Poop with a purpose

Walking through the high Himalayan desert has us inspired to share some insight on the usefulness of poop!
Ain't no reason for wastin this 'waste'!

In the USA there is massive pollution caused by an excess of manure from industrial meat and dairy farms as if there is no better use for this nutrition rich material than to sit in giant ponds. But here people can't seem get enough of the stuff.

We will often see women carrying baskets full of cow and yak dung they've gathered from the pastures, sometimes also leading donkeys loaded with sacks full of dung as well. They then dry the dung out on their roofs, on rocks, any open space available and then stack it up on big piles all around and on the roof of their house. 

In the high dry desert where trees are scarce, the dung is the primary fuel for cooking and keeping families warm during the long winter.

With our own small rocket stove we've been using a mix of small sticks and cow and horse dung to cook our meals on the trail. The amount of sticks we need has been drastically reduced and the smoke has a new pleasant earthy smell to it!

And of course throughout the world and all throughout India dung is used for fertilizer for farm fields. Rather than the purchase of chemical fertilizers in the western world better use could be made of the organic 'waste' that is in an over abundance.

Throughout Spiti and Ladakh the traditional toilets are pit compost toilets. Each house has a simple small building or room with stone floors and a rectangle hole leading into an open space below that can be accessed through another door. You do your business in the hole, wipe with paper, cardboard, a leaf, etc. and then shovel in dried horse or cow manure and grass over your own manure.

This over time all turns into nutrient rich compost and ends up in the fields, growing the barley, potatoes and peas!

The dry pit toilets make the best sense in this climate as they conserve water, prevent pollution, and provide the extra fertilizer needed when so much animal manure is used for cooking.

A beautiful example of people living in greater harmony with the world around them. Completing the cycle of nutrients flowing from life to death and breakdown and back into new life.