I got this book from our local library. It's FANTASTIC. A must read for anybody remotely interested in sustainable living (and wanting to compost human waste). It covers world pollution and consumption issues with a dash of wit. If you think composting poo is disgusting before reading this book, when you've finished you'll think it's disgusting to flush this marvelous potential resource away and in doing so polluting our environment. I'm a total convert. The book describes how to safely compost humanure without resulting smells or pathogens.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149250 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Whole Earth Review
Well written, practical, and thoroughly researched

Synopsis
There are almost seven billion defecating people on planet Earth, but few who have any clue about how to constructively handle the burgeoning mountain of human crap. "The Humanure Handbook, Third edition", will amuse you, educate you, and possibly offend you, but it will certainly pertain to you-unless, of course, your bowels never move. This new edition of The Humanure Handbook is: the tenth anniversary edition; richly illustrated; perfect for reading while sitting on the 'throne'; revised, improved, and updated; and there are 256 pages of crap.

About the Author
Joseph Jenkins has composted humanure at his home in Pennsylvania for twenty-six years, while raising a family. During that time he has developed an extraordinary depth of insight into the processes involved. His easy writing style, thorough research, and execrable humour have caused his self-published books to be published on three continents and circulated around the world. Jenkins has received three national awards for his books and has been a finalist in seven other book award competitions.

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Customer Reviews

Great for the environment!
Due to a plumbing fault in the house, my family have been composting in the back garden on a daily basis for over a year. What a bonus to stumble upon this book and find out that our actions have been helping to preserve the future of our planet! A number of residents in our street have complainined that the local environment has been suffering from some rather unpleasant air pollution of late, so we feel proud to be putting something back.

Great science, narrow philosophy
As a scientist and a human, I found this book to be excellent. It has taught me a lot and opened my eyes to an excellent, cheap and eco-friendly way to deal with my family's effluent! I shall certainly be incorporating his ideas into my soon-to-be-built home, and saving a lot of money by doing so. This book is extremely well-researched and the author certainly knows his stuff.

As a Christian I found his philosophy a bit narrow. He all but blames Christianity for every environmental problem in the world, while in fact he is really angry at the actions of a few people in the past who happened to be Christian. Furthermore he neglects the fact that modern science was founded by Christians such as Lois Pasteur, the famous early microbiologist (to whom the author owes the technique of pasteurisation, a key application of microbiology mentioned several times in the book). True Christians are to be stewards of the earth, not destroy it, as Mr Jenkins would know if he had ever read the first chapter of the Bible.

If he had stuck to the science, this would have been the best book I had ever read. Then the reader could have used the science within their own philosophical framework. But the way he pushes his extreme philosophical views have given this 4 stars instead of 5.

Buy it and read it, it will change your life! But take the philosophy with a pinch of salt.

Brilliant Man, Brilliant Book, Only one and a half problems
This book is informative, well researched and solicits a needed paradigm shift for our culture. I recomend this book highly to anyone who eats. However I found the author's dealing with Christianity to be incomplete. He confuses some (okay most) "Christains" with the precepts of Biblical teaching. As a Christain I find his recomendations to be in line the biblical teachings of stewardship and considering others more important than oneself. The author comes just short of blaming Christianity for the worlds sewage. Even with this said I beleive this book should be read and acted upon by every Christain. Not because we should worship the earth but because it is a gift of God and is therefore precious. I also found the book to be somewhat repetative. I found this to help with the teaching value of the book but it adversely effected the enjoyment of the read. The author should be highly praised for the thoroughness of his research and for his courage to say what needs to be said. Do not let my criticisms disuade you. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!!! With the exception of his treatment of Christianity, I say well done Mr. Jenkins.