Dear Ecosan crowd,

Just a quick question on interpretation of the WHO recommendations on urine use in agriculture.

When they state: "for crops to be processed", I assume this means crops like wheat, that is chaffed, milled and then baked. Or do other interpret this as crops that are cooked?

Thanks

Marijn

Hi Marijn,

my understanding is that "crops to be processed" is meant as opposed to crops to be eaten raw, so includes crops that are cooked.

Cheers, Florian

I agree with Florian:
"Processed crops" means "not eaten raw".
Eaten raw: e.g. lettuce, tomatoes (although they can also be cooked), strawberries
Never eaten raw: spinach, corn/maize, wheat, coffee

But it is a good point that you raised as the word "processed" could easily be misunderstood.

An interesting aspect related to this: The Chinese kitchen seems to traditionally NOT include any vegetables eaten raw (e.g. lettuce is not eaten there), and at the same time reuse of excreta for fertiliser has/had a long tradition, and they have managed to keep their soils pretty fertile to feed lots of people for millenia --> is this a coincidence or related to another? I suspect it is no coincidende, but inherent knowledge in China and many other Asian countries.

(we have been stuck at a hotel with very slow internet access during a GIZ internal conference, hence the lack of postings from myself and my team members in the last few days since Sunday; a stark reminder for us what life is like without good internet access )

Greetings from the Harz region in Germany,
Elisabeth

Florian, Liz,

Thanks for your answers, I had some hopes that cooking would be good enough:-).

Liz, regarding China: they do consume lettuce, but never raw. It is always fried or cooked in hotpot. They do eat strawberries, grown with nightsoil though (and export them to Europe.

regards

Marijn

Well, it looks like in these cases they have to export strawberry jam in future.
Martina.