Scavengers and decomposers get their energy by eating dead plants or animals. Living organisms require these nutrients to create cells, tissues and to provide energy for life processes. The decomposers complete the cycle by returning essential molecules to the plant producers. Decomposers fungi, bacteria, invertebrates such as worms and insects have the ability to break down dead organisms into smaller particles and create new compounds.
We use decomposers to restore the natural nutrient cycle through controlled composting. Decomposers are the link that keeps the circle of life in motion. The nutrients that decomposers release into the environment become part of the soil, making it fertile and good for plant growth.
These nutrients become a part of new plants that grow from the fertile soil. Biodegradability: Biological and biochemical breakdown of organic materials by the environment. Biodegradability simply means that soil micro-organisms and natural weathering processes are capable of decomposing the material into soil nutrients without leaving any harmful residues behind. Or: something that rots. Bioplastics: Plastics made from renewable plant material or plant products like cornstarch, potato starch, or tapioca.
These can biodegrade. Bioremediation: Any process that uses micro-organisms, fungi, algae, green plants or their enzymes to improve the state of a natural environment altered by contaminants.
Compost: Verb: the controlled process of decomposing organic material. Noun: organic material that can be used as a medium to grow plants. Many times, it is shared between neighboring farms.
Western Washington organic dairy farmer Charlie Dykstra said that without it, organic crop farmers would have to buy their own fertilizer. Because of this, raw manure has the potential to contaminate crops that are typically eaten raw such as carrots, strawberries, green peppers, tomatoes leaf lettuce and spinach, to name just a few, merely by coming into contact with them.
People who eat contaminated produce raw can become ill, sometimes even suffering kidney failure, and in extreme cases, death.
Yet, the U. Department of Agriculture, as well as a great many health officials, advise people to eat as much fresh produce as possible. And therein lies the dilemma. An example is the current outbreak of E. As of mid-May, people in the United States have been confirmed with infections. One person in California died and 20 of the victims have developed severe kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome HUS. The outbreak has affected people in 32 states and four Canadian provinces. Six confirmed outbreak cases are reported in Canada.
According to a study done by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in , fresh produce was responsible for most of the foodborne illnesses in the U. Such statistics spurred Congress to approve the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law in The goal of the Act is to prevent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses instead of reacting to them.
No surprise then that the types of fresh produce that are typically eaten raw came under the regulatory spotlight in what is commonly known as the Produce Safety Rule. Not all fresh produce is subject to the rule, but the vast majority of it is. Raw manure figures into the Produce Rule picture in a big way. Despite that, some produce growers said the Food and Drug Administration went too far in January when it proposed that the Produce Rule include a minimum nine-month interval between the application of raw manure to produce growing fields and the harvest of food from those fields.
The FDA proposal said the interval would reduce the potential pathogen problems that come with raw manure. Composted manure would have been subject to a day minimum pre-harvest application interval. The proposed manure regulation sent shock waves through the farming community with many farmers asking if the FDA knew anything at all about agriculture. According to a USDA survey, farmers reported using raw manure as a fertilizer on nearly 16 million acres of cropland.
In the world of agriculture, nine months is a long time to wait, especially for crops that are harvested in much less time than that, which is commonly the case with produce. However, whether more stringent state standards are more effective at managing waste can depend greatly on how the overseeing agency enforces the rules and the funding granted it by the state government.
In some states, family farm and environmental advocates fed up with lenient regulation and enforcement have petitioned the EPA to revoke state NPDES authorization, arguing that the state is not adequately protecting the environment and public health from CAFO pollution.
For example, several groups in Iowa filed a de-authorization petition requesting withdrawal of authorization from the Department of Natural Resources DNR in While the EPA imposes no federal requirements on CAFO air pollution, some states have regulations on odor management or abatement; some also regulate pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide or dust. It is worth noting that states with the most CAFOs, including Iowa, North Carolina and California, have particularly lax laws, regulation and enforcement on water and air quality, while states trying to attract CAFO development often do so by making these standards more lenient, including by exempting animal feeding operations from pollution rules that govern industries, such as municipal waste management, solid waste disposal and manufacturing.
Lawsuits against large CAFO owners are on the rise. To address dangerous bacteria, researchers have discovered cattle feed additives, as well as compounds that can be added directly to manure to dramatically decrease E.
The most well-known technological solution is the so-called anaerobic manure digester; such digesters are sometimes promoted by environmentalists as a way for CAFOs to become environmentally-friendly. Digesters use a combination of microbes, heat, water and agitation to process waste, producing methane gas that can be used for energy, liquid manure that can be used for fertilizer and solid manure that can be used for composting and cow bedding.
The resulting manure products are supposed to be cleaned of phosphorous and other pollutants and, therefore, safer to spread as fertilizer. But despite the federal and state investment, skepticism about the technology is growing. Some state groups have not waited for these changes — by becoming members of the statewide commission that allocates funds, they have changed the rules to stop or dramatically curtail EQIP funds going to CAFOs.
Policymakers, instead of using taxpayer dollars to prop up factory farms, should be implementing and enforcing environmental and public health regulations for them, and supporting sustainable, pasture-based alternatives.
First name Last name Email address. The Problem of Animal Waste In , livestock and poultry on the largest concentrated animal feeding operations CAFOs produced million tons of manure: this was almost 13 times more waste than that of the entire US population of million. Food and the Environment.
Learn How They're Connected. Terms to Know. What You Can Do Support pasture-raised farms with your food dollars: it is one real way to demonstrate demand for a different kind of agricultural system.
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