Have you ever come across poop donators?

Yes, this is a thing. And actually, it's not funny. Your poop can help patients live longer, and your poop won't qualify that easily for a donation either. Well, why not just take antibiotics (also made through fermentation), you might ask. And here's why:

The frozen stool is administered to patients who are very sick with infections of a bacteria called C. difficile. The bacteria can cause extreme gastrointestinal distress, leaving some sufferers housebound. Antibiotics often help, but sometimes the bacteria rears back as soon as treatment stops. That leads to a miserable, continuous course of antibiotics.

Your Stool Has Potential

Now that you have a first idea why stool is not as useless as you might have thought, find out how to unleash this secret power. In case poop donation is not for you, or your sample doesn't qualify for helping others, your stool still can make a huge difference in your life:

You can start producing your own electricity.
Buddhist monks use urine as a cure for many ailments.
You can even use it for cleaning.
It lends itself as a fertilizer for all the gardeners among you.
Let it be your health indicator.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” - The Dalai Lama

Power Your Own Home

No matter where you live, now you can make your own artificial stomach for kitchen scrap, food waste and animal manure.

This video and article show you how to do it:

Anyone who has built his/her own biogas machine at home, please comment below. I'd be too curious to hear your real-life experiences!

Nitrogen, Help Me Grow

So why would you ferment urine? If you are looking to improve the soil fertility in your garden, collect urine in your outdoor containers via pee jars or buckets and let it sit for a few weeks. This way you are making 'lant' for your nitrogen-loving plants such as greens and corns. Online you'll find many gardeners who make good use of their own pee.

Sandor Ellix Katz writes about a aquaponics gardener who really did her homework. She used urine as a nutrient in her gardening system and had a lab check her urine samples. Some of the samples were deliberately contaminated with fecal matter, some were sent fresh and some got to the lab after having been aged until their pH had risen to 9.

"Both fresh batches tested positive for fecal coliforms, both fermented batches tested negative. This convinced her that her own urine doesn't make her sick when aged if used as fertilizer for a pee-ponic system." - The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Especially in Uganda the potential of aged urine as a fertilizer has become an acknowledged practice in farming. As stool can be seen as a nitrogen resource universally available, it is no longer wasted in homes.

Mary Batwaweela reports: "Each allocated family member gets a tin and every morning it is taken to a big container where it remains for 28 days. Then the aged pee is diluted 1:1 with water in dry weather, full strength when the soil is saturated with water." - The Art of Fermentation

How huge the impact of feces can be!

Pee Can See You Through This

The idea of ignoring the smell of feces and rather using their benefits to our advantage is not new. Romans have done it before us, ancient China has recognized feces as a cure and Buddhist monks still believe in the healing power of feces, also for veterinary purposes. Romans even used feces to tan leather to their liking.

Are You Still Cleaning Pee - or Already Cleaning WITH Pee?

What happens with pee, when you let it ferment? An alkaline fermentation increases pH and produces ammonia.

"Exactly as acidifying fermentation destroys many pathogens, so does this alkalinizing ferment."

Pee as a cleaning tool was already discovered as early as 1890 by the American Society of Microscopists. And by far, this was not the only place. Using fermented pee for cleaning has been around in China or India for a very long time.

Don't Underestimate the Power of Things That Are Universally Available Just Because They Are

Apart from the many uses of (not only) human fermented feces outlined above, you can also use them as a health indicator. Observing its shades ranging from transparent yellow over amber, honey and orange to dark yellow can help you notice physical changes on time. Don't get blindfolded by the strong smell covering up the huge potential. And how often do we ridicule a certain topic just because we don't know enough about it? Think about it.

I agree with Rose George:

"Let's talk crap. Seriously."

Content by Martina Hollweck

You Can Sell Your Poop for $13 000 a Year, or Power Your Own Home