If you're planning on visiting San Francisco City Hall on Thursday, you might want to watch your step.
The Organic Consumers Association plans to dump compost made from human feces on the stairs of City Hall on March 4 to draw attention to a free program offered by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that provides the treated material to anyone who wants it.
The Association claims the SFPUC is misleading people about the makeup of the compost because materials that describe the program have claimed it's "organic." The Association also says the compost is "toxic" and contains hazardous materials from heavily industrialized communities "like Fresno and Solano."
Food grown in fertilizer made from human waste, which the SFPUC calls "biosolids" and the Organic Consumers Association calls "sewage sludge," cannot be labeled "organic," according to United States Department of Agriculture rules.
But the SFPUC said it met with the Organic Consumers Association and removed the word "organic" from its literature about the "Compost Giveaway Events," though there was at least one instance where the word "organic" remained on the web site when this reporter checked.
Still, the SFPUC said it's not trying to mislead the public and has literature about the makeup of the compost on its web site and available at its giveaway events. It also provides staff to answer questions at the events. And anyone who feels uncomfortable using biosolids/sewage sludge obviously doesn't have to use it, said SFPUC spokesman Tyrone Jue.
"We hold this (giveaway) at the (water) treatment plant and people have to drive in the gates to pick it up," Jue said. "It's not like we're going around the city and throwing it up in the air."
Poop to Hit Fan at San Francisco City Hall
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Poop to hit fan (well stairs, really) at City Hall
By Lindsay Riddell
San Francisco Business Times, March 2, 2010
Straight to the Source
