Feeding Social Organisms | The Nutrients Recovery Project
org/human_soil/feeding/
A balanced input of green waste and FERMENTED human waste products are treated in a two-step process of
lacto-fermentation and vermin-composting.
COLLECT INGREDIENTS Obtain fresh, finely
shredded wood clippings (for its molecule-
building lignin) and mix with plant-based
charcoal powder, wood ash, dolomite rock
powder (for its trace elements) and living, local
soil (introducing critters). Per person establish
three compost beds each 1 by 2.5 m in size and
piled up max. 40 cm high. Keep substrate moist
and warm.
BUILDING NUTRITION BUFFER Layer up
compost heap with ingredients, keep it moist
and control acidity. Let microbes do their magic.
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FERMENT & APPLY URINE Collect urine in
recycled milk containers and ferment with
sauerkraut brine (pickled cabbage juice). After
the month-long lacto-acid fermentation its pH
value needs to go below 4 and turn sour. Only
pH-tested urine is applied at a rate of 3 liters
every third day over each compost bed (sized 2.5
m). The charcoal and organic buffer will
gradually absorb this stabilised nitrogen tonic.
WELCOME THE EARTHWORMS Ensure that
pH value of compost bed is around 7 and
release earth worms sourced by friends or
online. Be patient until worms have done their
work and migrating somewhere else. Analyze
and evaluate the finished Terra Preta substrate
before moving on.
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FEEDING SOCIAL ORGANISMS
MAKING TERRA PRETA
Terra Preta provides regenerating,
long-lasting soil fertility informed by recent
insights on plant nutrition and the role of soil
microbes. This empathetic approach is guided
by the practice of biologist Jrgen Reckin and
scientific research at the Institute of
Wastewater Management at Hamburg
University of Technology and allows the
conversion of human waste products into the
food cycle in a responsible and safe way.
The system is based on a balanced input of
green waste and human waste products that
are treated in a two-step process of lacto-
fermentation, followed by vermin-composting.
Lacto-fermentation (widely used to preserve
foods) is a biological anaerobic (airless)
process that doesn't release any odors.
Vermin-composting employs the digestion of
earth worms which make nutrients palpable to
plant roots.
An organic charcoal mix (containing finely
shredded wood and ash) provides the buffer
medium to host the micro-organisms and
optimize the carbon-nitrogen ratio required for
vermin-composting. The high black carbon
content is characteristic for Terra Preta soils,
which contributes to their amazing water
retention and nutrition storage properties.
Instead of using artificial (mineral) fertilizer,
fully stabilized, fermented urine is used
because it concentrates 80% of water-soluble
plant nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium delivered free of charge by the
human organism day by day.
The Nutrients Recovery adapts the Terra Preta
method that works best using a minimum of
resources alongside full-time employment
and with existing infrastructures. The main
pre-requisite is time since it takes up to six
months to produce Terra Preta black soil
consisting of the following phases:
1) Lacto-fermentation of urine (ca. one
month)
2) Micro-biological conversion of carbon
and nutrients (ca. three months)
3) Vermin-composting (ca. two months)
Between each phase the developing substrate
is observed and moderated to ensure the
integrity of the final fertilizer. Depending on
22/09/2017 16:49
Feeding Social Organisms | The Nutrients Recovery Project http://www.socialorganism.org/human_soil/feeding/

weather and local conditions this process will

be sensitively adapted.

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FERTILIZE, PLANT & GROW Apply Terra HARVEST, EAT & START OVER Analyze crop
Preta fertilizer, about 10 liters per square meter for nutrients, yield and taste. Eat the produce
of planting bed. Mix 10 to 20 cm deep and mix and make home-brewed sauerkraut. Share
lightly with hoe. Don't flip it over or burry into experiences and learn from mistakes.
the ground so that it retains its coherence and
grow deeper over the years. Grow cabbage and
other veggies on local soil with and without
Terra Preta for comparison.

REFERENCES

Development Process and Possible Manufacturing Method, Notes from an excursion to Dr. Jrgen Reckin's
Terra Preta garden on April 28, 2012 [German], Kathrin Ollendorf, Wendepunkt Zukunft, 2012.
http://wendepunktzukunft.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/TerraPreta_Exkursion_DrReckin-3.pdf [Accessed:
24.iv.2013]

The Amazon, Unnatural Histories. TV documentary, BBC Four. The story of a far less natural Amazon is revealed
enormous manmade structures, even cities, hidden for centuries under what was believed to be untouched
forest. All the time archaeologists are discovering ancient, highly fertile soils that can only have been produced by
sophisticated agriculture far and wide across the Amazon basin. This startling evidence sheds new light on
long-dismissed accounts from the very first conquistadors of an Amazon teeming with people and threatens to
turn our whole notion of wilderness on its head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YS8I6AZRfg [cue at 34:44 minutes]

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