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To: Strac6
I don't think so. N. Koreans are going a lot further than countries you mentioned. The problem is compounded by lack of chemical fertilizers and shortage of cooking fuel. The collapsed public health system cannot deal with parasites either.

Kim Jong-un's policy is a disastrous way to deal with fertilizer shortage. You don't have to be an expert to see that the number of parasite carriers will go up.

45 posted on 11/18/2017 7:10:06 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster (dead parakeet + lost fishing gear = freep all day)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
From Wiki

Ancient Attica

The use of sewage as fertilizer was common in ancient Attica. The sewage system of ancient Athens collected the sewage of the city in a large reservoir and then channelled it to the Cephissus river valley for use as fertilizer.[3] China, Hong Kong, and Singapore: A woman carrying buckets of night-soil, photographed in 1871.

The term is known, or even infamous, among the generations that were born in parts of China or Chinatowns (depending on the development of the infrastructure) before 1960. Post-World War II Chinatown, Singapore, before the independence of Singapore, utilized night-soil collection as a primary means of waste disposal, especially as much of the infrastructure was damaged and took a long time to rebuild following the Battle of Singapore and subsequent Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Following the development of the economy and the standard of living after independence, the night soil system in Singapore is now merely a curious anecdote from the time of colonial rule when new systems developed.

The collection method is generally very manual and heavily relies on close human contact with the waste. During the Nationalist era when the Kuomintang ruled mainland China, as well as Chinatown in Singapore, the night soil collector usually arrived with spare and relatively empty honey buckets to exchange for the full honey buckets. The method of transporting the honey buckets from individual households to collection centers was very similar to delivering water supplies by an unskilled laborer, with the exception that the item being transported was not at all potable and it was being delivered from the household, rather than to the household. The collector would hang full honey buckets onto each end of a pole he carried on his shoulder and then proceeded to carry it through the streets until he reached the collection point.

Hong Kong has a similar euphemism for night soil collection, 倒夜香 dàoyèxiāng, which literally means "emptying nocturnal fragrance".

The reuse of feces as fertilizer was common in Japan. In Edo city, compost merchants gathered feces to sell for farmers. That was good additional income for apartment owners. Human excreta of rich people were sold at higher prices because their diet was better; presumably, more nutrients remained in their excreta. Various historic documents dating from the 9th century detail the disposal procedures for toilet waste.[4]

Selling human waste products as fertilizers became much less common after World War II, both for sanitary reasons and because of the proliferation of chemical fertilizers, and less than 1% is used for night soil fertilization. The presence of the United States occupying force, by whom the use of human waste as fertilizer was seen as unhygienic and suspect, was also a contributing factor: "the Occupationaires condemned the practice, and tried to prevent their compatriots from eating vegetables and fruit from the local markets".[5]

100 posted on 11/19/2017 11:22:54 AM PST by Strac6 ("Mrs. Strac, Pilatus, and Sig Sauer: All the fun things in my life are Swiss!")
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