By Tatiana Schreiber
This past year, Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont, partnered with Gedakina, based in Essex, Vermont, to grow several crops traditionally grown by Indigenous peoples in the Northeast and explore using human urine as a fertilizer on these crops.
Since its founding in 2012, Rich Earth Institute has been researching the diversion of urine from waste streams and its use as a fertilizer. Human waste is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other elements essential to plant growth. Urine contains most of the nutrients in human waste, containing 80-85% of the nitrogen and 66% of the phosphorus we flush away daily. For these reasons, Rich Earth has focused on researching the most effective ways to collect, store and treat urine to keep those nutrients out of waterways and instead use them to grow plants.
Gedakina, an organization made up of Native American/First Nations peoples and their allies, is focused on revitalizing cultural knowledge and identity among Native American women and their families throughout New England. Its mission is to conserve "traditional homelands and places of historical, ecological, and spiritual significance and educate others about their importance." Of primary interest is reclaiming knowledge about how to grow and use traditional crops and save their seeds while meeting the nutritional needs of families.
According to Gedakina Executive Director Judy Dow, the organization is always looking to find small, semi-secluded garden locations to avoid cross-pollination of traditional seeds. The group also prioritizes educational opportunities. Partnering with Rich Earth provided an opportunity to meet both goals – growing out several seed varieties and learning more about the potential value of urine as a fertilizer for these crops.
Another benefit to the partnership was the ability to grow traditional crops in a diversity of soil and climatic conditions, learn where they grow best, and provide resilience in light of the unpredictability of weather due to climate change. Other grow-out locations this year included the Corse Farm in Whitingham, VT, and Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, VT.
The varieties selected for the Rich Earth garden included Abenaki flint corn (also known as Abenaki Calais Flint), Haudenosaunee Crookneck squash (also known as Iroquois Crookneck), Algonquin Long Pie squash, Yellow bean, Skunk bean (likely the same as “Chester” or Flagg bean), and Seneca sunflowers. Sanitized urine, collected via Rich Earth's Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program in Brattleboro, fertilized these crops. The urine was about 3:1 (water: urine) and applied with a watering can. (For more information on using urine in a garden, see Rich Earth's Home Use Guide.)
Gedakina staff member Erin Maile O’Keefe worked with Rich Earth staff to select the varieties, provide the seeds, design the garden plots and assist with garden maintenance. As another garden experiment, we explored the use of urine-charged wool pellets on some of the corn and squash with excellent results. Wool pellets are waste wool that is pelletized by a machine. The urine was added during the pelletizing process.
Dow explained that one reason she is particularly interested in exploring the “pee/seed relationship” stems from a Northeastern Indigenous oral tradition that some seeds need to have a connection with human bodily fluids to grow well. For this reason, seeds are sometimes put in one's mouth before planting. Dow would also like to explore and learn more about the historical uses of urine as a fertilizer by Indigenous peoples. She quotes Potawatomi author and plant ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, who was told that Potawatomi ancestors would put squash seeds in a deerskin bag with "a little water or urine a week before planting to hurry them along."
Both organizations look forward to partnering again next year, with a goal to host several educational events celebrating indigenous crops and their uses, as well as the potential to close nutrient loops by learning more about historical and contemporary uses of urine as fertilizer.
Tatiana Schreiber is the Social Research Director at Rich Earth Institute and also a long-time NOFA member and grower of heirloom and unusual seedlings for gardeners. Readers of this article are invited to send any information you may have about this to either judydow@Gedakina.org or tatiana@richearthinstitute.org.
Links:
Urine My Garden, richearthinstitute.org/publications/home-use-guide/
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