Poop Scoop
I tried to write this narrative in my head while picking manure this morning. That is when and where I always have the greatest clarity of thought. I should try to write or record while shoveling shit because I can never reproduce that train of thought and level of revelation. The mindless repetition of a simple task, like scooping poop, serves as a mantra to let the mind wander. And the poop itself happens to be one of my favorite topics. It inspires me. Which is a good thing because most everything I've ever done has gone to shit.
When I first wanted to be a cowboy, I learned that horsemanship starts with the manure fork. One must work their way up the ladder to the saddle. When I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian and went to work for one, I found myself in the lab preparing fecal samples for microscope slides to look for parasite eggs. When I decided to pursue my Master's Degree on Mountain Goat food habits, I again found myself viewing shit under high power to determine diets by the remnants of lignified cell tissues of various plants. I wrote a feces thesis. Even when I finally had a professional position as a land manager, I was soon negotiating for the use of municipal sewage sludge as a source of organic matter, nitrogen, and water, all necessary components of revegetation practices.
The restrictive regulations dealing with raw sewage soon led me to the practice of composting, which became both my personal cause and my professional career. There is no better career than the one that pays you to do what you want and need to do. So yes, everything I do goes to shit. I've accepted my lot in life and I like it this way.
"Give me lemons and I'll make lemonade." Give me shit and I'll save humankind! While most consider shit to be the most worthless and least desirable substance on earth, I consider it to be the most underrated, but most important link in the great chain of life. It is the beginning and the end, the ying and yang of living. The end of one food chain, it is the beginning of another. The waste product of one being becomes the richest possible resource for multitudes of others. An item at rest and a microbial metropolis all at once. Often blunt yet pointed.
Everyone talks about organic farming, permaculture, biodynamic farming and other approaches to sustainability. While many techniques show some levels of success on a limited basis, they have failed to demonstrate a worldwide solution to food production. My belief is that if it's not a solution for everyone, it's not the right solution. Everyone does better when everyone does better. We can't leave anyone behind.
The worldwide departure from Monsanto based chemical agrobusiness depends upon the largescale rebuilding of soil organic matter which has been lost through generations of poor agricultural practices such as overgrazing and cultivation of sub-arable lands. Without soil organic matter to provide proper nutrient cycling, we are completely dependent upon chemical products which require the use of a variety of limited and polluting resources in an unsustainable fashion. The vast majority of available organic matter and nitrogen can be found in our municipal waste streams and biosolids (sewage). For this reason, any form of sustainable agriculture depends upon the largescale composting of these human wastes. And because the general waste stream has insufficient nitrogen to compost all the organic matter without the addition of biosolids to provide this nitrogen, it becomes obvious that shit is the key to continued human life on earth.
It should be apparent by now why I don't consider the word shit to be a dirty word and why I consider the harvesting of shit to be such a worthy, almost spiritual, experience. One might as well consider water, the other key component to life, to be something filthy. Not only is shit not filthy, it might be the most valuable substance produced by humankind. This would certainly be true from the viewpoint of nature.
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