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September 27, 2013

Strange But True!

Q. When does “flushed with success” take on perhaps its most literal overtones?

A. When it's the story of human waste, solid and liquid, being used as fertilizer or chemical replacement in agricultural soils around the world, says Fred Pearce in New Scientist magazine. In most places, sewage trucks discharge their cargo into streams and lakes, adding to local pollution. But in Bangalore, India, for example, the “honey-suckers” head for farms outside the city, where their stinking loads go to fertilize vegetables or coconut and banana trees. “The farmers pay good money for human waste; it produces bumper crops. For them, it is sweet.” This actually revives an older tradition of sewage widely spread onto urban “sewage farms.” “Traditionally it was collected in the dead of night to avoid offending people's sensibilities and was used to grow vegetables and other crops.”


 
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