Biosolid potting soils and fertilizers

[castanea]

As the article notes:



"Thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), no one has to label those bags when they contain high levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, toxic organic chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and all the bad stuff that the EPA worries about. Those bags can contain it, and almost all of them do, and they're being sold as organic fertilizer to concerned citizens who are looking for something to put on their home garden that doesn't have those things in it...

The USDA has worked hand-in-hand with the EPA. In fact, it is the USDA that created the body of science that's called sludge magic. Thanks to the USDA that that body of science exists because it's the USDA that funds agricultural colleges, the land-grant universities."

How This Nefarious Government Scam Works

The Water Environment Federation and others lobby Congress to earmark taxpayer money to the EPA to gain public acceptance of treated sewage sludge (biosolids). The EPA then takes those earmarks and sends them over to the Water Environment Research Foundation, which supports water quality laboratories at the University of Arizona and elsewhere. The Water Environment Research Foundation funnels millions of dollars into studies aimed at supporting EPA's sludge as safe, and publishes those findings in scientific journals.

That's how this scam is set up. According to Dr. Lewis,

"Everybody has a vested interest in making sure the pollutants that are going on land are not regulated. We have a Clean Water Act and a Clean Air Act, but we don't have a Clean Soil Act. That's where all the [worst] pollutants are going now."


articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/11/01/biosolids-fertilizer.aspx?e_cid=20151101Z1_PRNL_art_1&utm_source=prnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20151101Z1&et_cid=DM89702&et_rid=1191645121

[flowerweaver]

Austin, Texas has one of the oldest biosolids programs around called Dillo Dirt. Before I left, I think many gardeners were getting wise about it not being a good choice. But this really shows the deeper evil behind biosolids.

[steev]

Although I recognize the potential hazards of commercial biosolids, I firmly support the use of one's own production: local production; local use; that's what works.

[gilbert]

Hi Steve,

Yep, that sounds right. But I would never want to use commercial sludge. Who knows what's all in there?!

[steev]

I've posted about this elsewhere, but do I know where? So, to reiterate: years ago, the local sewage facility wholesaled composted sewage sludge to nursery-supply companies; it was the very best soil-amendment for laying sod: excellent particle size; not staining nor dusty; admittedly a tad pungent until incorporated. People got worked up because the facility didn't test every batch for heavy metals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or whatever; doubtless the "poo" factor was also involved. So they stopped making it available to homeowners through garden centers. All that's commonly available now is the stuff processed from the "green" cans, which they never test for those same pollutants; surely no one would ever throw any of those objectionables in the environmentally-correct "green" can, not like what goes down the crapper; did I mention the "poo" factor? Lots of people think nothing of putting cow-shit, horse-shit, or chicken-shit in their gardens, nor do they balk at putting dog-shit or cat-shit in the "green" can, but composted people-poo in the garden? OMG! Some people can get a little bat-shit!

The facility now wholesales its composted sludge to farmers, especially Big Ag; out of sight, out of mind. Mighty tasty, that California produce, especially the root veggies.

While I recognize the impossibility of entirely monitoring other peoples' actions, I think education and infrastructure are the keys to this problem of not discarding valuable materials from ignorance or fear, while simultaneously avoiding irresponsibility and harm. How are we going to deal with these problems off-Earth, when we scale up our extra-terrestrial facilities? Even here on Earth, we can't continue to send our end-products down the "worm-hole" to Poopy-Land. We are what we eat, but we can recycle it through other organisms before it lands back on our plates, to their benefit and ours.

We really need to get beyond the notion that we can just strip-mine our ecosystem, discarding what takes work to re-purpose, people not least; it's pretty much a closed system, aside from insolation (extraterrestrial ecosystems will be magnitudes more restricted, and "spare" people even less dispensable).

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

only marginally related, our tap water treatment is not required (and probably not even capable) of filter out the massive amounts of birth control chemicals that are being flushed down our toilets. And people wonder why all the frogs are having gender crisis issues. If such horrible things are happening to the frog population one wonders what is happening to the humans.

Edit: I tried looking for the frog documentary i saw a long time ago, but i can't seem to find it. This one looks interesting though:
topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-disappearing-male/