MetroGro

WARNING! Sewage sludge is toxic. Food should not be grown in "biosolids." Join the Food Rights Network.

MetroGro is a Madison, WI product sold as fertilizer but made from sewage sludge. Hundreds of communities across the U.S. sell toxic sludge products that are typically renamed biosolids and sold or given away as "fertilizer" or "compost" (and often even labeled or marketed as "natural" or "organic").

According to one website:

"The city of Madison, Wisconsin produces an anaerobically-digested biosolids product, called MetroGro, that is marketed to local agriculture. Every year, about 30 million gallons of MetroGro are sold to fertilize 3,000 to 4,000 acres of farm land. More that 30,000 acres of private farm land are enrolled in the MetroGro program. MetroGro is delivered to the farm sites in 6,000-gallon semi-tanker trucks and the biosolids are applied using 3,500-gallon application vehicles which inject the product into the soil. MetroGro is applied primarily to fertilize corn, soybeans and alfalfa."

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Biosolids
• Sewage sludge
• Food Rights Network
• Sewage sludge giveaways, producers, and brands
• The EPA's plan to bypass opposition to sewage sludge disposal
• Water Environment Federation
• You say biosolids, I say sewage sludge

External resources

• Marie Kulick, Smart Guide on Sludge Use and Food Production, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2008.
• Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey: EPA-822-R-08-016 and EPA-822-R-08-018, EPA, January 2009.
• Environmental Working Group, Dumping Sewage Sludge On Organic Farms? Why USDA Should Just Say No, April, 1998.
• Environmental Working Group, Routes of Exposure sewage sludge: EWG Research on Chemicals in sewage sludge, April 30, 1998.

External articles

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