Just came across a rather bizarre article from back in October. It’s about a man in Perth Australia who was arrested and convicted after being caught with 133 cannabis plants (and 1 kg of dried product). He claims it was simply part of a vermiculture experiment!

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Judge Allan Fenbury told Perth’s District Court today he believed the offences were at the lower end of the range of severity, rejecting the prosecution’s argument the number of plants Hartwig had grown was “staggering”.

“I’ve seen a case with 40,000 plants – that’s staggering,” Judge Fenbury said.

He said the fact the trial jury had found Hartwig guilty did not mean they disregarded all of his evidence, including testimony that it wasn’t his intention when he began experimenting with worm castings to become involved in marijuana.

Read the full article here: Thomas George Hartwig’s vermiculture drug experiment leads to jail

That’s right…it’s a MOVEMENT now! (as Jack Chambers likes to say – the “Underground Movement”)
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Long-time vermi-friend, Sharon K., shared a cool article with me yesterday evening. It’s another one on a popular website (just check out the “likes”, “shares” etc and you’ll see what I mean), so I’m pretty excited about it!

Here is a blurb:

Natural “Worm” Composts May Help Protect the Future Food Supply

Many are not aware that one of the reasons why the conventional agribusiness food system has emerged as a major threat to your health is because it is (more…)

One of my big dreams has always been to see vermicomposting go “mainstream” (and of course to help the process along in any way I can). Well, I don’t think we’re quite there yet (lol), but I must say it’s pretty awesome to see an article on vermicomposting in the New York Times! Thanks very much to Patrick J. for the heads-up on this one – it’s called “Worms Produce Another Kind of Gold for Growers” and was published on December 31st (online – it says the same article appeared in the print version on Jan 1st) and – not too surprisingly – both Sonoma Valley Worm Farm and Worm Power are featured prominently.

Here is a blurb:

Some experts and entrepreneurs hope earthworms can also help with another problem: the growing piles of animal waste from dairy farms and other agricultural operations.

Worm Power, a company in Avon, N.Y., transforms 10 million pounds of manure from a single dairy herd each year — about 40 percent of the cattle’s output — into 2.5 million pounds of vermicompost. Tom Herlihy, a former municipal waste engineer who founded the company in 2003, says it has raised more than $6 million in venture capital and $2 million in grants for research, much of it at Cornell University.

Here in Northern California, Mr. Chambers’s Sonoma Valley Worm Farm produces about half a million pounds of similar compost, an amount he plans to increase in the spring. He loads a long metal bin with cow manure and 300,000 to 400,000 Eisenia fetida, or red wigglers — weighing 300 to 400 pounds. In their wake, the worms leave cattle waste that has been processed into rich and crumbly castings that look like fine peat moss.

Be sure check out the full article here: “Worms Produce Another Kind of Gold for Growers”

This is exciting stuff! Can’t wait to see where things go from here!
8)

Yesterday I received 4 or 5 e-mails pointing me in the direction of a very cool article about the giant vermicomposting system in operation at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (thanks again, everyone!). It’s always really exciting to receive news like this – about “real world” initiatives involving vermicomposting – but I was extra-excited in this case since I’ve been wondering what ended up happening with this project.

As some of you may recall (more…)

All these years I’ve assumed that it was solely the “magic” of the vermicomposting process that made me so passionate about (some might even say “ADDICTED to“) this rather odd field of endeavor. Well, now I’m not so sure.

Thanks to a posting (from Daniella M.) on the Red Worm Composting Facebook Fanpage recently, I came across a really interesting article all about how a particular bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, can trigger the release of seratonin in our brains, helping to us to feel…well…happier!
🙂

This particular microbe is among the those in the group known as the “actinomycetes” – bacteria that exhibit some of the same filamentous growth habits of the fungi. This is also the same group of microbes responsible for that oh-so-sweet-earthy smell of rich soil and compost.

Now it’s all starting to make a bit more sense isn’t it? I mean seriously, who HASN’T smiled after taking a big ol’ whiff of a (good quality) vermicompost?!

Here are some excerpts from the article (link to follow):

The drug-like effects of this soil bacteria were discovered, quite by accident, about a decade ago. A doctor named Mary O’Brien created a serum out of the bacteria and gave it to lung-cancer patients, in hopes that it might boost their immune systems. Instead, she noticed another effect: The hospital patients perked up. They reported feeling happier and suffered from less pain than the patients who did not receive doses of bacteria. Further studies in mice confirmed the mood-boosting effect of the soil bugs.

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As I huff the soil, I have no way of knowing exactly how much M. vaccae is floating into my lungs — or whether it’s enough to change my mind. But I can sure smell this compost. The odor hits like a punch and triggers a memory: I recall a day in Western Massachusetts on a friend’s farm, turning earth with a pitchfork. Dried mud extended up my arms, like a pair of long-sleeved gloves, as if I were dressed for a gala event with forest-fairies. I felt dazzled that day, boozed up on sunshine, and in love with the potatoes I’d just dug out of the soil.

That same smell hovers over this dish now — a sexy, outdoorsy tang. It’s an odor produced by microbes in the soil as they break down plants. Scientists call it “geosmin,” this dirt smell that lends the earthy taste to beets and carrots. It’s the flavor of life.

Be sure to check out the full article here: How to Get High on Soil (I recommend following the links in the article as well).

I’m always on the lookout for ways to get worm composting on the radar screen of the (non-composting) mainstream public, but I can honestly say that figuring out some way to use worm castings in beauty products has never once crossed my mind!
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Thanks very much to Louise for alerting me about this intriguing news release! Pretty crazy stuff – and if castings DO indeed have any anti-aging properties (we shall see if anyone else backs up this claim), this could end up getting pretty interesting!

Here is a blurb:

Organic farmers already know earthworm castings make plants grow larger and faster by promoting healthy stem cells and extending the life cycle with an arsenal of anti-aging enzymes. According to Wayne Perry, Head of Development for GSC Products, those same compounds produce similar anti-aging effects on human skin.

Read the full news release here: Earthworm Poop Has Big Anti-Aging Benefits For Skin