Your Fruit And Veggies Might Soon Be Fertilized By Pee

Most people know that food is, much of the time, fertilized by…poop. Cow poop, specifically – but poop. And we accept it. We turn a blind eye to it. Yeah, it’s not exactly the most appealing thought in the world, but nutrient-rich animal waste can help fruit and vegetables turn from dubious to glorious. It’s just the circle of life. 

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Would we feel the same if human waste were used, though? That question might be put to the test soon, as your food may well be nourished in the near future by pee. Yep. Human pee. Let’s talk about it. 

Aurin: The Next Step In Fertilization?

Yesterday, Food & Wine reported that Aurin, a Swiss-made universal fertilizer created with processed, nutrient-rich human urine, is now being shipped to the United States. Made by VunaNexus, Aurin turns urine into fertilizer by treating it with two different types of bacteria to convert ammonia (which delivers that pee smell) into nitrate and bind the desired nutrients before filtering and distilling it to remove drug residue, hormones, and any other pollutants in the solution. Aurin is distilled 20 times to concentrate it, and it’s also pasteurized. 

The result is a fertilizer that can be used widely and which, mercifully, has no odor. “The fertilizer has the same effect as other fertilizers, it’s completely depolluted, and it doesn’t smell — people always ask about the smell,” said VunaNexus’s co-founder David de Chambrier. Aurin has already started to be incorporated into farming processes in several European countries. 

And…Why Is It Taking Off?

Two reasons: Cost and sustainability. The last few years, in all their chaos and disruptions, have seen nitrogen fertilizer prices rise significantly – and using human urine, a waste product with the nutrients needed to support plant growth, is a way to keep costs lower. If it’s only going to be discarded, why not employ it?

On the sustainability front, Aurin (and other human urine-based fertilizers that may emerge) offers a way to salvage resources we need that might be dropping in quantity elsewhere. “There is [a] growing recognition that many of the materials we rely on for food production are not unlimited,” says the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy’s deputy director, Rachel A. Meidl. “Phosphorus, for example, is a critical nutrient with geographically concentrated reserves, while nitrogen fertilizer production is energy-intensive and closely linked to natural gas markets.” Both nutrients, though, are readily available in human urine.

So, the biggest stumbling block to all of this might be in the mind, people. If we can get over all those mental images that are surely popping into your heads, this might be a good thing.