Re: [compost_tea] Re: 131 degrees Farenheit heated compost for 3 days
Hi Elaine,
Your statement below is sufficiently unclear for me to ask you to clarify i=
t.
I hope you are not saying that compost made according to process standards =
will have thriving pathogen populations in 2% of the cases and that's not a=
big deal...
I especially hope you are not saying that 2% of the compost used to make co=
mpost tea has thriving pathogen populations and that's not a big deal.
If 2% of the population got food borne illnesses, that would 6 million peop=
le in the US, or 600,000 Canadians....and most of them would indeed think o=
f it as a big deal.
So how about putting this all a bit more clearly and in proper perspective,=
ie, just what 2 % of which composting process are we really talking about =
here?
Thanks in advance,
Frank Teuton
----- Original Message -----
From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: 131 degrees Farenheit heated compost for 3=
days
I really dislike making broad statements about compost, or tea, based on =
incomplete understanding and testing. Think through the data -
In perhaps 90% of the cases, when temperature and turning are done correc=
tly, compost contains no pathogens worth worrying about. The beneficials a=
re also present, and growing, and we get no re-growth of the pathogerns. =
In maybe 8% of the cases, pathogens are clearly present, but don't re-gro=
w.
In perhaps 2% of cases, pathogens survive and are very happy. Why? What=
are the conditions that allow this to happen?
That's what needs to be understood. But this number of failures is not e=
nough to require new regs to be written about the situation. The percentag=
e of ":odd cases" is inadequate. You can't make a federal case out of some=
thing that is so low incidence.
But we need to still understand these unusual situations, and work to fix=
the problem. And the problem is in the composting, not in the tea. These=
odd situations need to be figured out, but don't throw the baby out with t=
he bath water!
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand
"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out we=
ll, but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how th=
ings turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic
Received on Thu Mar 04 2004 - 23:55:23 EST
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