76 results for author: SOIL In the News
Food Tank: 22 Organizations Working to Restore Soils in 2016
by Danielle Nierenberg, Stephanie Van Dyke, and Michaela Elias According to the recent United Nations report, Status of the World’s Soil Resources, the world can ameliorate soil degradation if more sustainable practices are promptly implemented. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines soil degradation as "a change in the soil health status resulting in a diminished capacity of the ecosystem to provide goods and services for its beneficiaries. Degraded soils have a health status, such that they do not provide the normal goods and services of the particular soil in its ecosystem.” Soils are naturally incredibly ...
Virgin: These eco-toilets prove that you CAN polish a turd
"Ever heard of the ‘poop loop’? It’s a slightly more playful way of describing ecological sanitation – a process by which nutrients from human waste returns to the soil rather than polluting fresh water resources. And if you’ve ever perched atop a composting toilet then you’ve been hooped into the poop loop too." - Katie McCory, Virgin, January 7 2016. Read the full article here.
Support SOIL Other Recent SOIL Coverage
Medium: In Haiti, Turning Human Waste to Flowers
"One program has found a way to turn feces into agricultural compost. Can it help a country with a limited sanitation system?"
"The use of human waste as compost may first give pause — but to [Marline] Jean, it’s a minor miracle. 'Everyone who comes here and goes to use the toilet always has a lot of questions about it,' she said. 'Some don’t even believe that this is possible.'" - Alexis Barnes, Medium, January 19, 2016. Read the full article here. And check out the gorgeous photos by Chris Buck!
Want to see more of SOIL in the news?
[catlist name=in-the-news numberposts=5 pagination=no]
Pippa Biddle: Seeing Poverty as a Business Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing
"’Poverty is a business,’ Patricia Wolff, founder of Meds & Food for Kids was quoted as saying in a 2010 New York Times article about a nutritional, peanut-based paste that has transformed the treatment of acute malnutrition in children. She got a lot of flack for that quote, but I think that she was on to something. Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly inclined to prefer hand-up’s over handouts. Calling poverty a business might be punchy and inflammatory, basically asking nonprofiter’s and proponents of aid to rip into it, but it’s a statement that’s more about sustainability than profitability. When I was in ...
Ramen IR: Waste to Resource: Sanitation Solutions in Haiti
"Development of sanitation systems is considered one of the greatest improvements in public health over the last century. But despite advancements, 2.5 billion people around the world still live without adequate sanitation facilities. The resulting impacts from fecal matter contamination are significant, detrimentally affecting both human and environmental health. Today, most of us in developed countries do not think twice about where our “waste” goes once we flush the toilet, thanks to the development of municipal sanitation systems by which large cities are able to flourish without devastating disease outbreaks. While effective sanitation ...
DW: “Starting a poop to compost movement”
"Long before the devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, the island nation was beset by a laundry list of environmental woes, ranging from deforestation to a lack of clean water. Satellite images reveal the countryside is devoid of lush vegetation. After a rainstorm, Haiti appears to ooze into the Caribbean Sea, due to the lack of plant life to prevent soil erosion.
A nonprofit responds to the crisis
Adequate sanitation is a fundamental right, believes Sasha Kramer, SOIL's executive director. 'When you have a toilet, you completely take it for granted. It's when you don't have access to one and need ...
The MOON: The problem is the SOILution, An interview with Sasha Kramer
"Sasha Kramer is a slight, blonde former New Yorker who got a Ph.D. in ecology from Stanford University in 2006, the same year she co-founded SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)—a nonprofit headquartered in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. SOIL’s mission is to “promote dignity, health, and sustainable livelihoods through the transformation of wastes into resources.” In other words, composting human wastes to create the rich, black soil that Haiti desperately needs, while eliminating the pathogens and pollution the country doesn’t need. SOIL doesn’t intend to do this for Haitians, but to support them in undertaking this work—as a ...
Beyond the Headlines- Helping Haiti: Is Aid the Cure or the Disease?
"The man next to me on the bus strikes up a conversation during a rare smooth section of road from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien. “Are you a missionary?” “No.” “Do you work for a NGO?” “No.” “Then why the heck are you in Haiti?!” He’s not surprised that I want to visit Haiti – in fact, he thinks Haiti is supremely beautiful. He is shocked, however, because almost all Westerners in Haiti work for either missionary or aid organizations.
The Republic of NGOs
Despite fifty years of receiving considerable aid, Haiti has become poorer every year. Haiti bears the dubious honor of hosting more NGOs per ...
After College: Poop Can Be Powerful—Ecological Sanitation with SOIL in Haiti
"You wait on a street corner, taking in the lush tropical scenery and the colorful clothing of the locals. It’s hard to believe that only a few months ago you were still in school, frantically trying to finish your reading for the week’s classes and wondering if you’d ever be able to submit your thesis on time. For a brief moment you totally forget the heat and the noise of your current location and you think back to your tranquil, leafy campus. You imagine running into a friend in the tree-lined circle outside your lecture hall or stopping by a professor’s musty office to discuss an upcoming assignment and take a moment to ponder if she ...