BOOK REVIEW:

The Humanure Handbook - A Guide to Composting Human Manure By Joseph Jenkins

 Chelsea Green Publishing

Copyright 2005 - Third Printing 

Available at Amazon.com for about $16.00 used

Review by Sheri Dixon

A book about sh*t.  Who’d a thunk it?  And not only that, but it’s in it’s third printing…

For a while now, I’ve been leery of the way we "civilized folk" take care of our body waste.  While no person in their right mind would purposely and willfully defecate into drinking water, that’s just what we do, collectively about a gabazillion times a day. 

Joseph Jenkins takes us through the history, mishaps, and misinformation surrounding this basic function of the human animal, and gives us a truly sensible and personally studied alternative to flushing it away downstream. 

Eminently understandable, highly illustrated, at times almost TOO technical, and even touting little mascot “Tommy Turd” giving little helpful hints, this is a fun read in OR out of the bathroom. 

But at the core of the matter is a tenet that is near and dear to homesteaders - care of and for the planet and the tiny speck of it we each call "home". 

An excerpt:

"The people who care enough about the earth to recycle their personal by-products do so as an exercise in humility, not because they’re going to get rich and famous for it.  That makes them better people.  Some people go to church on Sunday, others make compost.  Still others do both.  Others go to church on Sunday, then throw all their garbage out into the environment.  The exercising of the human spirit can take many forms, and the simple act of cleaning up after oneself is one of them.  The careless dumping of waste out into the world is a self-centered act of arrogance - or ignorance.” 

This book provides the nuts and bolts knowledge to carry out the most basic and important recycling project any of us could take on.

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