Growing your Food in Sewage

Spreading waste water on a corn field

What is that black water that the farmers have been spreading on the field all week? Well, lets do a little detective work. After all, I am done exams and have nothing better to do. Here are my initial observations:

• It sure dose not smell like water.
• The liquid is black.
• This black liquid has been arriving by the truckload for hours (must be inexpensive, maybe its free?).

Ok, so lets look at the "data". It smells like the worst public bathroom you have ever been too.  Nope, this still does not get my point across. It smell like, your brother ate a dead animal and fermenting garbage, got violently ill and defecated all around you.. yep that is more like it. 

Waste Water

Pumping Waste Water onto farm fields

This can not actually be sewage, can it? I would know about it if people were spreading waste onto fields, no? So I did what any bored grad student would do, I tailed the truck to see where it came from.

The giant truck pulled into the Waste Treatment Plant.

Water Treatment Plant Alliston ON.

Filling Trucks with Waste Water.

Here are some articles:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/loosening-of-rules-about-spreading-sewage-sludge-on-ontario-farms-alarms-critics/article2388149/

http://www.rense.com/general3/prs.htm

This has been going on for years in Canada (Ontario) and the United States. Human waste from a variety of sources are being spread on the fields that grow corn, wheat, soya... you know FOOD.  I can understand why the municipalities like this. The poo poo has to go somewhere. Could you imagine if they would also give garbage away for free? This is great for them. Someone is willing to take their sewage away for free and the farmers get to fertilize their fields. What studies have they done about the long term effects? Well, NONE, according to the article above.

I will do some more research and update this later.