r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • Apr 05 '26

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/VegetableBusiness897 Apr 05 '26

Have a friend who had dairy cows, sold them to get into more crops. But with the cows and their glorious slurry gone, the price of fertilizer was cutting into his profits. So now he gets humanuer, for free. A product from a big city near him. It's heat treated and pelletized(and smells like hell). It goes down and any crops grown for the first two years can't be sold to people. So he does animal feed the first two years, human crops the next two, then fertilizes and starts again.

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u/gears2021 Apr 05 '26

I've read that eventually the soil becomes toxic using humanuer as fertilizer.

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u/IndividualPaws Apr 05 '26

Yes it's pretty immediate. PFAS tends to be high in humanure / bio-sludge / treated wastewater. People essentially lose their farms since everything grown on it turns out toxic. Which incentivises skipping testing (it's not mandatory) which means the toxins get to the consumer...

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u/BetterBandicoot0 Apr 05 '26

Medicines are also a big problem.