Chapter 21 - We Need A Plan

Mr Hoskins walked into class just that little too soon as all good teachers do. He was just in time to hear Stevens call Johann, who was German, a wanker. "Don't you think that the notion of shame belongs in the past. Apologise to Johann."

Stevens began with a barely suppressed smile, "Sorry Johann, it won't make you blind. But it is a modified Nazi salute!"

The class lost it with laughter and Hoskins pointed to the door, which everyone knew meant see the headmaster. Stevens left and the class settled down. "In our biology project we have, wisely or unwisely, been given the freedom to set our own project and produce our own reports on it. There is to be one project for the whole class but students can produce their own reports or group reports. So if you think you're better at writing it on your own that's fine but if you want to do it with a friend then that's fine as well.

Now the big question is, what kind of a project can we come up with. Any ideas?"

Imogen raised her hand, "Professor Timothy G. Myles has stated that decompiculture, being our relationship with decomposer organisms, may represent the next leap forward in human evolution. If Australia is going to be in the running we need to consider optimum trace elements required for optimum human edible biomass production from say when most of the carbon input is from eucalyptus leaves."

Mr Hoskins was quiet for a few minutes as he considered this. "For the benefit of the class decomposer organisms are things like termites, woodlice, earwigs, slugs and earthworms that help in the breakdown of organic matter. I know you're all going to say yuck but all of the above are edible by humans..."

"Yuck!!!", chorused the class.

"... but chickens are more than happy to eat these critters and give us meat and eggs in return. However all of those invertebrates can be processed into powder and incorporated into a wide range of processed foods. This can help feed a hungry world without trashing the environment. Can anyone think of any other benefits to producing food with this approach?"

The teacher responded to the raised hand, "Yes Daniel."

"The average daily water consumption in Australia is 340 litres per person per day. However we only need about four and a half litres of potable water for drinking. The excess ends up as black water, being from the toilet, or grey water from showers and the washing machine. As you know Albany sits on granite covered by sand. My house like many homes in Albany is on a slope. The grey water can be fed through the compost. All the bugs in the compost can survive quite happily on this and any excess nutrients are picked up from the compost and flow downhill over the subterranean granite. Vegetables can be grown on the covering sand, which are both watered and fertilised. Nothing has to leave the property.

As for the chickens, instead of eating dry grain they eat live bugs, which are made up of, say 60%, water. Due to this you are producing vegetables, meat and eggs while only using a couple of litres of potable water per week, the rest being greywater processed by the bugs which in turn goes to the chickens. In short while I'm recycling my greywater I am also reducing the need for centralized food production, which reduces societies energy consumption and reduce greenhouse gases. With this kind of low tech savings wars in many parts of the world can be averted. Also these thousands of decomposer organisms represent incredible biodiversity."

"So have you got this set up at home Daniel?"

"Yes, its all automatic, a few sensors and solenoids hooked up to my Raspberry PI. The only thing is that there isn't enough minerals leaching on the other side for many vegetables to be grown. The compost sucks it all up and gives it to the chickens. However if my family used an earthworm toilet and the contents added to the compost after a 70 day withholding period then plenty of vegetables would be possible."

"That's very impressive. However we cannot conduct a school experiment at a students house, lots legal reasons. While I'm impressed with such an experiment that Imogen is suggesting it would require a lot of planning and cooperation with other academic institutions. Unfortunately I would need a comprehensive plan and due to timing issues I would need it in two weeks, which is not reasonable for me to ask of you. Nevertheless that is the situation I'm afraid."

"I have anticipated this Sir.", said Imogen. "I think you will find everything in order. It should take you this year and next year and it just may put the school on the map."

That night Hoskins read the plan. He knew her work well enough to know it was hers and Daniels. It was the last paragraph that really hit home. This plan was produced on Google Docs. So when the Google considers its science prize they can query location history and know that at all times no teachers or other academics were with us. They can query our search history the timing of which will correlate to the timing of the creation of certain paragraphs within this document. They can query our communications and know we did not receive help remotely and that it was us that contacted the various academic institutions first. They will know, beyond any doubt, that this is our own work.

Imogen did indeed have a plan and it was far bigger than the one he was reading.