Top Choice Organic

Top Choice Organic is a Conway, AR product sold as fertilizer but made from sewage sludge. It is sold by Mannco Fertilizer Company. Hundreds of communities across the U.S. sell toxic sludge products that are typically renamed biosolids and sold or given away as "fertilizer" or "compost." Despite the name of this product, sewage sludge is NOT allowed to be used on farms that are USDA certified organic.

The sewage sludge used in Top Choice Organic comes from Class A biosolids from Benton, AR and Nashville, TN. Mannco purchases the sludge and then re-sells it for a profit, although it is still "about one-fifth the cost of chemical fertilizers." Top Choice Organic is marketed to farmers, co-ops, and retailers.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Biosolids
 * Sewage sludge
 * Food Rights Network
 * Sewage sludge giveaways, producers, and brands
 * The EPA's plan to bypass opposition to sewage sludge disposal
 * Water Environment Federation
 * You say biosolids, I say sewage sludge

External Resources

 * Top Choice Organic website
 * Marie Kulick, Smart Guide on Sludge Use and Food Production, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2008.
 * Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey: EPA-822-R-08-016 and EPA-822-R-08-018, EPA, January 2009.
 * Environmental Working Group, Dumping Sewage Sludge On Organic Farms? Why USDA Should Just Say No, April, 1998.
 * Environmental Working Group, Routes of Exposure sewage sludge: EWG Research on Chemicals in sewage sludge, April 30, 1998.