[permaculture] composting people

trevor william johnson john2116 at msu.edu
Tue May 19 15:23:04 EDT 2009


this thread is from may 28 2008 but i didn't quite get my questions  
answered.  I researched the site from toby below and burial is not  
what im talking about.  CAFOS do it with their cows and other dead  
livestock.  They cut open their chest, put in a bunch of straw (to  
get the C:N ratio correct) and compost them back into soil.  I am  
curious what the implications of doing this with people besides the  
"not to my dad/mother/son etc" reaction.  What about cycling heavy  
metals, parasites and other nasties.  i got the idea from reading the  
humanure handbook.  if we can do it with our poo cant we do it with  
our bodies after they are done?

trevor
ferndale MI
On May 28, 2008, at 8:02 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

> A friend of mine, Cynthia Beal, runs the Natural Burial Company, with
> compostable caskets and a lot of information on natural burial.
> http://www.naturalburialcompany.com/
>
> She told me that here in Oregon, and many other places, the law states
> that once land is a cemetery, it must remain a cemetery forever. That
> has interesting possibilities for land preservation. So she's  
> working on
> setting up a string of cemeteries as greenbelts, wildlife corridors,
> and, ideally, permaculture landscapes. That could reduce the  
> problem of
> Pc sites getting sold and destroyed.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
>
>
>
> Dick Pierce wrote:
>> I believe the concept of human composting is referred to in the  
>> trade as
>> "Natural Burial" an there is a kindly and somewhat informative  
>> website at
>> http://www.naturalburial.coop. I browsed it briefly and noted 2  
>> sites in ME.
>> These still retain the cemetary concept; I didn't read far enough  
>> to see if
>> there were services that would bury a person on their property -  
>> hill-top,
>> orchard, etc.,. The later is my wish - I'd like apples or corn to  
>> grow or
>> feed grass-fed beef or chickens with my remains - or have the  
>> Lions come and
>> lay down on my grave as with Robert Finch-Hadden in "Out of Africa".
>>
>> The above is slightly more acceptable to my family than the  
>> alternative
>> available here - a farmer friend with a large, wind-row compost  
>> area just
>> adds a dead cow/sheep to the wind-row, covers it with 8-10' of  
>> leaves/wood
>> chips and "compost happens." Either method is acceptable to me.   
>> -  Ashes to
>> ashes, dust to dust, soil to soil.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 3:05 AM, <yarrow at sfo.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> At 4:50 PM -0400 5/26/08, trevor william johnson wrote:
>>>
>>>> also in jenkins humanure handbook he says that we have been using
>>>> composting to turn dead animals into compost.  he does not say
>>>> anything about composting humans though.  i imagine the process is
>>>> the same. does anyone out there know anything of this practice?   
>>>> i  ...
>>>>
>>> Green burials? I've heard of several around the world, AFAIK without
>>> the embalming and concrete vaults and decorator coffins, where the
>>> land is managed as a nature preserve.
>>>
>>> As for composting people specifically, several years ago I heard
>>> someone from North Carolina on the radio talking about composting
>>> people. I don't recall his name (or where he got his research
>>> subjects).
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