Viewed over the long expanse of time, archaeology and history scream to us that we now arrived at a moment of decision. We either face up to this crisis and look to return to systems of waste management that can be self-sustaining or we accept that our fate is sealed.

In order to return to a situation where human and animal ‘waste’ is considered as an important product, it will require the West to get over our phobia of faeces and dirt, and gain a more balanced perspective on labelling materials as ‘waste’.

Nowhere is this point made more clearly than in terms of current attitudes to food…

Above image developed at the University of Nottingham