Organisation - June 5, 2014
Humanure
Midas Dekkers’ latest book De kleine verlossing of de lust van ontlasten [Relief, or the urge to excrete] is all about a big taboo: poo! He describes in frank and lurid detail exactly what happens to all our poo and piss.

Farm shops are at an advantage here: they could institute a barter system. A dump for the farmer and a cauliflower for the customer. Or a bottle of milk for every bottle of piss. But what if you don’t do your shopping at the farm? No problem. What could be finer that squatting over your compost heap every morning (coffee and newspaper to hand) to do your business. In your own back garden or perhaps in a communal toilet in the park? Listening to the sounds of spring and doing your bit for global sustainability. Rural Africa has been doing it for centuries: it is called ‘night soil’ there. We would call it ‘sustainable innovation’