In Coprophagy There Is Harmony

TheMadFool

It's no secret that for the earth's biosphere to maintain itself, a balance must be maintained between the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom. This is for the reason that these two kingdoms maintain the oxygen-carbondioxide balance in the atmosphere, a balance that's crucial to both plants and animals.

A key aspect of this balance, the reason why this balance exists and is self-sustaining, is that the exchange that characterizes it has to do with waste products - plants do photosynthesis and oxygen is waste product of that process and animals use oxygen as the primary fuel for their metabolism and the waste product of animals is carbondioxide which is then consumed by plants for photosynthesis. This balance between plants and animals is based, as might be obvious to the reader by now, on coprophagy, defined as the consumption of excrement/feces. The bottom line, plants are eating animal shit and animals are eating plant shit.

Coprophagy as a mutual relationship between two life-forms is the perfect foundation for harmony for there is no reason for conflict - each wants what the other doesn't want.

The environmental crisis which ecologists talk about these days - deforestation, desertification, etc. - can easily be explained by the human species making an exit from the coprophagous relationship between plants and animals, cutting down trees for agriculture, cities, furniture, firewood, etc.

It seems then that, taking the mutually beneficial coprophagous relationship between plants and animals as a paradigm case, to achieve a self-sustaining harmony that works well all we need to do is establish a coprophagous relationships between life-forms.

In common parlance we should all be eating each other's shit.

(One) The secret of harmony is coprophagy.

Metaphysician Undercover

Please, don't let my dog know these opinions.

TheMadFool

Please, don't let my dog know these opinions. — Metaphysician Undercover

:rofl: My lips are sealed.

Benj96

↪TheMadFool

I think we havent quite escaped natures self-regulatory processes. When we get over confident in our dominance nature has a tendency to say "eat shit" and sends a pandemic, or exponential rise in cancer, climate change, social conflicts, poverty, famine and all the other nasties that cut a population down to a manageable size. We cant keep populating the planet like we are doing that much is clear.

Nature will balance the books either way. The only choice is whether we do it ourselves in a way we can control to mitigate suffering or do we simply ignore the issues we create until they minimise our impact by default.

Nils Loc

Radio Lab: Poop Train

Somewhat amusing podcast about biosolids from New York City sewage plants being transported to Colorado for use in agriculture for a time.

My own city makes this stuff, biosolids (sewage cake), but I bet it gets thrown into the landfills. Apparently studies show that it's ecologlically safe but I wonder how exhaustive the testing has been.

ernestm

This is for the reason that these two kingdoms maintain the oxygen-carbondioxide balance in the atmosphere, a balance that's crucial to both plants and animals. — TheMadFool

It is intriguing, although I don't share your interest in waste products, what I would note is that human beings seem to think they are the 'winners' and 'control everything,' but to me the only real victor of evolution has been the vegetable. One would think fruits are more likely to survive than vegetables, but even though animals consume the seeds, they carry on, and most notably, no one is ever nasty to a vegetable. People will shoot melons with crossbows and guns on shooting ranges, but they never shoot a vegetable, for some reason, vegetables are the only thing we seem to respect and not wantonly destroy for entertainment or to vent anger, vegetables are always ok. Everything else gets blown up, killed, flattened to the ground, and disintegrated, but vegetables just carry on blithely without having to do anything at all, they get planted, they get looked after, and no one hates them, and no one attacks them.

BC

↪Metaphysician Undercover

Our dog was informed early on that if she engaged in coprophagy she would be express-deported to the pound. She never touched the stuff.

fdrake

The reason why the snake bites its tail in symbols of infinity is to eat its own poop.

TheMadFool

The reason why the snake bites its tail in symbols of infinity is to eat its own poop. — fdrake

:clap: :up:

Our dog was informed early on that if she engaged in coprophagy she would be express-deported to the pound. She never touched the stuff. — Bitter Crank

:lol: On a more serious note, a lot of parasititc worms and germs are known to use a feco-oral route for transmission. Looks like you just blew my theory out of the water. Coprophagy has a huge downside.

vegetable — ernestm

Eating vegetables that are technically fruits seem ok. After all, fruits come from flowers which are, to call it what it is, plant genitalia and if plant genitalia are anywhere like their human counterparts, they should be situated embarassingly close to the backdoor. On the whole fruit-vegetables are almost like , in terms of proximity of source, to shit.

I think we havent quite escaped natures self-regulatory processes. When we get over confident in our dominance nature has a tendency to say "eat shit" and sends a pandemic, or exponential rise in cancer, climate change, social conflicts, poverty, famine and all the other nasties that cut a population down to a manageable size. We cant keep populating the planet like we are doing that much is clear.

Nature will balance the books either way. The only choice is whether we do it ourselves in a way we can control to mitigate suffering or do we simply ignore the issues we create until they minimise our impact by default. — Benj96

Eating shit could be the solution to the so-called biological arms race - each species developing defenses to avoid being eaten and others finding ways to overcome these defenses.

Somewhat amusing podcast about biosolids from New York City sewage plants being transported to Colorado for use in agriculture for a time.

My own city makes this stuff, biosolids (sewage cake), but I bet it gets thrown into the landfills. Apparently studies show that it's ecologlically safe but I wonder how exhaustive the testing has been. — Nils Loc

Nice! That's the way to go. Fertilizers had humble beginnings in animal and human dung.

ernestm

↪TheMadFool

Well what of pothos then, devils ivy by common name, which only requires a glass of water to grow? Where does it fit in your schema?

TheMadFool

Well what of pothos then, devils ivy by common name, which only requires a glass of water to grow? Where does it fit in your schema? — ernestm

Well, if it's green then we're in business.

ernestm

↪TheMadFool

yes lol its very green. Maybe you would like to try growing some. Alot of people have a glass with devil's ivy over their sink. It drinks alot of water so its the sensible place for it.

TheMadFool

yes lol its very green. Maybe you would like to try growing some. Alot of people have a glass with devil's ivy over their sink. It drinks alot of water so its the sensible place for it. — ernestm

I have a black thumb. Thanks for the suggestion though.

In Coprophagy There Is Harmony

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