ECO FLOORS MADE FROM COW POO!
by Emily Pilloton
While some may look at cows as sources of meat, dairy, or leather, researchers at Michigan State University have found a more sustainable (and abundant!), yet equally useful bovine by-product: you guessed it, manure. Surprisingly, the material, when sterilized, is entirely odorless and offers some wonderful characteristics for the production of a variety of fiberboard building materials. The manure essentially replaces the role of sawdust in the production of particle boards, which would cut wood usage as well as posing a creative solution to the huge problem of agricultural waste disposal (1.5 to 2 TRILLION tons of you-know-what per year!)
The Michigan State experts say that the cowpies’ fibers are even stronger and more self-binding than their wooden counterparts. Who knew such a stinky and (rightfully) overlooked material could be so useful! Now that’s what we call “green.”
While we love the idea of using cow manure as the basic ingredient, we do have some concerns about the continued use of chemical resins as the binding agent. We’d love to see some alternative ideas so that the end product might be as green as possible. On the plus side, due to the sheer abundance of the raw materials, costs of production are literally dirt-cheap. The Michigan State researchers are currently continuing their research and development of the cow manure fiberboards thanks to a grant from the Michigan Biomass Energy Program.
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Where do we draw the line ? As William Burroughs said in ‘Naked Lunch’, if Aliens came to our planet and observed us… they’d see us as the ‘Cow parasites’. So finding commercial uses for their dung just seems like a continuation of the ‘Bad karma’ trip we’re on with cows. We don’t grass feed most of them, which is how they’d graze in nature. Instead, we feed them cheap cooked grains laced with super high does of antibiotics and ‘rendered’ cow parts. Then we keep female cows pregant and take away their babies at birth so that they mourn their loss. Male cow babies are put in the dark in small crated in enclosures, so that they become veal. This is just a brutal and sad state of affairs. And now we’ve found a way to even ‘parasite’ their dung ? Great. Just great.
We can do better. Lets ease up on the cows, pigs and fowl. Why don’t we back off of the perspective of them being ‘products’ to be ‘havested’ as completely as possible ? And if we’re going to be so complete in our ‘use’ of their once living bodies… why do we discriminate ? Why don’t we take this approach to Human bodies as well ? That is to say why don’t we get real and use Human Milk instead ? And why don’t we use Human Flesh for ‘Leather’ ? I mean, why WASTE ANYTHING ? That’s not ‘Green’ right ?
We reap what we sow. If we create so much death and suffering amongst animals… how can we be surprised if we experience so much misery in our own experience of the world ? We get back what we put forth, or program into, the multiverse. So what will it be ?