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This subject matter reminds me of my time in Japan during the Korea war (1951) and the "Honey Bucket Parades"
Some here will know of what I speak.
I was in Korea in the 50's and we had to watch out for those 'honey buckets' all the time. Night maneuvers were the worst time.
OP the fertilizer you're talking about has been used for 1000' of years. Most all fertilizer composted (heated properly) are good. You've been eating food grown with it all your life.
Manure in various forms was used for eons. Have no fear.
Japanese gardeners use human waste. Have no fear.
That reminds me of a story. A USA general was assigned a house to live in at Okinawa base. Along with servants and gardener.
General was well aware of Japanese practice, so he called gardener and told him to never use "that Japanese human fertilizer".
So thereafter, gardener diligently used only general and his family feces for that purpose.
Never use feces from meat eating animals for fertilizer. It is full of all sorts of proteins and bacteria that is not broken down by composting.
I use tons of chicken and rabbit poop for fertilizer. Its great.
^This is exactly what I learned years ago. Think about it: fertilizer we use is from cows/horses. They are herbivores. I don't know that there is any other fertilizer generally used. (Although a poster here says he/she uses rabbit poo. Again, herbivore.)
I read long ago that there is also too much 'nitrogen' in poo from carnivores.
This reminds me of an incident years ago: A colleague had a little dog and her yard was filled with poop. I was shocked as I have two small dogs and NO poop is allowed to stay for more than a couple of minutes in my yard, and besides that I took her to be quite a fastidious person regarding cleanliness, so imagine my confusion. I told her about the inadvisability of using canine feces due to their being carnivores and the nitrogen aspect and she was VERY disappointed. BTW, there was not one plant in her yard, not even a weed. LOL.
There are composting toilettes for homes that are off the grid, they have built in heat elements that help to maintain a temperature high enough to cook bacteria, but the problem is with the human diet, it is not just the protein, but the chemicals, heavy metals, all of the medicines and hormones humans consume. In the past many of us lived as natural as our livestock, ate pretty much the same foods, lots of fiber and any cures for ailments were natural. I would guess that if one were a vegetarian, took no pain pills, totally organic and for a woman, took no birth control pills, ones feces would be just as clean once it went through a proper high heat composting.
I have two compost heaps, one is in the sun and only gets grass clippings, leaves and weeds with straw and manure from under my rabbits for added nitrogen and carbon. Its a huge heap, 5 to 7 cubic yards, so that it can generate and keep a high heat, typically after adding rabbit manure and straw it will hit between 134º and once hit 154º, it was steaming away like a mini volcano. My cold compost heap is next to my chicken coop and gets their straw with the kitchen scraps, it is a worm compost and I let the earthworms process that. I use that in the bottoms of vegetable beds with a layer of hot compost on top, that keeps the weed and vegetable seeds in the cold compost from seeing the light of day.
The problem with human feces is our diet and our drug consumption, composting does not get rid of the hormones or heavy metals, though there is an added process using sunflowers in mass production on the soil needing remediation, the plants draw up the heavy metals, then are incinerated with the metals remaining in the ash. Other plants such as verbascum/mullien pull metals out of the ground for bioremediation. If the human waste were first high heat composted, then over planted with plants that pull the metals out, then the soil would be safer for use, but still only landscaping, not for vegetable consumption. There still is no process for removing the hormones, such as estrogen, testosterone or steroids.
Never use feces from meat eating animals for fertilizer. It is full of all sorts of proteins and bacteria that is not broken down by composting.
I use tons of chicken and rabbit poop for fertilizer. Its great.
I have always heard this too, and I would only use herbivore fertilizer, however I am puzzled.
In nature, meat eating animals are pooping all over the place, and have been ever since carnivores have walked the earth. Surely, this makes a huge environmental impact on the way things grow, and since it is natural, how can it be considered wrong?
I know a few farmers who use humanure in their gardens.
Last week I hauled 30 yards of horse manure. I use a few yards myself and now it sits in our dooryard as friends come to get pickup loads for their gardens. I get it every year for free, and I allow our friends to get some form us for free.
both have been used as fertilisers for centuries.
wife's former father in law used "night soil" on his veg for years and he had the best crop in the area!!!
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