Sustainable fertilizer: Urine and wood ash produce large harvest

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/acs-sfu090209.php

Public release date: 2-Sep-2009

Contact: Michael Woods
[e-mail]
202-872-6293
http://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society

Sustainable fertilizer: Urine and wood ash produce large harvest

Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers. The study appears in the current issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

In the study, Surendra Pradhan and colleagues point out that urine, a good source of nitrogen, has been successfully used to fertilize cucumber, corn, cabbage, and other crops. Only a few studies, however, have investigated the use of wood ash, which is rich in minerals and also reduces the acidity of certain soils. Scientists have not reported on the combinaton of urine and wood ash, they say.

The new study found that plants fertilized with urine produced four times more tomatoes than nonfertilized plants and as much as plants given synthetic fertilizer. Urine plus wood ash produced almost as great a yield, with the added benefit of reducing the acidity of acid soils. "The results suggest that urine with or without wood ash can be used as a substitute for mineral fertilizer to increase the yields of tomato without posing any microbial or chemical risks," the report says.

###
ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Stored Human Urine Supplemented with Wood Ash as Fertilizer in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Cultivation and Its Impacts on Fruit Yield and Quality"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf9018917

CONTACT:
Surendra K. Pradhan, Ph.D.
University of Kuopio
Kuopio, Finland
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[Buzz Clik]

2. This will be a hard sell to some folks.

Any mention of adding sewage sludge to the land is regarded as some sort of genocide. Adding urine and wood ash is absolutely no different. I think it's worth pursuing, but the paranoid freaks will be weighing in any moment now...

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Why is manure acceptable?

The farmers in my area use cow manure, pig manure, chicken manure, sheep manure…

There are reasons to be careful about sewage sludge (ex. heavy metal contamination) but really folks…

[OKIsItJustMe]

14. Ask your local farmer about the "Honey Wagon."

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/honey+wagon?jss=0

[SnoopDog]

20. Farm animals are vegetarians...

Their manure is the result of digesting plant life - plant life is a primary food source.

Humans, for example, eat meat - meat is a 'derived' food source. Human 'poop' should never be used as fertilizer.

[OKIsItJustMe]

22. Farm animals are not vegetarians "in the real world"

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/they-eat-what-the-reality-of.html

They Eat What?

The Reality of Feed at Animal Factories

When many Americans think of farm animals, they picture cattle munching grass on rolling pastures, chickens pecking on the ground outside of picturesque red barns, and pigs gobbling down food at the trough.

Over the last 50 years, the way food animals are raised and fed has changed dramatically—to the detriment of both animals and humans. Many people are surprised to find that most of the food animals in the United States are no longer raised on farms at all. Instead they come from crowded animal factories, also known as large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Just like other factories, animal factories are constantly searching for ways to shave their costs. To save money, they've redefined what constitutes animal feed, with little consideration of what is best for the animals or for human health. As a result, many of the ingredients used in feed these days are not the kind of food the animals are designed by nature to eat.

Just take a look at what's being fed to the animals you eat.

* Same Species Meat
* Diseased Animals
* Feathers, Hair, Skin, Hooves, and Blood
* Manure and Other Animal Waste
* Plastics
* Drugs and Chemicals
* Unhealthy Amounts of Grains

Are these ingredients legal? Unfortunately, yes. Nevertheless, some raise human health concerns. Others just indicate the low standards for animal feeds. But all are symptoms of a system that has lost sight of the appropriate way to raise food animals.

…

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/food-safety/animal-feed-and-food/animal-feed-and-the-food-supply-105/overview/

You are what they eat

Humans are at the top of the food chain. As a result, we're vulnerable to pathogens, drugs, and contaminants consumed by the animals we eat. And we eat a lot: an average of 137 pounds of beef, chicken, fish, and shellfish per American in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available.

Food animals used to eat what grew naturally--grass and grain for cows and chickens; small fish or other sea life for big fish. But life on today's farm--often a 30,000-cow feedlot or a 60,000-chicken coop--isn't so simple. The need of such facilities for huge quantities of high-protein rations and the need for slaughterhouses to find a cheap, safe way to dispose of waste gave rise to a marriage of convenience between renderers and food producers, and to the inclusion of animal by-products in animal feed.

The pairing was seen as a boon: Waste was recycled into needed protein and other nutrients for animals. But the addition of the rendering industry to the animal-feed mix has meant more trouble controlling and monitoring feed production, more vulnerability to problems, and another layer of regulation.

…

[SnoopDog]

24. Yuck...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's why I eat very little meat...

[joshcryer]

26. Human poop consists of the same exact chemicals that plant life requires to grow.

There's nothing in human poop that makes it unacceptable for plant life growth. Now nitrate fertilizers made from natural gas deposits...

[SnoopDog]

28. Alot of drugs and toxins get passed in Urine and Poop...

[joshcryer]

29. A bit of heat will break anything down.

[joshcryer]

25. Who says?

People are mostly ignorant of geoagriculture. If I were to claim "any mention of adding industrial chemicals and bioengineered crops to the land is regarded as some sort of genocide," it would hold about as much weight, imo.

We can't keep going the way we are, that's for sure.

[izquierdista]

32. No different?

You get a 'D' for that bit of chemistry nonsense.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. That research is worth a bucket of warm piss nt

[Buzz Clik]

9. It may have been yours...

:evilgrin:

[imdjh]

4. Good luck with that.

Let them start using sewage to grow tomatoes in Holland (believe it or not a fairly common and reasonably priced item at times in Florida) and see what that does to sales.

One whole generation has to die off before this will even be entertained. My mom's generation will freak out at human sewage as fertilizer.

[Nihil]

13. Fine. More food for the rest of us while the morons starve.

I don't know what age "your mom's generation" is or what they may or
may not have done in their lives but if they think that using a mix
of human urine & wood ash is a problem, they had better not think
about the contents of the water from any of their imported fruit/veg
(or even the US domestic stuff for that matter).

The fact that some people haven't a clue about how their food is produced
or what actually goes into it is no reason to prevent sensible use of
resources for everyone else.

[imdjh]

16. How do you separate the urine from the rest of the sewage (like hospital waste)?

[Nihil]

18. Don't collect it at a hospital.

:shrug:

From the OP article:
> The urine for the experiment was collected during the winter 2007−2008
> from several eco-toilets in private homes located in the vicinity of
> Tampere, Finland, and it was stored for about 6 months at 7 °C.

I would have thought that it was obvious that you collect the urine
separately from other "waste" materials if you are only concerned with
using the urine.

There's more than one way to take the p*ss out of s(c)eptics ... :P

[kestrel91316]

19. Nobody is talking about using raw sewage. You have an overactive imagination.

Urine doesn't carry pathogens that spread by the oral-fecal route. FECES do that. So urine can be put on a garden with NO concern, if properly diluted to avoud burning the plants.

Uncomposted, raw feces are potentially full of pathogens, which anyone with half a brain is keenly aware of.

[joshcryer]

27. So people who eat industrial chemically grown food...

...food that is arguably extremely unhealthy for you, are going to have a problem with recycling their waste? I really do find it hard to believe.

[mikelgb]

5. It would save a lot of water if I peed in the garden instead

no watering and no flushes

[NOW tense]

6. Maybe we can outsource the pee supply to Wackenhut. n/t

[Auggie]

7. Yuck

[Buzz Clik]

10. coffee-flavored vegetables.

[imdjh]

17. Und beer. nt

[Speck Tater]

11. Hmmm. But I wonder what happens if the person donating the urine is on some kind of medication.

Will we end up with traces of antidepressants or antibiotics in the tomatoes?

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. You mean as opposed to the traces already in the ground water? (Right?)

http://www.google.com/search?q=medication+groundwater

[kestrel91316]

21. Better that those traces go into the soil, where microbes will break them down

long before they leach into the water table, as opposed to putting them directly into our water, which is what we do when we flush them.

And yes, I HAVE studied microbiology of soil, water and sewage, along with biochemistry and a whole lot of other crap relevant to this discussion.

[OKIsItJustMe]

23. Oh, sure, play the, "I have relevant expertise," card!

Sheesh! This is America, where everyone's opinion is equally valid, be they informed or not!
:patriot:

[NNadir]

15. In Norway, they found that wood ash had too many heavy metals for disposal in a forest.

I wrote about this topic elsewhere:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/7/21421/65163/25/470856">Norwegian Wood and Heavy Metal.

[madokie]

30. I know that wood ash is good for plant health and growth

no experience with pissing on any plants other than the blades of grass that just happens to be in the wrong place when I take a wiz

[Trillo]

31. Not necesarily unrelated.

From California SB 299

(3) Existing law authorizes the board to investigate all streams, stream
systems, lakes, or other bodies of water, take testimony relating to the
rights to water or the use of water, and ascertain whether water filed
upon or attempted to be appropriated is appropriated under the laws of
the state. Existing law requires the board to take appropriate actions to
prevent waste or the unreasonable use of water. Under existing law, the
board makes determinations with regard to the availability of recycled
water.
This bill would authorize the board, in conducting an investigation
or proceeding for these purposes, to order any person or entity that
diverts water or uses water to submit, under penalty of perjury, any
technical or monitoring report related to the diversion or use of water
by that person or entity. By expanding the definition of the crime of
perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill
would authorize the board, in connection with the investigation or
proceeding, to inspect the facilities of any person or entity to determine
compliance with specified water use requirements.
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/committee/c26/Publications/PSB%202.pdf

Everytime I read that, I believe Pavely could be talking about a urine stream.

http://www.alternet.org/water/141891/the_ca_legislature_unveiled_5_new_water_bills_--_are_they_good_or_bad_news_for_the_state%27s_water_woes/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet