Note: Organic Consumers Association is against this.

Human excreta could have a key role in securing future food security,
helping prevent a sharp drop in yields of crops such as wheat due to a
shortage of phosphorus inputs, a UK organic body said on Monday.

“It is estimated that only 10 percent of the three million metric tons
of phosphorus excreted by the global human population each year are
returned to agricultural soils,” Britain’s largest organic certification
body, the Soil Association, said.

An adequate supply of phosphorous is essential for seed formation, root development and maturing of crops.

The supply of phosphorus from mined phosphate rock could peak as soon as
2033 after which it will become increasingly scarce and expensive, the
report said.

“We are completely unprepared to deal with the shortage of phosphorus
inputs, the drop in production and the hike in food prices that will
follow,” the Soil Association said.

Historically in Europe, phosphorus was returned to agricultural land
through the application of animal manure and human excreta but from the
mid nineteenth century it was replaced by phosphate mined in distant
places.

HEAVY METALS