eli5 why does manure make good fertiliser if excrement is meant to be the bad parts and chemicals that the body cant use

Question

eli5 why does manure make good fertiliser if excrement is meant to be the bad parts and chemicals that the body cant use

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Answer 1

Although the answers here are good, I feel compelled to point out that excrement isn’t *meant* to be anything.

Feces mostly contain leftovers. Not bad stuff, just stuff that didn’t get used. (Although possibly bad stuff as well, since the animal can’t use it.) Before the concept was sanitized, what we now call trickle down economics was called horse-and-sparrow economics. As in, if you feed the horse enough oats, there will be some for the sparrows to eat.

But animals are really not designed. They just happen.