permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

Good lateral thinking Dylan & puts another twist on the debate. I also
wonder if the by-product from ethanol production would be suitable for
adding to biogas digesters for methane production prior to composting?
Robyn

On 2/2/06 9:42 AM, "Dylan Ford" <dford@suffolk.lib.ny.us> wrote:

> Why does everyone think that making alcohol from something necessarily
> excludes it from then being used for compost? Anyone who ever made wine
> knows that the source material is not in the least consumed or exhausted by
> the fermentation process. In fact I would not be surprised if what is lost
> as sugar is not made up for by the dead remains of the yeast that do the
> work. Also, enzymes that break down cellulose will speed the transition of
> many of these things back into available fertility.
> The worms that turn organic material into high-value plant food must wait
> until bacteria, molds, fungi, yeasts, etc perform the initial decomposition
> anyway before they can consume it. This is win-win as far as I can see, and
> adds impetus to the argument that these items should be salvaged from the
> dead-end waste stream and taken full advantage of.   dylan