I posted this video last year and it has gathered a lot of views and comments since then:

It’s an almost hour-long presentation with a lot of information on easy ways to feed your soil without breaking the bank. And it’s funny. I cover the use of manure, ashes, seaweed and even urine, among other things.

Along the lines of the latter, Polly Jetix left this comment:

“My mother was born in 1925 on the highest elevation farm in PA. The top of Mt Davis. And yes, it was very thin soil. They were quite poor. Moreover, they were very old-fashioned Mennonite. So their lifestyle reflected the 1800’s quite a bit. Mama passed on last year, but she was a marvelous storyteller. She told me how they had an outhouse, of course. But at night, they used the closet at the bottom of the stairs, at the end of the hall. There was a white enamel covered bucket, in that closet. By morning, there was a collection of human waste, which had to be emptied daily. Grandpa always had a deep row plowed open in the garden, from one end to the other. And into this row, that bucket was dumped, and a shovelful or two of soil thrown atop it. Kitchen waste not edible by chickens were also thrown in that trench. That row was allowed to mellow for a year before being used, while the row next to it was being filled. And they never got sick from it. Of course, they knew there were no serious diseases in their waste. It’s not like public human waste collection. Humans have fertilized their gardens for thousands of years with their own waste. In fact, China’s city “night soil” waste was highly prized by local farmers, who paid for it. If you’re leery of the concept, remember that urine is sterile… and high-temperature composting kills just about every pathogen. We’re scared of our own shadows these days.”

Yes! Nature was designed to re-use and recycle, long before we made it trendy. Our modern system is completely out of whack. We’re using clean city drinking water to flush away human waste, when then has to be cleaned out of the system farther down the line. It’s very inefficient. If you want to make a big change in the environment – right now – start composting all your food and paper wastes and get a composting toilet or dig an outhouse.

Right there, you will stop tons of material from entering landfills and water treatment centers, you will save water, and you’ll have lots more material you can feed to your garden instead of buying in fertilizers.

Sure, you can buy a Prius or only shop with reusable cloth bags – but if you’re composting and not using clean water to flush the toilets, you’ll make a much bigger impact. Most of us would rather virtue signal than roll up our sleeves and actually do something.

Compost everything and make a real difference.