How will you be buried?

Nature Talk
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Continuing the discussion from How will you be buried?:

@tparkeressig Sorry I was away from checking in on iNat forums for a while. But in case itā€™s helpful to you (a couple years after you asked!) hereā€™s some studies on the subject of antibiotic resistance genes spreading environmentally/from antibiotic-treated livestock to workers or community nearby. I am not sure if I will find the one I was thinking of at the time, which I had been given to read at work, but there are so many to choose from which helps establish it as a ā€˜well documented phenomenonā€™ ā€“

ā€˜popularā€™ article write up in Scientific American, with sources listed at the end -
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-drug-resistant-bacteria-travel-from-the-farm-to-your-table/

Those sources, with added links:
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Pigs and Farm Workers on Conventional and Antibiotic-Free Swine Farms in the USA. Tara C. Smith et al. in PLOS ONE, Vol. 8, No. 5, Article No. e63704; May 7, 2013. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23667659/

Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant E. coli in Retail Chicken: Comparing Conventional, Organic, Kosher, and Raised without Antibiotics. Version 2. Jack M. Millman et al. in F1000Research, Vol. 2, Article No. 155. Published online September 2, 2013. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24555073/

Multidrug-Resistant and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Hog Slaughter and Processing Plant Workers and Their Community in North Carolina (USA). Ricardo Castillo Neyra et al. in Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 122, No. 5, pages 471ā€“477; May 2014. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24508836/

Livestock-Associated Staphylococcus aureus: The United States Experience. Tara C. Smith in PLOS Pathogens, Vol. 11, No. 2, Article No. e1004564; February 5, 2015. - https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004564

Detection of Airborne Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Inside and Downwind of a Swine Building, and in Animal Feed: Potential Occupational, Animal Health, and Environmental Implications. Dwight D. Ferguson et al. in Journal of Agromedicine, Vol. 21, No. 2, pages 149ā€“153; 2016. - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1059924X.2016.1142917

  • some additional studies found by searching ā€œantibiotic resistance genes animal agricultureā€ in google scholar:

Front. Microbiol., 29 March 2021
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 12 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.610656
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.610656/

He, Y., Yuan, Q., Mathieu, J. et al. Antibiotic resistance genes from livestock waste: occurrence, dissemination, and treatment. npj Clean Water 3, 4 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-020-0051-0 - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-020-0051-0

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I reopened the topic and moved your post here to keep the conversation all together.

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Thanks!

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My wifeā€™s kinda step-dad (confusing big but happy family, but he was her fatherā€™s ex-wifeā€™s husband, so whatever youā€™d like to call that, we just called him his name or Grandpa) donated his body to science stuff, and he felt really deeply about that. His wife was very happy when she received a letter and picture from Syria of a young woman in her, then, 20s who now has his eyeballs. I always liked that idea that he could still live in some way. His wife was really happy that he got to ā€œseeā€ different parts of the world, even after he passed away.

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I would like to be ā€˜buriedā€™ in a mushroom suit - but doubt the option will be available.

https://www.bbc.com/news/48140812
https://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee_my_mushroom_burial_suit

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just throw me in the ocean lol, let the crabs feast

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My instructions are for useful body parts to be donated and the remains cremated and spread somewhere where they wonā€™t do harm.

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Well, not quite. Although one thing that attracted me to at-sea burial is that the casket is required to be biodegradable.

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Iā€™m really intrigued by human composting, and i hope it becomes legal in more states in the US. It seems so much more sustainable to me than most other options (outside of you know, direct burial in a shroud)

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My uncle died a couple of weeks ago and he got a tree burial. I learned that currently many families choose this option and the urn has to be biodegradable. We were also asked not to bring flower arrangements.

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As interesting as tree burial sounds, Iā€™m not fully comfortable with the idea of being cremated so as it stands, I donā€™t think Iā€™ll be going that route. No hard feelings at all to anyone who does, but itā€™s just not for me. Iā€™d prefer to be buried but with as little done to preserve me as possible. Take out my organs to donate to someone who needs them and put the rest of me in a cozy hole so the roots and bugs can enjoy the rest. No need to embalm me, Iā€™m down for decay!

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With the increase in microplastics and nanoplastics in all living organisms, including humans, maybe none of us will be fully biodegradable in the future.

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Iā€™m sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing her unique story.

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Step 1:

lego
source: https://xkcd.com/659/

Step 2: Cremation

Step 3: Ashes placed in family plot at the General Cemetery. (Because of culture and cost, most here contain the remains of multiple members of a family.)

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20200223_1404561281Ɨ961 406 KB

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Iā€™ve always felt uncomfortable with the idea of my body trapped in a small metal box unable to rejoin the natural cycle. Reading about accidental burials as a child certainly didnā€™t help. Iā€™d donate any parts of me that are still useful and then the rest I would like to be buried as naturally as possible. That said if my significant other dies before me Iā€™d like to be buried with them, if I die first they know what I want.

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Sorry for your loss.

Is a tree burial like the sacred forest idea? Everyone gets buried under a tree and nobody can disturb the trees in perpetuity?

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Here it is common for those who emigrated from the Mediterranean (we have a large Lebanese population plus others with religious ties to that region) to be buried with the fruit of a tree called algarrobo which is the fruit of memory. In time often the fruits grow up through the graves, which is lovely.

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Yes! The ones with more plants and moss and lichen and unique things look magical and happy. And shady trees! Heck, pine needles on the ground is one of the most appealing things.

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This thread reminded me to look up something I heard on the radio recently, aquamation. I had no clue what that could mean and was imagining some gruesome waterjet cutter slicing the body into bits. Turns out itā€™s much less dynamic.

I will be disposed of using whatever process is less polluting and inexpensive at the time.

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