Sludge as Fertilizer on Crop Lands, May be Harmful to Health?! What are we feeding our families?
Years ago when I was a banker and running a trust department in Swisher County, Texas, we had "cattle feed lots" as well as some needs to dispose of sewer sludge. One of our creative people in town devised a system to spread the sewage "sludge" (we might call it poop) over farmlands on the edge of town. The idea of "free fertilizer" seemed logical and an cost effective way to deal with this. Later on in other parts of Texas we visited "dairy operations" and found that they had big tank trucks that would contain and deliver the feces from the dairy cattle, and drive to nearby farmlands and the spew or sling the sludge out to the fields, again calling this environmental recycling. We contacted an engineer at Environmental Solutions and they confirmed that toxic or harmful chemicals were very possible in this "sludge". Environmental solutions has people who can test your soils for PFAS. As time has gone on, research has indicated that this sludge can potentially contain harmful chemicals. These chemicals pop back up in area drinking water, and where food crops are grown even in fresh foods.
Also we noted that labels and definitions sometimes can hide the toxic potentials, as we noticed the difference between "Natural" and "Organic" definitions for handling sludge and edible crops. See this example:
A simple reading of the above should give people interested in healthy food something to think about. So we appreciated the article attached written by AP's Michael Casey (from Boston), AP reporter Ellen Knickmeyer from Washington, D.C., and thanks to John Flesher @johnflesher and Michael Casey @ mcasey1. Credit goes to them and we encourage that you follow their other writings. We reprint this as a non profit interested in public knowledge and welfare. Ben Boothe, publisher: BootheGlobalPerspectives…
