Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Hear, hear. The modern sewer system is one of the great disasters of our time. Producing food in the country, transporting it to the cities from where it is pumped into the oceans creating dead zones.

john

----- Original Message -----

From: Pego Rice

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 6:20 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] phosphate fertilizer too?

This seems like one of those "Permaculture" solutions where the solution to 2 problems are each other's solution.  It is our modern use of gas and water to get the phosphorous and to get rid of our wastes.  In some societies those "Night soils" were composted and sold back to the fields for fertilizing.  Today we waste billions of gallons of water to dispose of body wastes and tons of really nasty chemicals to clean up that water and, heh, keep it from polluting. 

 

In Haiti, the lack of water for sanitation has caused the Aid groups to send solar composting bags for fecal wastes to compost in in a sanitary fashion.  These bags, themselves are compostable, so that after 2 weeks of sitting in the sun to anaerobically sterilize and compost, they can be used for the regional fields.

 

Here, where we are, we can respond to projections about water availability with recommendations for a dry waste system, picked up like the garbage and recycling already is.  We have exported everything OUT of our soils with this system of taking all and only restoring with petroleum-based temporary fixes.  We need to be closing the loop back up and put back what we have taken out.

 

Yours, Pego

<<Just like we need to find an alternative to fossil fuels, we need to find an alternative to phosphate. Extracting it is horrifically destructive. If anyone needs proof of that, visit the Peace River in Southwest Florida where phosphate mining has severely changed the watershed's natural hydrology. The river no longer flows its full length for several months out of the year.>>

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