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The World Is So Desperate for Manure Even Human Waste Is a Hot Commodity (bloomberg.com) 93

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
The market for manure -- from pigs, horses, cattle and even humans -- has never been so hot, thanks to a global shortage of chemical fertilizers. From a report: Just ask Andrew Whitelaw, a grains analyst at Thomas Elder Markets based in Melbourne, Australia who runs a commercial pig farm in his spare time. Whitelaw said that he's completely sold clean of animal waste, as farmers hunt for alternatives to the more commonly used phosphate- and nitrogen-based fertilizers that are vital to boosting crop yields. "We don't have any left," he said. "In a normal year, you'd probably get a couple phone calls a year, not a couple of phone calls a week." It may be some time before he sees the interest in pig poop taper. Prices of synthetic fertilizer, which rely on natural gas and coal as raw materials, have soared amid an energy shortage and export restrictions by Russia and China. That's adding to challenges for agricultural supply chains at a time when global food costs are near a record high and farmers scramble for fertilizers to prevent losses to global crop yields for staples.

The Green Markets North American Fertilizer Price Index is hovering around an all-time high at $1,072.87 per short ton, while in China, spot urea has soared more than 200% this year to a record. The demand for dung is playing out globally. In Iowa, manure is selling for between $40 to $70 per short ton, up about $10 from a year ago and the highest levels since 2012, according to Daniel Anderson, assistant professor at Iowa State University and a specialist on manure. Manure is mostly a local market and truckloads won't go further than 50 miles (80 kilometers), Anderson said. When crop, fertilizer and manure prices soared about a decade ago, more farmers reintroduced animals such as hogs and cattle onto their land, in part for their manure. That option could again be on farmers' minds as fertilizer costs soar.
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The World Is So Desperate for Manure Even Human Waste Is a Hot Commodity More

The World Is So Desperate for Manure Even Human Waste Is a Hot Commodity

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  • I heard a report recently on NPR about how New York City used to sell some of its sludge to farmers in Colorado, but stopped because it was cheaper to put it in a landfill. I expect there is plenty of sludge for fertilizer available, and it will just take a bit of time to redirect the existing supply to where it's most valuable.

    • I just found out I'm literally flushing money down the toilet every day.

    • Re:NYC Sludge (Score:5, Interesting)

      by BeepBoopBeep ( 7930446 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:20AM (#62075557)
      If you actually have a lawn and take care of it yourself, you know the best and safest amendment is human waste based fertilizer: https://www.milorganite.com/ [milorganite.com] based in WI is the largest producer of this stuff. If you want this to grow food, its no-bueno due to heavy metals in human waste. Any gardener knows, any animal shit is the best, cow shit, chicken shit, worm shit, bat shit, bird shit, any animal shit is the best.

      • Re:NYC Sludge (Score:4, Insightful)

        by smoot123 ( 1027084 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:25AM (#62075575)

        If you actually have a lawn and take care of it yourself, you know the best and safest amendment is human waste based fertilizer

        I would have expected that human waste specifically would be a bad choice because, unless you're careful about composting, it could spread human diseases. With animal waste you've probably got a bit more leeway.

      • What about animal feed? I notice down near Mexico, there is a culture of separating toilet paper from crap, to the extent where Texas public restrooms have signs directing Mexicans to put used TP in toilet. Thatâ(TM)s a good sign its being used, but for what? Is there any problem with using it to grow chickenfeed? Or pig feed? I doubt its all for lawns.

        • Any waste must be composted

          • But I understand human waste is still dangerous for human crops after composting, right?

            • I think in the case of this particular product : Milogranite, it has heavy metals since it came from sewers (all sorts of stuff in there). Dont know about composting human shit right out the ass.
              • One more thing, this is a very valid question you pose. If humans want to go into space, you need a closed loop nutrient cycle (kinda like the Jason Bourne movie on Mars). If you have X amount of nutrients in space (assuming you not doing weird stuff like smoke meth and snort coke) human shit should be clean, as long as you intake just quality nutrients. So humans technically could shit, compost it, use it as fertilizer (like recycling pee for water as they do today) and the nutrient loss should be minim

                • I agree, I think its actually pretty cool. Just saw manure selling $0.25 a lb, so given a human eats 5 lbs a day, youâ(TM)ve got maybe 3 solid lbs per composting, final value $0.75 per person who takes dump. You need some green thing they can crap into, and a separate toilet, with everyone understanding everything but PURE crap goes in the regular toilet, and people knowing the meds like lithium that make their crap invalid.
                  I think using it to boost intermediary crops that eat CO2 produce O2 and are us

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by piojo ( 995934 )

                    Actually human caloric needs are around 350 g per day. (Calculated based on 2000 kcal needs, with 4-9 kcal per dry gram of food, but closer to 4.) Fiber and other non-nutritive stuff like chitin don't factor into this, but by dry weight we eat very little of that.

                    • A can of coke is 355 g, (.75 lb) so counting liquid we take in 5 lbs easy.
                      But you may be right 3 pints seems like a lot for just crap without urine, but selling crap is not really the important part, the big picture of closed loop living is what is appealing, which is to say using the crap to produce oxygen, clean air and water, floral scents and food products with minimal dependence on an unstable external word. Especially with robotics or minimized human labor. Imagine a large cube in the desert which inp

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by piojo ( 995934 )

                      Yeah, it is appealing. Some issues would have to be solved, though. One is that sewage contains drugs like anti-depressants. Another is that the logistics for this don't exist.

                    • Yeah, this is sci-fi, but itâ(TM)s not that far off. Look at Quorn, that stuff is amazing. Wastes from cereal production are fermented in vats to grow the mycoprotein and centrifuged, pulp and purified wastewater and yummy food are the outputs. It would probably only be a bit more expensive to do water reclamation, and you have a factory that only inputs some water and waste, and outputs high protein food. Literally life saving stuff in a famine, and not rocket science.

        • I was told in Mexico that they don't put TP in the toilet simply because their sewer systems aren't designed to handle it. You can use smaller, cheaper pipes if the only thing going in them is human waste and water.

        • Nothing to do with reuse of the product, it's because the sewer systems can't handle TP. You see this in a lot of third-world countries with poor infrastructure, I've also encountered it in several Asian countries like Thailand, and in Europe, Greece.

      • Given the mess we're currently in, I'd skip the bat shit.

    • Across the universe, human poo is more rare than Diamonds.

    • I was thinking they could just run convoys of trucks up to Capitol Hill and they've have more manure than they know what to do with. What's more it'd be the most exclusive, expensive taxpayer-funded manure in the world.
    • This explains Ben & Jerry's new flavor, Cuomo Sludge, which I have not tried but I hear that dogs like it.

  • shit

  • Reclaiming Some of the Synthetic Nitrogen (Score:3)

    by crunchygranola ( 1954152 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:14AM (#62075533)

    Phosphate is a different story entirely, but essentially all of the nitrogen used in world farming today was fixed by the Haber Process, natural processes for fixing nitrogen on land being a factor of 4 short of what is needed. All of the nitrogen in animal (and human) manure is from chemical nitrogen previously applied. To the extent that they are raising more crops with nitrogen fertilizer to supply the feed for these animals they are playing a losing game, getting less out than they put in.

  • I Can Help (Score:3)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:15AM (#62075535) Journal
    I have a backyard full of dog shit I'm willing to let go of for the right price. The only catch is, you have to come collect it yourself.

  • The market for manure -- from pigs, horses, cattle and even humans - has never been so hot

    I always wondered how it came to be that all restaurants were Taco Bell in 2032 [imdb.com]. This explains it!

  • Hell Froze Over? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:18AM (#62075543) Journal
    I never thought I would see the day that bullshit is in short supply.

  • I hate manure.

  • Seeing as the food waste is estimated, at least in the USA, to be over 30% of production, maybe we could find ways to minimize this waste and reduce the farmland footprint in the first place.

    • Fertilizers and pest control are what allow us to feed the world's population. Maybe this is the fatal flaw in the vegetarian organic food movement. You have to have fertilizer but with no meat there are no animals to provide the fertilizer. Truthfully, there will never be enough fertilizer without chemical processing to allow us to feed the existing population. If your idea is kill people, you have a place to lead from. :)

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by caseih ( 160668 )

        While that's true, it's also true that we can and should be recycling the nutrients as communities and society in general. Especially phosphate and potassium. These essential fertilizers are mined out of the ground. Phosphate in particular gets concentrated in grains that you eat, where you concentrate it in your waste water. Most of this finds its way into rivers, lakes, and the ocean where it causes toxic algae blooms and other problems. Really this needs to stop. While toxic nitrogen runoff is some

        • Yeah, I think it would be nice to be able to reclaim fertilizers from runoff. It would stop things like the big bloom in the Gulf of Mexico (and many other places) that are choking those waters (and other not so nice effects).

  • Your mixed sewer is why you can't give a shit... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @11:20AM (#62075559)
    So you have a lot of brown & yellow gold pumped through your pipes. Unfortunately, that waste discharge is mixed with household discharge and probably industrial discharge, so it's potentially poisonous to crops. For example, someone on your block is probably painting their house or painting with with artists paint or craft paint, as an example of a toxic contaminant plus detergents and cleaning chemicals.

    Large buildings, like office complexes and hotels could set up pipes to get a purer source of human waste. It just never has been worth it, financially. We design plumbing systems to be simple and cost-effective. But it would be nice to reduce our discharge and collect the useful human waste and repurpose it. In my city, it's treated and just pumped into the ocean.

    There is pressure to reduce our livestock footprint and meat consumption due to Global Warming...something I very much support. I LOVE meat, but I don't need to eat it for breakfast, lunch, & dinner, for example. It would be nice if human waste could be efficiently reused for agricultural purposes. Maybe the reduced supply of cheap manure from lifestock will make it viable to collect from some human sources that have busy bathrooms: hotels, offices, airports, etc.
    • Why mix the sewer?
      • Ask for a subsidy for feeding and housing the homeless
      • Provide portapotties, fresh fruit and veggies, and space to put up your tent on your farmland
      • Collect from portapotties occasionally
      • ...
      • Profit! (and help alleviate the homeless problem a little)

  • The article and headline are claiming this is some sort of desperate condition. They even use "desperate" in the title. They talk about how prices are the highest they have been in a decade.

    But wait a second.

    This means that prices have been depressed below previous highs for at least an entire decade! These prices are only now recovering, and they might not even be recovering to their previous levels, just what they were a decade ago. I would expect that due to inflation prices have been going up an av

  • It seems every year or so we hear a news story about a manure pond leaking and contaminating everything downstream. Personally, I have no idea why manure is winding up in a pond but I don't run a farm so what do I know.

    With any sort of luck, perhaps we will hear about this less often.

  • That's all I have.

  • One day soon, we'll discover that is why humans exist.
    We poop The Spice. We are the Galactic Sandworms.

  • All I can say for that. One of the shortages that will become increasingly common as climate change progresses.

  • He and his should be a near endless source and have a legit means of enriching himself, for a change

  • Whereas the big problem with excess generation of electricity is storage, current technology is capable of handling the Taco Tuesday surge.

  • Short ton? (Score:3)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @12:30PM (#62075877) Journal
    selling for between $40 to $70 per short ton

    Shouldn't that be a shit ton?
    • WTF is it with US media reporting everything in the most bizarre units possible? What's a "short ton", and why not just use a standard ton? Or, given that this is the US, why not report it in pounds to get nonsensical figures with long strings of zeroes at the end where you have to stop every time you see a figure and manually convert it to something meaningful like "30 tons".
  • ...shit!
  • While reading this, either I have a twisted sense of reality this morning, or people are really being subtle on the subject.

    Perhaps we can have a sewage system that processes our excrement, and pipes it directly to the closest farm or hydroponics facility. Image a country wide *hit piping system, with counties and states sharing excess processed excrement! Even competing for the excrement. I mean with all the *rap coming out some places, this is perfect time to re-image sewage as a RESOURCE! We can have *
  • One of the big complaints from Climate change alarmists is we need fewer cows, because they produce a lot of green house gases. And the Vegans are right behind them, pushing for less meat consumption because of "cruelty". If we follow these demands, we will be creating our own manure crisis, and not be able to grow all of the plants we are all supposed to be eating instead of meat, because there will not be enough manure. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

  • The should come to Tory Britain then. We like to discharge it into our rivers and oceans.

  • You are full of shit: you are a high potential Shit! An expression used when struck by luck. Holy shit, special high value high quality shit, produced by religious leader. To give a shit, to be generous. ...

  • They constantly peddle bullshit.

  • If elected I'll make every day Taco Tuesday!

    Of course you'll have to buy your own underwear resupply.

  • Every time a "harvester" collects about 150 pounds of human dung, they ship it off to be turned into a telemarketer.

  • The problem with human manure is that unless you are getting it from the r in the first world it is riddled with prescription drugs and in the developing world it is riddled with heavy metals. Of course there are the rare free range rural human who still has pure poop, aka brown gold.
  • Was almost infinite

  • Warning: vegans ahead! (Score:3)

    by WierdUncle ( 6807634 ) on Monday December 13, 2021 @02:49PM (#62076575)

    A good deal of the shortage of fertiliser is the practice of growing crops with heavy fertiliser inputs, just to feed livestock. The animals are then slaughtered to make food for humans. Feeding a cow on corn and soy results in maybe 10% of the vegetable inputs being converted to edible meat. Other livestock are somewhat more efficient. I believe chicken is best in that respect. But whatever farming techniques are used, the majority of food value from the vegetable inputs goes to fuelling the livestock, and a fraction is built into flesh at slaughter.

    A shortage of shit could be an indication of an impending market correction. Meat has probably been too cheap in developed nations for quite some time. It seems that now, livestock farmers can't afford to buy the feed, because the feed farmers can't afford the fertiliser. Personally, I would prefer that cows and sheep roam the grasslands, without needing fields full of crops such as soy and corn to feed them. Practically, this would mean only a fraction of the current livestock population could be supported by available agricultural land. Draw your own conclusions about the resulting change in meat consumption.

  • ...read the "Humanure Handbook: Shit In A Nutshell", by Joseph C Jenkins.

    Read it online here, [humanurehandbook.com] and then buy a physical copy here. [slateroofwarehouse.com]

    Make sure you read it, because while you can make good use of your own waste, you can also make yourself and others really sick if not properly composted.

  • The warmists have been demanding for years that we all switch from beef to tofu because cattle flatulence is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now it seems that there is actually a shortage of cow manure (clearly a product closely linked to the dreaded flatulence). Personally, I vote for ribeye steaks and fertilizer. Tofu is OK, but it is not substitute for beef.

    • The warmists have been demanding for years that we all switch from beef to tofu because cattle flatulence is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

      Methane not CO2.

    • The ammount of manure you get from an animal is not enought to replenish the nutrients used on growing the plants it has eaten, you need to supplement it with artificial sources.
      If you are thinking only in those terms tofu is indeed better, as requires much less resources, water and emissions as you get rid of the intermediary for the nutrients, the cow.

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