Fertilizer made from city sewage has been spread on millions of acres of farmland for decades. Scientists say it can contain high levels of the toxic substance.

Fertilizer made from city sewage has been spread on millions of acres of farmland for decades. Scientists say it can contain high levels of the toxic substance.

  • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
    52·
    2 months ago

    Maybe we should keep destroying EPA protections in the name of corporate profits without paying attention. Surely it’s not an issue this generation will ever have to deal with. The idiot new generations can figure it out later. Am I MAGA’ing right?

    /s

    • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      Corporations are too expensive, it is our fiduciary responsibility to hold them accountable for damages they create.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      If it weren’t for those woke dei bureaucrats, there would never have been measured contamination. We lived ok with this until now, and suddenly it’s a problem?

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
    312·
    2 months ago

    The fertilizer made from sewage makes me so angry. Sure it could probably be done safely. But who is overseeing it on a constant basis everywhere? No one. In the meantime sewage treatment plants can literally sell people back their own shit laced with drugs and chemicals and whatever else people dump and flush.

    Using pesticides and chemicals is not healthy and not sustainable. The government should subsidize sustainable pest control instead of all the corn subsidies.

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    23·
    2 months ago

    The sludge that allegedly contaminated the Colemans’ farm came from the City of Fort Worth water district, which treats sewage from more than 1.2 million people, city records show. Its facility also accepts effluent from industries including aerospace, defense, oil and gas, and auto manufacturing. Synagro takes the sludge and treats it (though not for PFAS, as it’s not required by law) then distributes it as fertilizer.

    So this likely isn’t passed from human waste into this sludge, but from industrial waste. Seems like this is something that could be stopped at the source and still reduce waste of… waste.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    Farmers should be just as concerned about all the pesticides they are spraying on their land.