Couldn’t you just process them into some sort of soylant?
Feed them to pigs.
Then, eat the pigs.
Wu do you think you are?
I don’t think that would eliminate the transmission of disease.
Compost, then use as fertilizer.
What do you have against the Irish? And are you eliminating the possibilities of an army of the undead?
And, on that theme, my own Modest Proposal.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=397313&highlight=irish+stew
Burning people smell of roast pork so I would imagine that the taste must be very similar.
I’m not so sure about that. Prions are only an issue if you eat the CNS tissue (brains and spines and such.) Even then, they might not be that big an issue unless the people you eat have themselves been eating CNS tissue over a few generations, in which case you end up with kuru like the Fore tribe. If you’re selective with your victims and your cuts of meat, and cook it well, I’d guess simple cannibalism could be about as safe as eating farmed or wild animals.
Grind them up and use them as fertilizer for your crops.
Bio diesel. In third world countries, not so much, though, too skinny. Render out the lard on the average 'muriken, though, and you can seriously cut dependence on oil. Gives a whole new meaning to fossil fuel, eh? Then you have to use the non lipid residue for fertilizer for non edible crops, like biofuels, or fiber sources. Flowers would be OK, too though.
Once around the cycle should bioremediate even prions.
Tris
Every little helps 
I don’t think cooking has any effect on prions - although there are probably other ordinary diseases that it would eliminate.
To make the whole question clearer - let’s put it into a context - an interstellar generation ship - it’s a self-contained, closed environment, all resources are precious - and energy is tightly budgeted. It’s more or less essential that the dead are recycled - and as efficiently as possible.
Um… Matrix?
You’d certainly think twice before telling someone to “Eat me!”
I think it’s an interesting question, and a valid one.
I have always thought that human corpses should not be pumped full of formaldehyde and laid to rest in a lead-lined or otherwise sealed container to “preserve” the dead. What for? In case on Grandpa’s 20th death anniversary you want to get the kids and family together to dig him up and see how he’s doing?
At the very least, humans should have the same fate as other animals, serving as organic matter that feeds the Earth’s soil, which means non-preserved bodies and a basic pine box, so the worms can get at you.
As to the OP, I am sure there are uses for human bodies (and I’m in favor of harvesting remains as a cheap and plentiful source of fertilizer or whatever), but obviously in Western cultures at least you would have to overcome HUGE cultural obstacles in order to use Grandpa as compost fodder, because of the mindset about death we have.
If you can donate your organs for the greater good, why not the rest of your remains?
What about the issues of how medicated we as a people are?
I don’t think most medications could really be passed on that way, but if we’re just picking up people out of their homes when they died and shipping them off to factories, I’m thinking there would be risks of various drugs and such just because of the way We as a culture are so focused on heavily medicating many of our maladies.
Then again… that just made me wonder:
Would Type Two diabetics taste sweeter? Especially if they’ve been off their meds for a few days?
Hmmm…
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Light sweet crude, baby.
That also begs the question: Can human beings dead bodies be pressed for oils?
According to wikipedia, prions can be denatured by subjecting them to a temperatures of 134 degrees Celsius (274 degrees Fahrenheit) for 18 minutes in a pressurised steam autoclave.
So you’d just have to put the meat in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes and then you’ll have prion free meat… that’s just falling off the bone.
I like the freeze, shake and compost approach, as here. In the generation ship approach posited, add the human dust to the sewage, dessicate, autoclave to zap prions, viruses and bacteria and use to grow algae for processing into food. Simple and safe - hanging the bodies off the side of the ship for a while will do most of the work.
Otherwise, there is probably no long-term safe approach to recyling humans - prions are remarkably resilient, and will accumulate if they are not destroyed.
I would prefer to use my biodegradation and longterm toxicity (as well as the yuk factor) for the benefit of future generations. Woodland burials use biodegradable coffins, no embalming, and no grave markers - the land has to be protected from development for a long time following burial. The specific plant life that grows on the burial sites mark the woodland for centuries, and the burial fees pay for the longterm preservation and protection from development.
And this headline made me think of this thread…
Si