Re: [compost_tea] Re: 131 degrees Farenheit heated compost for 3 days

From: Frank L Teuton <fteuton_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 10:44:14 -0500

Dear Elaine and other compost tea listers following this thread:

Is it now understood that compost, 'properly made', will give a product
containing thriving populations of pathogens in 2 cases out of a hundred (1
in 50), and substantial populations of pathogens in 8 other cases out of a
hundred?

A good summation of the issues involved in manure and composting at the
present time is presented at:

http://www.jgpress.com/archives/_front_page/000105.html#more

Somehow there is no mention of this ten percent and two percent problem.
Presumably the standards currently required for organic growers constitute
the basic standards of 'properly made' compost.

I would very much like references to the source(s) of this disturbing
assertion that 'properly made' compost has such a substantial failure rate.
I have not encountered this assertion in the last decade of reading
composting literature and find it both remarkable and, to be honest, not
completely credible.

Thanks in advance for your information,

Frank Teuton

----- Original Message -----
From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
To: <compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: 131 degrees Farenheit heated compost for 3
days


> Hi Paul at Trading Post -
>
> Could you please get the composting program of the USDA in Beltsville, MD
to understand your point? Pat Milner is the lead on this program, and in my
opnion, she's using scare tactics to try to drum up a continued reason for
her program to exist in DC.
>
> We all need to understand why scare tactics are being used, however.
Bureaucrats needs to be convinced of a need to continue funding the compost
program. If there's no pressing "need" - such as a public health scare -
for a program, the Feds will shut it down.
>
> The compost program is VERY needed in the USDA, but in order to keep it
funded, there has to be public hysteria, and a crying concern about it. So,
you can see where the problem lies.
>
> Compost tea is the way to exit having to use toxic chemicals in farming,
landscaping, etc. Compost is needed in it's production. So, we finally
have a public that when hysteria is foisted on them, is going to be irate,
call their bureaucrats, and push funding of the program. Finally, there's
public concern about compost.
>
> Instead of using hysteria, could it be possible to justify the program by
making it clear that we need to understand compost, and why SOMETIMES
pathogens are present even if compost has been properly composted? Ah, but
you know our government - does calm, sane reason work in an atmosphere of
having to cut public funding?
>
> The points that I understand that the USDA (read Pat Milner since she is
the leader of the program in Beltsville, as far as I'm aware) is pushing is
that the pathogens in compost can re-grow. My attitude is, no, the
pathogens aren't regrowing if you have proper sets of diverse, aerobic
organisms in the compost.
>
> If the compost was made improperly, such as it got too hot, and lost the
good guys, or the good guys were never there in the starting materials, then
the compost isn't really properly made compost.
>
> Another possibility is that the compost that is apparently re-growing
pathogens was actually contaminated by another source after the compost was
finished. This was the situation with the compost in Nevada example that
Milner likes to use. The compost pile is about 100 yards downwind of a
dairy waste lagoon and manure pile. The wind BLOWS in Nevada, you know.
>
> But the USDA program isn't willing to investigate these possible
explanations. That's what I think is really wrong with the USDA compost
program. An un-willingness to figure out what is really going on, and a
desire to use scare tactics to justify the continuing existence of the
compost program in USDA.
>
> But you can see the rock and the hard place. If public hysteria isn't
fostered, the program loses funding. Sigh.
>
> I would appreciate advice on how to make sure funding of the USDA program
continues, so the USDA folks can calm down and get back to productive work,
at the same time as convincing bureaucrats that this is a real concern, so
they will see fit to continue funding work on compost, WITHOUT having to use
compost tea as a scape goat to push the work that needs to be done.
>
> IDEAS?
>
> Elaine Ingham
> President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
> SFI Corvallis, OR
> SFI Port Jefferson, NY
> SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
> SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
> SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
> http://www.soilfoodweb.com





 
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Received on Tue Mar 09 2004 - 11:08:05 EST

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