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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [Fwd: Re: Purity Of Organic Foods/Compost]
  • Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 16:31:06 -0600

At 12:03 AM 11/25/02 -0800, you wrote:
Typically you need some temperature in your compost pile so the microbes
have the energy to decompose the difficult chemical structures of
pesticides. All those chlorines and bromines and benzene rings in most
pesticides require production of seriously high-energy-requiring enzymes
to allow break-down of the pesticide.

But that's the right amount of heat - not too much, not too little. If
you see "compost" that has turned black, the composter fried the most
important critters, and the pesticides are probably still present.
Compost is supposed to be dark brown, not black. Nor do the pesticides
generally decompose if the compost turns anaerobic.

Back when I took my soil pollution class ten years ago one accepted manner of microbial degrading phenols and other highly stable chemicals involved steps that were aerobic and anaerobic. As I remember there was need to go anaerobic to crack the ring structure. Always struck me as a serious challenge, going from one to the other. Nice to see progress.
M


Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM





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