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GeekSumsMe t1_j5xk1pe wrote

Reply to comment by Sanpaku in The world is (on average) 50% reliant on nonrenewable sources of phosphorus fertilizer to grow food. It won't go away this century, but prices will increase and ~3/4ths of reserves are controlled by one country by fartyburly

My point was that we are needlessly polluting our water bodies when we could be capturing the pollutant and putting it to beneficial use.

The pollution caused by P (and N) is the most urgent need. The ability to benefit is a secondary and important benefit.

About half of the rivers and streams cannot support the amount of nutrients that we deliver and this is a problem that continues to get worse.

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TheLostHippos t1_j5yn8vp wrote

We are already finding incredible uses for human waste that may be able to provide many sources of food and nutrients.

There's the classic nightsoil method of using untreated human fertilizer but we've started developing new technologies to turn human excrement into both biogas and treated fertilizer!

Then there are other plans like letting Black Soldier Fly Larva eat human excrement and then turning them into a protein rich food source for animals.

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