Welcome, and your thoughts on human composting

Welcome, Joe!

I am quite interested in your book as I have joined the composting world a few years back and am loving what I am learning. I am a green mortician who buries people naturally and feel quite akin to what you are doing, albeit a different source.

I am very curious of your opinion of Human Composting, the process of the body covered in natural materials, like straw or wood chips, and over the course of about three to seven weeks, thanks to microbial activity, it will break down into soil. Is this on your radar at all?

Thank you,
Elizabeth Fournier

Farmers are increasingly using composting to deal with dead livestock, including bovines.  I think it would be wonderful to be composted (I've been telling my daughter for years that this is what I'd like done) but I do wonder whether there are bio-accumulation concerns with humans.

Instead of feeding folks from the garden, you'd be feeding folks to the garden in the great cycle of life. Better than eating Soylent Green.....Soylent Green is People, for all you young'uns out there

D. Nelson wrote:Instead of feeding folks from the garden, you'd be feeding folks to the garden in the great cycle of life. Better than eating Soylent Green.....Soylent Green is People, for all you young'uns out there

Exactly! I truly feel the last heroic act of environmental responsibility we can take is to literally give ourselves to the planet by going out green.

Elizabeth Fournier wrote:

D. Nelson wrote:Instead of feeding folks from the garden, you'd be feeding folks to the garden in the great cycle of life. Better than eating Soylent Green.....Soylent Green is People, for all you young'uns out there

Exactly! I truly feel the last heroic act of environmental responsibility we can take is to literally give ourselves to the planet by going out green.

You'd be dead anyway. So, it's not like you could care either way... If I'm reincarnated though, I'd like to come back as a Baobab tree just cause they look cool! OR THE WORLDS LARGEST PUMPKIN!!! Have to stop being silly now.....

Elizabeth Fournier wrote:

I truly feel the last heroic act of environmental responsibility we can take is to literally give ourselves to the planet by going out green.

In general I agree wholeheartedly, and it would be what I want for myself if possible.

That said, I'm wondering if in-situ experiments would need to be conducted to determine if any drugs a person was taking would make composting a bad idea. It would be good to try different techniques, such as an increase in mushroom slurry, or certain specific microbes in an effort to target the safe reduction to basic elements of any man-made "contaminants" to the body. A friend of mine who died of cancer was on *very* high doses of Fen...al for example, but also antibiotics could impact the results. That said, it would still likely be more environmentally sound than what we do now, so from that perspective, I'm probably worrying about the minor exceptions!