated sewage being discharged into rivers and the sea. This can, for example, cause stomach upsets in swimmers.

In Europe and North America 30–60% of sludge is spread on agricultural land. The use of raw sewage as a fertilizer (long practised in China) has the drawback that disease-causing micro-organisms can survive in the soil and be transferred to people or animals by consumption of subsequent crops. Sewage sludge is safer, but may contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and other industrial contaminants.

So all you veggies out there better start thinking what you can eat if you dont want to be contaminated by human waste from a meat eater.

The carnivors fight back

[Dick Smith]

There was this old man, walking down the road behind the milkman's horse. He was carrying a shovel and a bucket, and whenever the horse plopped a good 'un he scooped it up and put it in his bucket.

"What do you do with that?" asks the milkman.

"Well," says the old bloke, "generally I puts it on me rhubarb."

"Oh, says the milkman, "I usually have custard on mine..."

Boom Boom

[opas]

You`ve started early Dick......is it dark in the UK already!

[Annodomini]

What's the difference between human waste and animal waste?

 

 

 

 

About a penny!!!!

 

[BJSLIV]

As you might expect our organic friends take this matter very seriously.

"Prior to artificial fertilisers, human waste was the main source of replenishing soil fertility. Collection and composting of urine from urinals is another option. The high nutrient value and sterility of urine makes it a high grade organic waste"

They even have a name for it "Humanure"

So all those Frenchmen at the side of the road, they weren't p*****g in the wind, or even posing as I Spy targets, they were just delivering nutrients for French agro-industry

[LaBezarderie]

After the war my grandparents moved from London to a smallholding in Berkshire with no electricity and no sanitation.  Every morning my grandfather emptied the bucket in the loo, dug a trench and buried it and that was in the veg garden.  It might be a bit basic by todays' standards but then it was normal practice.

[Jackie]

During a recent fosse inspection I asked the inspector what happened to the contents of the fosse after the vidange. He said that it was taken to an epuration station and then was sometimes sprayed on the fields although fewer farmers were doing this these days. The aerosol from the sprayer might be a bit dodgy if it were not treated but I should not think that there is much danger of plants taking up anything nasty.............John in Dept 79