Science Memes

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submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

With the disclaimer that I don't know anything about your field....

IMO, if eating food that was nourished by dead humans was inherently unsafe, I believe we would have had significant issues well before now. I have no doubt that when agriculture was new, cemeteries and areas where people have died and left to decompose, would have been used to grow food and if it created any problems, I think we would have seen issues before now.

Again, I'm not a farmer, mortician, scientist, or any other preceived or direct authority on the subject.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

What you've said is true. In my forensics class, we learned that police can actually use plants to find dead bodies, because you can see a noticeable oval of healthier plant growth. Older cemeteries flourish. There's a few stories from the Neolithic Era about planting crops on the deceased, both humans and animals, but it's mostly been erased from history. It wouldn't surprise me if it's happened during Famines or situations like the dust bowl where civilizations weren't rotating crops and depleted the soil.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I heard there was a time when cemetery grass is premium for farmers with grazers