The practice may surprise you… but it is increasingly popular! In the USA, New York State Just Legalized “Natural Organic Reduction”. Also called “humusation”, the practice provides reduce the body of the deceased to the state of humus, in other words, fertilizer, to make the soil fertile. As of 2019, New York is the sixth US state to make this greener alternative legal.
Because beyond a “return to the earth” that we often hear about, even when we are alive, humusization allows us above all to not to pollute… or rather stop polluting after death. When traditional methods use plastic or concrete for burial, and emit a large amount of CO2 in the case of cremation, this new practice represents, on the one hand, a solution, but on the other, it is a virtuous leave for the earth !
A practice incompatible with the French civil code?
However, this new law is not to everyone’s taste. In New York, the State Catholic Conference has even encouraged its faithful to put pressure on the governor not to implement the measure. “Composting and fertilizing may be appropriate for vegetable peelings or eggshells, but not for our dead bodies” annoyed Dennis Poust, the organization’s general manager.
In other words: we do not sufficiently respect the body of the deceased. And that is why the practice is not yet legal in France. When questioned about the matter by a senator in 2016, the interior ministry said the impossibility of such a law in our country due to incompatibility with the civil code. The text calls for the remains to be treated with “respect, dignity and decency”.
