A New World Ordure? Thoughts on the use of Humanure in Developed Cities

Abstract

The implementation of urban farming through fertilisation with human excreta (humanure) has been a recurring agricultural technique. This concept paper discusses the challenges involved in using humanure for urban farming specifically in the developed world. It takes a broadly actor-network approach to acknowledge these challenges and suggests possible directions for addressing them. First providing a brief overview of attitudes towards human excreta across cultures, particularly the dichotomous views of waste or resource, it then outlines the crucial development of water-based sanitation in England in the 19th century and the spread of this technology across the developed world. Next various techniques of humanure (human excreta) use in agriculture are introduced before a particular focus on the technique of urine diversion is proposed. Finally discussing the multi-scalar technical, health, social and above all cultural challenges facing the use of ‘humanure’ for urban agriculture in the context of developed cities, it then acknowledges the incremental nature of successful technology uptake before proposing one possible modest approach for addressing the difficulties implicit in this model through the use of ‘urine diversion’.