Farmers all over the Midwest know that fertilizer is an expensive input. Faced with millions of tons of sewage to dispose of, Kansas City, Mo., is killing two birds with one stone – using that sewage by land-applying treated human waste as fertilizer on a city-owned farm. As KCUR-FM’s Frank Morris explains, for a Midwestern city nestled in farm country, the arrangement is almost a no-brainer.

This story was reported by Harvest Public Media. Harvest Public Media, based at KCUR, is a collaborative public media project that reports on important agriculture issues in the Midwest. KCUR is a service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.