Merdacotta (baked processed cow dung mixed with clay and hay) products. Credit Alex Majoli

I’ve shared some thoughts on dung in the past, and also experienced first-hand the use of methane collected as an alternative energy source at a coffee farm in Nicaragua. There, the gas was used for cooking fuel, but in the case of Castelbosco farm in Piacenza, Italy, dairy farmers who make Grana Padano cheese also generate electricity from their dung’s methane, and run a museum that showcases poop in part of a medieval castle. They also make the beautiful pots, tableware, and tiles shown in the photo above. Christine Smallwood writes for the New York Times Style Magazine:

THE DAIRY FARMER Gianantonio Locatelli climbed up the steel ladder and peered over the brim of a large corrugated vat, about the size of a very deep above-ground swimming pool. “It’s full!” he exclaimed, with warbling joy. “It’s beautiful!”

The vat was full of liquid cow dung. I handed my phone to Locatelli’s friend, the architect Luca Cipelletti, and climbed the ladder to the top, disembarking on a viewing dock. Beneath my feet the manure bubbled and gurgled, forming foamy peaks and crests. It was a topographical map, a primordial stew. A rich and beautiful shade of brown.

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