Perhaps there's a biomimetic starter here. It's well known that seeds can survive all sorts of abuse. Casual observation (by a well-credited casual observer friend who used, as they say, to work in sewage) suggests that tomato seeds are particularly good at withstanding the conditions of a sewerage system, yet there's no reason to think that they are excessively represented in the input to the sewers. So here we have an interesting selection system; perhaps tomatoes know something that we don't, and there may be some use in it.
Julian
On 19 Aug 2012, at 11:33, Vik Olliver wrote:
> On 16/08/12 08:22, Julian Vincent wrote:
>> Paris used to be a net exporter of horticultural produce fed by the night soil which was collected every morning. London the same. There are still holes in the wall in the back lanes around Bath where the night soil collectors would ply their trade. Far more sensible than current practise. There was never such a thing as a waste product or waste stream - just a resource which was unexploited. Only by exploiting such streams can we hope to preserve our way of life.
> Vestiges of this still persisted in the 60's. I recall that as a young'un in the Devizes area, the best tomato plants were said to come from the local sewage works...
>
> Vik :v)
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