Turning Trash into “Black Gold”–Vermicomposting
Explaining how earthworms are saving the world, one crop at a time.
BY: RHEA JOHAR
From friendly neighbours walking their dogs on breezy mid-autumn days, to the protesters in Iran marching the streets for women’s liberation and equal rights; the world is constantly in motion. What motivates society is its constant pursuit towards happier, sustainable, safe, and progressive lives—both individually and collectively.
However, with our keen eye for progress and innovation, over ambition and greed undertake climate considerations. Too often, offerings and resources from the natural world are taken prisoner for human cultivation to be exploited for consumption. Awful isn’t it? The presumptuous and unsolicited human condition leads us to consume and continue to consume until the well runs dry.
Society and culture, as we know, finds its roots in the bacteria, dirt, and bugs that make up the ground we walk on. Mankind and Earth must coexist in harmony, through a mutual symbiotic relationship built on foundations of respect for us to continue to live on this planet.
However, all hope is not lost. One of our greatest saviours, although small and otherwise deemed “gross,” might just be the mighty powerhouse humanity needs to maintain a foreseeable future on Earth–the earthworm.
Founded in 1982, Michigan Biology teacher Mary Appelholf invented the vermicomposting system that used the power of earthworms to convert food waste from the kitchen into compost. The future of worm composting sees great potential, and has gained popularity as a sustainable method of farming for good reason. With the growing issue of food waste in family homes, the commercial food service industry, and horticulture farms, people are working together to find solutions to the issue of waste production and food sustainability.
Composting worms. // Photo courtesy of HGTV
Earthworms, such as the Red Wriggler, also known as Eisenia fetida, consume 75% of their body weight per day, with one of the greatest digestive systems for breaking down organic waste scrap materials. Their digestive systems alone can help solve the issue of harmful fertilizers and pesticides in the environment. The worm’s gut enzymes break down food scraps into the nutrient rich worm waste product, called casting, that are packed with high levels of ammonium, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Along with producing nutrient rich compost, the soil is also free of pathogens as the worm's gut further digests and destroys the harmful bacteria produced by fungus removing any risk of disease to the plant. The resulting nutrient-dense product makes worm casting a promising organic replacement for harsh chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in industrial agricultural farming practices.
Expanding its scope, the production of worm casting, also referred to as “black gold”, has gained traction in countries around the world. It is now common to see the booming market for independent vermicomposting plants cultivate, and sell worm and compost production on large commercial scales.
Vermicomposting plant. // Photo courtesy of Annelida Organics
Within Canada, companies such as Annelida Organic’s supply chemical free worm castings, liquid extract natural soil fertilizers and seed inoculant from their 3 major vermicomposting plant facilities in Alberta. Providing beneficial compost to farms across the province, the company guarantees to organically improve crop yield, plant growth, and flavour profile, while upholding its company goal to promote eco-friendly farming to reduce green waste in landfills.
Research from 2019 suggests that Canadians produce 11 million tonnes of unnecessary food waste coming out of households, food service corporations (including fast food chains and restaurants), and grocery stores that contribute to landfill waste. However, a survey conducted that same year further concluded that of the 13% of all fruit and vegetable agriculture that are discarded or unharvested, most Canadian farms have implemented sustainable recycling measures. Product waste is either thrown back into the crop field, used for animal feed, composted, or sent to anaerobic digesters where biomass is broken down by bacteria.
However, in countries such as Pakistan, the solution to crop waste is often much more damaging.
Crop burnings in Pakistan. // Photo courtesy of Arab News
On agricultural farms, farmer’s struggle to manage crop waste in which the only solution for crop residue is massive burnings. This contributes to the overall rising of greenhouse gasses, as well as smog climate in the country. With 67% of Pakistan's population living in rural farm areas and agricultural production contributing to 24% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), Pakistan produces 69.5 million tons of crop residue per year.
For this reason, scientists and researchers see hope for vermicomposting becoming an eco-friendly solution to sustainable farming practices in Pakistan. This is based on its ability to provide a solution to repurpose agricultural waste while simultaneously producing compost that would promote crop yield without the introduction of chemical fertilizers.
A promising future for turning crop residue into compost has led the country to implement a vermicomposting center at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The new research centre conducts important research and farmer training with regards to vermicomposting. This promotes the practice with its efforts of sustainability and environmental consciousness in a country where agricultural farming is crucial to the country's economy.
Vermicomposting also sees potential in Pacific Islander Countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. For example, Samoa relies on agricultural farming as their main economic driver. After experiencing many natural climate disasters in the 1990s, sustainable farming practices had taken the front seat of importance within the country's government. With 40% of the population employed in agriculture, the country puts emphasis on organic farming practices, where export is produced on a large scale and the industry steers clear of chemical fertilizers. As agricultural export sees great demand from Samoa, the potential for vermicomposting to improve both the health and yield of export products, would further support the country's wealth. Other Pacific Islander countries can benefit greatly from vermicomposting, such as Fiji that relies on its massive sugar cane industry. The implementation of vermicomposting would further provide a solution for managing sugarcane waste byproducts as the compost can be used towards agricultural farms in the local area.
Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's largest palm oil producers, contributing to 90% of total global palm oil exports. However, the palm oil industry is extremely environmentally taxing, especially because of the pollution accumulation in natural bodies of water as a result of factory waste. Derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree, the process of extracting palm oil involves the sterilization, stripping, digestion, and extraction—processing of fresh fruit from the plant in palm oil mills. As a result of this heavy processing, copious amounts of the fruit's fibrous shells and liquid sludge are left over as unusable organic waste products. In 2004, Malaysia generated 26.7 million tonnes of palm biomass and with the demand for palm oil steadily rising, the industry and its subsequent waste production is only growing. In the last decade, the country has turned its attention to the potential of implementing composting technologies to tackle the issue of rising pollution levels.
Palm oil processing plant waste material. // Photo courtesy of IChemE
Unlike other countries, when food is so easily accessible to Canadians, it becomes just as easy to turn a blind eye to how the economies on a global scale contribute to the growing issue of climate change. We often fail to ask ourselves what modes of production and labour go behind the access to high quality produce in local grocery stores when the suppliers feel so far away. Many countries in the global south rely on the agricultural industry to support not only their economy, but the world's food supply chain through export. It is important to implement structures and technologies to maintain these systems in order to see longevity and vitality in the large-scale industry that relies heavily on a healthy planet Earth to continue to produce the foods for human survival.
Organic Produce. // Photo courtesy of PixaBay
Although I could go on about the terrifying impacts of climate change, I would rather paint a scene:
The province was once dense with natural landscapes of mountains and rich wildlife. In an instant, festering slowly and unknowingly, violent wildfires send the natural habitats of wild animals up in flames. 200 raging wildfires light up the frail branches, grass, and dried vegetation, scorched by the heat of the crisp sun. As the days pass by they continue to burn through many long, dark nights, lighting up the night sky, even brighter than the north star. Dried up creeks once flooded with harmonious babbling ripples now pile up with the carcasses of 65,000 salmon as they wash up to the stream edges, limp and frail.
This is not an image of a postmodern world, this is the current effect of global warming in Canada. After months of heavy rain and flooding, the province of BC now faces drastic climate changes as droughts run rampant through the West Coast. Clean drinking water supplies run dangerously low in communities that were once rich in the vital resource.
However, it is easy to believe that climate disaster is an issue of the future in a resource-rich country like Canada where comfortable and abundant living habits are natural and normalized. We see resources are plenty, and feel secure in taking advantage of that, knowing there will still be enough to go around for the rest. This may not be a reality for long. The climate is waking up to our greed and is taking retaliative measures of its own.
Beginning in July of 2019, the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) started implementing a small vermicomposting facility located in the basement of Science Wing (SW), where food scraps, including excess, expired or moldy produce that is collected from the Food Centre, is sent to be repurposed into soil that is used towards the campus farm and the Instructional Centre (IC) rooftop garden. These sorts of community efforts set a positive example for the UTSC student body by raising awareness of climate issues and making a direct positive impact on the environment closest to us. Implementing sustainable practices such as vermicomposting at both a small individual scale, and at the larger global and industrial scale only increases our chances of a fruitful life on Earth.
The reality is that mother Earth is angry and humanity is at war. The necessity of pushing politics, government, research, and individuals towards sustainability and eco-consciousness becomes more dire. Although it may be too late to undo damage already done to the planet, initiatives such as vermicomposting bring a promising future and prove it is never too late to transform and restore what is left of our home. The world must band together as a collective towards innovation and alternative practices that sees not only economic potential, but takes interest in the global good.
