[compost_tea] Re: Anaerobic Activity

From: mikethewormguy <mikethewormguy_at_aol.com>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 22:11:31 -0000



Tad,

The context for the statement is food safety and in regard to negative path=
ogens ONLY. In short, the data showed negative pathogens in parent material=
 and negative pathogens in extracted parent material liquid. It is pretty s=
traight forward from a food safety perspective. The data is specific to my =
situation thus posting it does not provide others with actionable informati=
on since you are not using my parent material.

If you are interested in learning more, you can create your own data set by=
 testing your parent material and AACT liquid for :

Ecoli
Salmonella
Shingella
Fecal coliforms
Listeria

which are some of the target microbial 'outlaws' in Food Safety Land.

Here is what you can do.... First, you can validate that you do not have p=
athogens in both your parent material and AACT liquid. Second, you can veri=
fy the same by testing multiple batches to get a big enough dataset to anal=
yze where n=30.

Also one additional point to consider is that unless you have validated you=
r equipment cleaning procedures than your equipment could be a source for p=
athogenic biofilm, from say, prior bird or mouse poop. This has nothing to =
do with AACT and everything to do with equipment design (i.e. 90 degree ang=
les) and sanitation and storage location.

All of this is academic and kinda of boring if you are primary using the AA=
CT on your garden and wash your vegeees before eating.

If you work in commercial ag than all this is all part of being in Food Saf=
ety Land......

At the recent Vermiculture conference I attended there was some great side =
discussion on food safety and composted dairy manure based vermicompost. =
 

Mike Flynn
Green Quest LLC
BioSpecific LLC

--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, Tad Hussey <tadhussey_at_...> wrote:
>
> Mike,
>
> Would you be so kind as to post this data, and expand on what you mean by=
 this
> statement?
> "In many ways, the extract(s) more reflects the compost or vermicompost =
that it
> was made from. The testing I have done supports this."
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Tad
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: mikethewormguy <mikethewormguy_at_...>
> To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Mon, May 30, 2011 1:03:30 PM
> Subject: [compost_tea] Re: Anaerobic Activity
>
>
>
>
> Tim,
>
> I agree that some of the same issues apply to extract and AACT. Both AACT=
 and
> extract have a degree of risk tied to them but not to the same degree.
>
> Liquid extracts are far less dynamic and more dormant spore environments.=
  In
> many ways, the extract(s) more reflects the compost or vermicompost that =
it was
> made from. The testing I have done supports this. Thus if the vermicompos=
t
> parent materials is pathogen negative than there is a very good probabili=
ty that
> the water extract will also be pathogen negative.
>
>
> At the end of the day, it becomes a risk based business decision as to wh=
ether
> to use AACT on a commercial food crop during its growout phase. It is the=
 market
> that the grower needs to convince.
>
> BTW.... I do not have any vermicompost extracts applied during the crop g=
rowout
> cycle. It is not worth the risk for me. There are other tools available =
to me
> for use during growout.
>
> There is no right or wrong to the use of AACT on food crops. I had one gr=
ower
> tell me that his customers do not keep him from using AACT during the gro=
wout
> but they just won't buy the product. So what would you do ?
>
> There are many fine uses for AACT where food safety is not the primary is=
sue.
>
> 3 cents...
>
> Mike Flynn
> Green Quest LLC
> BioSpecific LLC
>
> --- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Tim Wilson" <thegoodjob_at_> wrote:
> >
> > Mike, I'm sure you are aware that the exact same applies to liquid comp=
ost
> >extract.
> >
>




Received on Mon May 30 2011 - 20:23:52 EDT

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