[HN Gopher] To Be a Field of Poppies: turning cadavers into compost
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To Be a Field of Poppies: turning cadavers into compost
Author : Petiver
Score : 33 points
Date : 2021-09-30 03:38 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (harpers.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (harpers.org)
| foobarian wrote:
| One similar possibility I was considering are FBI body farms
| where scientists study various properties of decomposition to be
| able to solve crimes better. At least I saw it on CSI. How cool
| would it be to be one of the corpses there :-)
| BrianOnHN wrote:
| Super cool http://forensics.usf.edu/humandonation/
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| This is not new. In the Jewish religion, the dead are buried
| without any embalming, cremation, or anything else except a plain
| cotten or linen cloth.
|
| Even the casket is unadorned pine wood, without nails, metal,
| plastic, or paint. Wooden dowels are used to hold it together.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| New England Casket was one of the major suppliers of Jewish
| coffins until they had an 8 alarm fire in 2019. Sadly, they've
| folded the tent in the wake of that. There's a good video about
| the company and their products made before the fire that's
| worth a watch.
|
| https://www.universalhub.com/2015/east-boston-where-jewish-c...
| [deleted]
| Minor49er wrote:
| This is already mentioned in the article:
|
| "No wonder embalming is considered desecration in some
| traditions, including among Muslims and Jews, who bury their
| dead in shrouds or simple coffins, sometimes without nails or
| fasteners, to avoid obstructing the decomposition process."
| huetius wrote:
| There seems to me to be a substantive difference between the
| monotheistic attitude towards the dead body as an object of
| reverence, and this, in which the body is an object of use.
|
| It may have historical precedent, but I don't think these
| things are the same.
| markdown wrote:
| What do they have against nails?
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| Nails do not decompose. The idea is to return to the earth
| nearly the same way you arrived out of it.
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| I always adored the idea of recycling dead flesh instead of
| preserving it the way it's commonly done but there is a danger to
| consider: prions - they can get into the soil, then into the
| plants and then into the animals.
| tsimionescu wrote:
| I don't think that's a major problem, as prions are as old as
| life as far as we know and have not been the source of major
| problems, with the only known exceptions being caused by
| widespread cannibalism (such as a few villages or the cow-based
| cow diets).
|
| In fact, one of the oldest organized religions in the world,
| Zoroastrianism (the religion of ancient Persian empire)
| disposes of their dead by putting them atop Towers of Silence
| [0] to be eaten by vultures, which has not been any source of
| problems as far as I know.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence
| gremloni wrote:
| I don't think this works. No one eats the vultures so it
| would be hard for the prions to make it back to humans.
| MomoXenosaga wrote:
| The safe and hygienic disposal of corpses is relatively new in
| human civilization and we're still here.
| jillesvangurp wrote:
| Prions are a minor risk when you eat them. So, maybe don't grow
| tomatoes on the grave of your loved ones. Though, I suspect
| that would actually be perfectly safe since plants don't tend
| to pass other pathogens despite what we feed them (i.e.
| manure).
|
| Otherwise, composting is the most natural thing there is.
| Absolutely everything in nature dies, and mostly does not get
| embalmed, cremated, etc. Which is another way of saying it
| composts and gets recycled back into living stuff; some of
| which ends up in our food chain. Things like proteins are
| broken down in the process. And that would include prions.
|
| So, absolutely nothing wrong with composting the remains of
| people. It's a nice ecological alternative to carbon intensive
| cremation processes or having a lot of nasty embalming fluids
| dumped into the local environment (which is where it ends up
| after the body eventually decomposes anyway). Not judging here;
| but I appreciate people making different choices and being
| somewhat conscious about not burdening the environment with
| their corpses any more than is strictly necessary.
| dogorman wrote:
| I'd guess tomatoes are fine. I'd definitely think twice
| before eating carrots or potatoes from such a garden though,
| even washed and pealed thoroughly (and normally I wouldn't
| peal those.)
| WalterBright wrote:
| Embalming always seemed ridiculous to me.
| Koshkin wrote:
| Wasn't this merely part of a religious ritual?
| WalterBright wrote:
| My understanding is it was a moneymaker for the
| morticians, who managed to get laws passed requiring it.
| schemescape wrote:
| I'm not as quick to dismiss the risk. A brief read of the
| Wikipedia article on prions has some concerning claims:
|
| > All known prion diseases in mammals ... are progressive,
| have no known effective treatment, and are always fatal
|
| > In 2015, researchers at The University of Texas Health
| Science Center at Houston found that plants can be a vector
| for prions. When researchers fed hamsters grass that grew on
| ground where a deer that died with chronic wasting disease
| (CWD) was buried, the hamsters became ill with CWD,
| suggesting that prions can bind to plants, which then take
| them up into the leaf and stem structure, where they can be
| eaten by herbivores, thus completing the cycle.
|
| Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
|
| Source 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC33918/
|
| Source 2: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/06/researchers-
| make-surp...
| amatecha wrote:
| Wow, well that was a thing I didn't know about. Cool, yet
| another disturbing way nature wants to make things terrible for
| me, haha :(
|
| Two "fun" excerpts from the Wikipedia page about Prions[0]:
|
| > Experimental evidence shows that unbound prions degrade over
| time, while soil-bound prions remain at stable or increasing
| levels, suggesting that prions likely accumulate in the
| environment
|
| > It is thus possible that there is a progressively
| accumulating number of prions in the environment.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
| tw04 wrote:
| Seems like that should be pretty easy to stop. Birnessite can
| break down prions[1] and isn't particularly rare (assuming they
| don't already account for that).
|
| [1] https://news.wisc.edu/common-soil-mineral-degrades-the-
| nearl...
| Confiks wrote:
| Beware of overly optimistic university press releases. It's
| hopeful, but certainly not a panacea. In fact, it's not clear
| if it will work at all.
|
| From your link: "The new study (...) was conducted on prions
| in solution in the laboratory". "The next step (...) is to
| mix the mineral with contaminated soil to see if it has the
| same effect". "I expect that its efficacy would be somewhat
| diminished in soil".
| robbrown451 wrote:
| This suggests composting (mostly) inactivates prions:
| https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/05/Composting-Offer...
| [deleted]
| theodric wrote:
| This is what I want. Don't bury me on my farm, let me become part
| of it.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Becky Chambers explores the idea of composting humans in Record
| of a Spaceborn Few. It's the third book in her Wayfarer series,
| but I think it would work as a stand-alone novel if you aren't
| looking to read two books before you get to the one that
| discusses composting humans.
| mmastrac wrote:
| 0.75m^3 is a lot more than I expected. What happens with the
| Mercury in fillings? Or is that small enough that it no longer
| matters?
| takk309 wrote:
| Just thinking off the top of my head, bioaccumulation is a
| thing for sure but I don't know how much that it comes from
| soil. Mercury is naturally occurring in various minerals,
| although not directly biologically available. Mercury fillings
| are the same way, not readily available for uptake by your
| body.
| jillesvangurp wrote:
| Compared to all the other mercury we put back in the
| environment. We're talking a few grams here. And it doesn't do
| much damage while it's in your mouth either.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Just guessing here, but: perhaps whatever prevents the mercury
| from entering a patient's bloodstream over the course of his
| life, will continue to work in the soil?
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