December 16, 1975

Dr. Gerald F. Winfield

Chief, Manpower and Instiutions Division
Office of Population

Department of State

Agency for International Development
Washington, D.C. 20523

Dear Dr. Winfield,

Further to our correspondence of last October. As I may have already
indicated to you there was no problem in locating the books whose titles
you mentioned to me and I have been reading them with interest.

I did bring up the question of composting technology during my
recent visit to WHO and I spent some time with various people in the
Division of Community Water Supply. I was surprised to find that they had
a rather negative attitude which I think I can fiarly summarize as follows.
They feel rather hopkless altogether about doing very much about scattered
rural sanitation. Their most urgent problems are in fiarly densely settled
conurbations, where they feel that the handling and transportation of human
excreta would pose insuperable problems. And they feel that apart from China,
there would be insuperable cultural barriers about educating the loaal people
about any constructive method of waste management.

They feel that there is not enough economic gain to justify going beyond
the promulgation of fairly simple latrines as the principal method of waste
management and they have been knocking their heads for years trying to get
even this simple approach to be accepted.

As far as I know, there has been no systematic study of the meand that
might be used to encourage a more positive attitude about the handling of
wastes through composting. Of course, many of these conceptions predate the
two fertilizer revolutions: the development of crops that demand heavy
fertilizer inputs for economic yield; and the sharply rising price of in-
organic fertilizers.

I had a mow#e rewarding conversation with Dr. Chang who is Deputy
Director General at WHO in charge of health services and who although he
had very substantial educational experience in the U.S. is also very familiar
with developments in contemporary China. In essence he told me that the current
practice of rural composting in China is made viable by very careful manapement
and inspection. The compost heaps earn work credits and are inspected within
the brigade to make sure that they conform both to sanitary requirements and

~2-
Dr. Gerald F. Winfield -~2- 12/16/75

to efficient fertilizer value (not too much soil etc.). This systematic
management is obviously the key to success. I am still trying to find
sources for a more rigorous analysis of the hygienic implications of
composting as actually practiced and may be getting some help to do that
from Dr. Chang, but if you know the Chinese sources which are summarized
in the NIH bibliography (HEW 73-439) ,you might be able to save me an
otherwise extraordinary effort.

You may also be interested in the attached correspondence which deals
with some of our problems in dealing with these issues in this country.

I do not know what next remains to be done and would certainly
welcome your own observations.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr
Enclosures