Does anyone use... human feces as a fertilizer? I want to.

[ExcuseMyIgnorance]

I'm all about eco-friendliness. If I have a composting toilet, why not use the actual compost?

A few questions I have:

1) How does a person control the smell?
2) Does the produce taste any different?
3) Are there risks of getting diseases by doing this??

Sounds gross, but I'm curious!

[Bright]

Ok kind of gross. Check and see if it is even legal in your state. It is not in ours and a group got banned from selling their produce and the Farmers market because of it.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

There is a gardening section to savingadvice where you could have asked this question. Obviously there is plenty of information on this on the internet on gardening sites, permaculture sites, homesteading sites, and more. I'm sure you will come across recommendations at other sites to read the book "Humanure Handbook" which is probably 20-25 years old now and in probably its fourth edition. If you already are a gardener you would probably be aware of Miloganite brand bagged fertilizer which has for at least 5 decades been made from the sewer sludge of Milwaukee. You've probably tumbled in the grass of a ball field fertilized with it. No big deal. For that matter, if you've eaten imported fruit and vegetables, you've probably eaten food fertilized with nightsoil, urine, or more aged human excretory products.

So....do you have a composting toilet? Or is this simply a theoretical question? If you have a composting toilet and aren't using the compost, what the hell are you doing with it? I surmise you do not have one.

[Fishindude77]

This could lead to some pretty serious health problems. I would not consider it.

[John Doe]

I don't have a composting toilet...or at least not yet. But I think it's brilliant a concept. My family spends $150/month on water service. Assuming composting toilets were legal in my area, and assuming I had a large rural property where fertilizer disposal wouldn't be noticed by neighbors, I would look into it. I've read that a good way to try this concept on a smaller scale is to start with urine ("peecycling"). Apparently some folks pee into jars instead of using their traditional plumbing.

As for whether manure affects the taste of produce, any gardener can tell you that it has no effect on taste. My dogs unintentionally provide free "fertilizer" for the fruit trees in my back yard and the fruit tastes delicious to me. I think I also read that manure is used as an organic pesticide (directly applied) on a lot of crops.

I suspect the whole fear of human waste spreading disease is from it leaching into streams that are used for (untreated) drinking water - which is the case in some Developing Countries. I can't see how it could transmit disease otherwise. Unless people eat unwashed produce that is grown on land where human waste was recently disposed. I'll be curious to see if this cultural aversion to alternative waste disposal is merited. From an ecological and a financial standpoint, using plumbing to dispose of our waste is extremely costly.