A piercing and impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. Here, award-winning writer Jensen and activist McBay weave historical analysis and devastatingly beautiful prose to remind readers that life - human and non-human - will not go on unless everything possible is done to safeguard the most basic process on earth - one being's waste is another being's food.