SOIL Gets Productive with Poop

SOIL is a non-profit founded in 2006 that works in Haiti, teaching the people living there how to grow their own food with the help of an interesting and stinky component; poop. The National Geographic video about the organization,“Holy Crap!” says that they have installed nearly 200 toilets in small villages throughout Haiti where after the 2010 earthquake many were left homeless and jobless and where deforestation has wreaked havoc on the land making many Haitans dependent on imported foods. According to the video only 16% of rural Haitians and 50% of those in cities have access to sanitation facilities and since the earthquake many have resorted to dumping the waste in rivers used for drinking water and bathing.   The best part of this project isn’t just the fact that they’re taking the poop, it’s what the organization is doing with it. After the waste is collected in the toilets, carried off in barrels and loaded onto trucks, it’s taken to a compost center where it is sombined with the sugar byproduct Bagasse and turned into fertilizer. The fertilzer is rich with nutrients that help to grow crops on small farms throughout the country. To learn more about SOIL, check out their website or watch the video below.