# Meat made from human shit - does this count as cannibalism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506 "2011-06-23T00:38:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/1 "2011-06-23T00:38:17Z")
[http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/poop-meat-safety-1617/](http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/poop-meat-safety-1617/) > [@](#): > > The Japanese researchers isolated proteins from bacteria in sewage. The poop-meat concoction is prepared by extracting the basic elements of food — protein, carbohydrates and fats — and recombining them. I suppose if all the proteins, carbs, and fats are from the bacteria, then it’s no more cannibalism than eating food that was fertilized with dead bodies (or shit). But I wonder if some of the proteins come from the dead blood cells that makes shit brown? Then that’s cannibalism, right? ## (And no, even if it’s 100 percent safe, 100 percent NOT cannibalism, and the most delicious food ever, and I’m dying of starvation, I doubt I’d eat shitmeat. I think I’d eat raw human flesh first.) From [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) Cannibalism: 1. the eating of human flesh by another human being. Flesh: 1. the soft substance of a human or other animal body, consisting of muscle and fat. 2. muscular and fatty tissue. 3. this substance or tissue in animals, viewed as an article of food, usually excluding fish and sometimes fowl; meat. (there are other definitions but I think they are not pertinent) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/2 "2011-06-23T00:44:36Z")
It’s no more cannibalism than oral sex is. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/3 "2011-06-23T00:48:06Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > It’s no more cannibalism than oral sex is. I got turned on by this sentence i cant explain why. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/4 "2011-06-23T00:55:36Z")
No, if your going to worry about a few stray dead human cells, then anything handled by people will have some. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/5 "2011-06-23T02:37:40Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > … if some of the proteins come from the dead blood cells that makes … it vampirism! CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/6 "2011-06-23T03:33:22Z")
No, if anything it’s [coprophagia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprophagia). Shit is not meat. Additionally, I bite my fingernails and the skin around them, and would not even remotely qualify myself as a cannibal. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/7 "2011-06-23T04:52:05Z")
Where do you draw the line? Fertilise your veggie garden with human waste. That doesn’t make you a cannibal. The cited technology is very little different. One is reminded of the very old song [On Ilkley Moor Bar T’at](http://www.scoutscan.com/songs/o/osong026.html). The colon sheds an inner layer of cells with each load of digested contents, so there are certainly real human cells there, not just food residue. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/8 "2011-06-23T05:00:02Z")
It’s a product of the human body that is not flesh and doesn’t result in the death of the human (usually). If that’s cannibalism then every little breastfed baby is a freaking cannibal. I knew there was a reason they seem so creepy. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/9 "2011-06-23T05:03:34Z")
No. Unless flushing shit is suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/10 "2011-06-23T05:10:55Z")
Eating human doodie burgers probably isn’t cannibalism, but they still won’t be on Wendy’s value menu any time soon. I wonder though, if a populations diet consisted entirely of reclaimed waste, what would their sewage be like, and could the same levels of nutrients be reclaimed from it perpetually? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/11 "2011-06-23T05:17:34Z")
How about a shot of amniotic fluid? Anyone? . ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/12 "2011-06-23T10:29:11Z")
Soylent Green provides a more well-rounded diet, BTW, if you’re going to accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/13 "2011-06-23T10:58:35Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > …Additionally, I bite my fingernails and the skin around them, and would not even remotely qualify myself as a cannibal. A while back there was a thread here about if you were stranded on a desert island how much of yourself could you eat before succumbing. A perfect GQ Straight Dope topic. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/14 "2011-06-23T14:58:40Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > A while back there was a thread here about if you were stranded on a desert island how much of yourself could you eat before succumbing. > A perfect GQ Straight Dope topic. There’s a Stephen King short story about that too. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/15 "2011-06-23T15:32:55Z")
Shakespeare’s early play _Titus Andronicus_ has two brothers made into pates. Doesn’t Sweeny Todd? In any event, as in Soylent Green, the feces is still in there. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/16 "2011-06-23T18:43:59Z")
> [@Crazyhorse](#): > > I wonder though, if a populations diet consisted entirely of reclaimed waste, what would their sewage be like, and could the same levels of nutrients be reclaimed from it perpetually? You wouldn’t have a closed loop. Let’s say that 10% of the nutrients can be salvaged in the process described. After four loops through, you’ve only got .01% of what you started with. Only if you continue to supplement the society’s diet with 90% “new” food can you maintain that system perpetually. It’s not all that different from fertilizing plants - they get some nutrients from the fertilizer, but you get a sustained food supply only because the plants are pulling in new energy from the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meat-made-from-human-shit-does-this-count-as-cannibalism/586506/17 "2011-06-23T19:20:47Z")
Anyone up for calculating what percentage of starving Africans could be fed by the ummm, proceeds, from masturbation? I’m thinking that US high schoolers alone could feed a small country. About as icky as it gets - but a lot more people ingest semen than poo, accoriding to my calculations.