I am a retired farmer who once upon a time grew peas and sweetcorn for our local cannery. Since this was done under a contract between me and the cannery, certain conditions were to be adhered to, and one of those conditions was that I agreed not to use municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for ANY cannery crop that I was raising!! If I were to use municipal sewage sludge for fertilizer on cannery crops, the contract would be null and void, the cannery would refuse the crop, and I would be held responsible for the cost of the seed furnished by the cannery!! Municipal sewage sludge has NO PLACE being used in agriculture as fertilizer for raising crops—PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m not sure when it changed, but apparently some States are allowing the use of municipal sewage sludge as ferilizer on (food) crops intended for human consumption, and God knows there’s more than enough chemicals and other dangerous things (preservatives, brominated vegetable oil, hormones, etc.) being put in our food that were not intended for human consumption, without having to consume human waste that was absorbed by the produce that we eat!!!!
This article is disturbing. Not enough information on what to do to find out more. No list of states involved in sewage problem. What is the point of the article, to get us upset or help us solve the issue?
Didn’t you see the links above for ‘Take Action’? Anh always has some plan
If you will notice, there is a link to “Take Action.” This comes in the form of a letter to your State Representatives which you can edit to add your own comments concerning the use of municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for agriculturally produced food crops intended for human consumption. The article is intended to inform the general public what is going on, and to get us upset enough to contact our legislators and tell them enough is enough!! And as a retired farmer, I am appalled by the things that the Department of Agriculture, the FDA, and the Envronmental Protection Agency are allowed to get away with, including the EPA telling us just how we are allowed to use our own private land by claiming ponds and drainage ditches as Federal Waterways!!!!
Likely the ‘Clean Water Act’ is another one of those legislative named gems that undoes what it claims to ensure… I’ve seen portions of the techy stuff on biosolids in the instructions to agricultural companies that specify certain ‘quality’ levels and what time/type of plants ‘the stuff’ could be used for… We were interested in the composting rules and green-households would be producing such clean output that the quality levels in the CWA didn’t touch it… yet the Health Dpt was apopoleptic about the ‘federal’ boogey man technical stuff which they did not really know, just used ‘federal’ to intimidate ordinary people and judges who didn’t want to deal with ‘sewage’ disputes…….
It’s not just the EPA, it’s the HEALTH DEPT making similar crazy rules.
People who put in hightech aeration systems into their septic systems out here in the rural area are forbidden to use that cleaned water for their garden even though the National Sanitation Foundation extensive testing shows the output is really clean…. BUT THE SAME HEALTH DPT MORONS allow the pumpers that remove the settled solids and the floating grease from the raw septic tanks to play games to spread the stuff on the agricultural land….
Those same morons disallowed our greywater and composting system that the EPA labs had tested and shown it was cleaner than the county’s creeks, tested multiple times with flying colors. The Health Dpt is the other part of the insane rules in sanitation…….
Be careful and wash ALL produce thoroughly before processing and eating. Some of the melons, for example, are harvested in Mexico, where workers go in the fields. I ate a cantaloupe recently, without washing the outside, and was deathly ill with food poison, the worst i ever suffered. This is why raw sewage is not allowed on crops!
Even “treated” municipal sewage sludge, as was mentioned in this article, contains things that are ABSORBED by the plant life that we consume, such as heavy metals for instance, that ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE CONSUMED BY ANIMALS, OR HUMAN BEINGS!! That is why our local cannery forbade the use of municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for crops like peas and sweetcorn which were intended to be consumed by human beings. Municipal sewage sludge should NEVER in any way be used as fertilizer for ANY agriculturally produced crops—PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cornell soil scientists warned 20 years ago that more than a dozen edible plants grown on biosolids amended soil take up toxic metals. The latest research on plant-uptake of pollutants focuses on unregulated hazardous chemicals in biosolids amended soils. None of the hundreds of priority pollutants detected in biosolids are regulated, including PCBs and dioxins. The latest concern is PFOA-related chemicals which are persistent and toxic. The Blaine/Hundal team has found PFOA-related chemicals in a lettuce and tomatoes grown on biosolids amended soil. Other researchers have documented root up-take of pharmaceuticals and personal care products. So, yes, hundreds of sludge chemicals are ending up not just in groundwater and soil, but in our salads.
On 12 Comments 
I am a retired farmer who once upon a time grew peas and sweetcorn for our local cannery. Since this was done under a contract between me and the cannery, certain conditions were to be adhered to, and one of those conditions was that I agreed not to use municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for ANY cannery crop that I was raising!! If I were to use municipal sewage sludge for fertilizer on cannery crops, the contract would be null and void, the cannery would refuse the crop, and I would be held responsible for the cost of the seed furnished by the cannery!! Municipal sewage sludge has NO PLACE being used in agriculture as fertilizer for raising crops—PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@disqus_BzB4lOs1BM:disqus So when did this all change?
I’m not sure when it changed, but apparently some States are allowing the use of municipal sewage sludge as ferilizer on (food) crops intended for human consumption, and God knows there’s more than enough chemicals and other dangerous things (preservatives, brominated vegetable oil, hormones, etc.) being put in our food that were not intended for human consumption, without having to consume human waste that was absorbed by the produce that we eat!!!!
This article is disturbing. Not enough information on what to do to find out more. No list of states involved in sewage problem. What is the point of the article, to get us upset or help us solve the issue?
Didn’t you see the links above for ‘Take Action’? Anh always has some plan
If you will notice, there is a link to “Take Action.” This comes in the form of a letter to your State Representatives which you can edit to add your own comments concerning the use of municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for agriculturally produced food crops intended for human consumption. The article is intended to inform the general public what is going on, and to get us upset enough to contact our legislators and tell them enough is enough!! And as a retired farmer, I am appalled by the things that the Department of Agriculture, the FDA, and the Envronmental Protection Agency are allowed to get away with, including the EPA telling us just how we are allowed to use our own private land by claiming ponds and drainage ditches as Federal Waterways!!!!
Likely the ‘Clean Water Act’ is another one of those legislative named gems that undoes what it claims to ensure… I’ve seen portions of the techy stuff on biosolids in the instructions to agricultural companies that specify certain ‘quality’ levels and what time/type of plants ‘the stuff’ could be used for… We were interested in the composting rules and green-households would be producing such clean output that the quality levels in the CWA didn’t touch it… yet the Health Dpt was apopoleptic about the ‘federal’ boogey man technical stuff which they did not really know, just used ‘federal’ to intimidate ordinary people and judges who didn’t want to deal with ‘sewage’ disputes…….
This is why I don’t believe in gov’t.
It’s not just the EPA, it’s the HEALTH DEPT making similar crazy rules.
People who put in hightech aeration systems into their septic systems out here in the rural area are forbidden to use that cleaned water for their garden even though the National Sanitation Foundation extensive testing shows the output is really clean…. BUT THE SAME HEALTH DPT MORONS allow the pumpers that remove the settled solids and the floating grease from the raw septic tanks to play games to spread the stuff on the agricultural land….
Those same morons disallowed our greywater and composting system that the EPA labs had tested and shown it was cleaner than the county’s creeks, tested multiple times with flying colors. The Health Dpt is the other part of the insane rules in sanitation…….
Be careful and wash ALL produce thoroughly before processing and eating. Some of the melons, for example, are harvested in Mexico, where workers go in the fields. I ate a cantaloupe recently, without washing the outside, and was deathly ill with food poison, the worst i ever suffered. This is why raw sewage is not allowed on crops!
Even “treated” municipal sewage sludge, as was mentioned in this article, contains things that are ABSORBED by the plant life that we consume, such as heavy metals for instance, that ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE CONSUMED BY ANIMALS, OR HUMAN BEINGS!! That is why our local cannery forbade the use of municipal sewage sludge as fertilizer for crops like peas and sweetcorn which were intended to be consumed by human beings. Municipal sewage sludge should NEVER in any way be used as fertilizer for ANY agriculturally produced crops—PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cornell soil scientists warned 20 years ago that more than a dozen edible plants grown on biosolids amended soil take up toxic metals. The latest research on plant-uptake of pollutants focuses on unregulated hazardous chemicals in biosolids amended soils. None of the hundreds of priority pollutants detected in biosolids are regulated, including PCBs and dioxins. The latest concern is PFOA-related chemicals which are persistent and toxic. The Blaine/Hundal team has found PFOA-related chemicals in a lettuce and tomatoes grown on biosolids amended soil. Other researchers have documented root up-take of pharmaceuticals and personal care products. So, yes, hundreds of sludge chemicals are ending up not just in groundwater and soil, but in our salads.