WormWoman’s WormEzine Vol. 3 No.

3 1

WormEzine Vol. 3, No. 3, May-June-July 2004

News and information from Mary Appelhof

about vermicomposting, worms, and other critters that live in the soil.

May-June-July 2004 Copyright Flowerfield Enterprises 2004 FREE

Email:mary@wormwoman.com Phone: 269-327-0108 FAX: 269-327-7009
Address:10332 Shaver Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49024 USA
Web site www.wormwoman.com

Feel free to forward to those you think will be interested.

To subscribe click here

http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/wormezine.html

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http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/wormezine_unsubscribe.html

For the Small Print, scroll to end.

They laughed when I said worms eat my garbage,

but I showed them how, and now thousands say the same thing

A WORD FROM MARY APPELHOF aka Worm Woman

====================================================

Dear Worm Workers,

Well, here it is in mid-summer and I am just now getting your WormEzine

to you. I wanted to give you a review and picture-show of my trip to Russia back
in March, but it takes SO long to identify and label photographs, organize, and
select them when I am also juggling so many other projects. But, here is the first
installment, and I promise you the next one won’t take so long to get out. Be sure
to go to my website where I have the photographs posted in the photo-essay
Wormwoman’s Trip to Russia. http://www.wormwoman.com

Things seem to be much quieter this year in the worm industry. This may
be good, because it seems there aren’t the scam-artists out there separating
people from their money. But every week, across the country, someone is
teaching a class on worm composting, or putting on a program for kids about
worms, or getting an article in the local paper about their local worm farm. It’s
lower key. It’s local. It’s families and master gardeners, and recycling
coordinators, and new small business owners who are in the trenches finding
organic materials to feed their worms and sell them for bait, or composting.

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I’ve also included an essay on how you might be able to get involved as
an ACDI/VOCA volunteer. I went to Russia under the Farmer-to-Farmer
program. I can assure you, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much information
about what is going on in Vladimir if I had not had the briefing manual and
preliminary research done by the project supervisor, Olga Limanova. So, we all
benefit. . . you, me, Green-PIK, and anyone else who takes the time to read my
articles.

Enjoy the rest of the summer. And drop me an email if you have comments,
questions, or stories to share.

Sincerely,

Mary Appelhof

Changing the way the world thinks about garbage

CONTENTS of this issue

1. Feature
2. Essay
3. Notable Bits
4. Comments from the Emailroom
5. Coming Events
6. Product Highlights
7. About the Author
8. The Small Print

1=========================FEATURE=======================

Vermicomposting in Russia: What Lessons Can We Learn?

Konin’s Top Ten List for Building a Successful Vermicomposting Industry

Mary Appelhof

For photo essay to accompany this feature, go to:

http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/ezine

We received freedom as a desert and we must learn to plant trees in it.

Yevgeny Yevtoshenko

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I found a remarkable set of circumstances going on in Russia during my

three weeks there in March. Prior to my going I had no idea how comprehensive
a vermiculture program they have developed there. I describe here what I found,
knowing that I will leave much out, and that more developments are taking
place every month. But it should whet your appetite for wanting to learn more
about what is going on with worms in Russia.

Key figures in this story are Mr. Sergey Konin, General Director of Green-
PIK, (the Boss), Dr. Igor Titov, Director of the Innovation Center (the Scientist),
and Dr. Anatoly Igonin, holder of patents on earthworms (the Populist). Konin is
very much the businessman, coming from a background that includes the
military, economics, government, and manufacture. He provides not only the
vision for the company, but allocates the resources to make things happen.
Green-PIK is the ecological arm of a larger organization, PIK, a holding company
with 22 businesses employing some 2000 people. Businesses include restaurants,
bakeries, markets, a 12-story hotel, a meat-processing plant, a department store,
and a weekly newspaper. Green-PIK businesses produce vermicompost
(biohumus), a liquid extract from vermicompost (Humistar) and composting
worms they offer under the trademark Staratel..

1. VISION
Green-PIK’s vision is to address the problem of the destruction of life in
the soil due to the extensive use of chemical agriculture during Soviet times.
Their rather amazing position is that life in the soil can be restored only through
vermiculture. Amazing because it is so contrary to most agricultural practices
today, which rely so heavily on synthetic chemical inputs for fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides.

2. IDENTIFY EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES

Under Konin's leadership, Dr. Titov, Director of Green-PIK's Innovation
Center, has spent the past four years assembling information from sources
around the world about vermiculture and vermicomposting. He found
particularly useful the work of Thomas Barrett in the 1954 book, Harnessing the
Earthworm.Titov realized that, although many publications have come after this
little book, it still presents and describes valid, but simple technologies for
increasing production of composting earthworms. Barrett himself said, in a small
monograph published in1951, that after articles about his work, appeared, people
from all over the world, including Russia, wrote to him and visited him. It may
have been those Russians who went back to Russia talking about the merits of
the California red worm that permeates the vermiculture literature in Russia
today. The Green-PIK conference honored Thomas Barrett’s work during the 2nd
International Scientific Practical Conference Earthworms and Soil Fertility held in
Vladimir in March, 2004.

Titov acknowledges with frustration that most of the information on

vermiculture is written in English. Although he reads English, speaking it is
difficult for him, (and I can neither speak nor read Russian) so we usually had to
rely on an interpreter. It didn’t take an interpreter, however, for him to show me
the minuscule space on his shelves devoted to Russian books on earthworms
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compared to the shelves holding earthworm books in English. On the other

hand, Russia has a long tradition of exceptionally strong scientific work in soil
science, including the work of Vladimir Vernadsky who defined the boundaries
of the biosphere that 20-mile skin around the planet from the deepest oceans to
the outermost atmosphere that contains life. With its many agricultural
institutes, scientific academies, technological universities and other institutions,
Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union have a very strong base from
which to make real advances in vermiculture. Green-PIK is committed to
translating some of the more useful books on vermiculture from English into
Russian so that more good information is available to a growing number of
Russians.

One of the Green-PIK staff members spent three weeks in the U.S. on one
of the exchange programs offered for young people from Russia. He was very
proud of having spent several days with Jim Jensen when Jim managed Yelm
Worm Farm. He went back to Russia with knowledge of Dr. Clive Edwards
wedge system in which a windrow is laid down, then new feed placed alongside
the windrow so that worms move into the fresh material, eventually leaving
harvestable vermicompost in the original portion of the ever-widening windrow.
We saw this system being effectively utilized in the Green-PIK production
facilities.

3. CARRY OUT ECONOMIC ANALYSES ON POTENTIAL NEW

ENTERPRISES
As General Director of the Green-PIK enterprises, Konin is a hands-on
manager. He works between Vladimir, Kovrov, and Moscow, with offices in each
of the locations. Konin is continually on the phone, on the road, setting up
meetings, giving speeches, and meeting directly with people regarding one
project or enterprise or another. Konin works out the numbers for any new
venture before committing to it. If the numbers don’t work out, he doesn’t take it
on.

Konin says that ecological husbandry is not possible without vermiculture

technology. He claims that Russian businessmen can earn 150 billion dollars
using Green-PIK’s methodologies for producing vermicompost. This includes
using the earthworms they have trademarked under the name Staratel. Although
they are using the term hybrid, (I think it is more appropriate to call it selective
breeding), the Staratel worms originated from breeding southern and northern
strains of Eisenia fetida. This work was done in 1982 by Anatoly Igonin,
Ph.D.,whose patents they purchased, and whom they feature extensively in their
promotional materials. This slight, dapper, white-haired gentleman wrote the
book that Green-PIK sells to teach people about the many benefits of using
earthworms in their gardens to grow more bountiful harvests of nutritious fruits
and vegetables. (Earthworms: Methods of Improving Soil's Fertility with Assistance of
Earthworms Ten Times as Much.) Titov and I agreed that Professor Igonin seems to
be the Russian counterpart for Thomas Barrett here in the U.S., but about 30
years later. Barrett turned a southern California hillside with hard, compacted
soil into a lush green fertile garden using his Earthmaster system for raising
worms and using the vermicompost they produced. His book, Harnessing the
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Earthworm, published originally in 1947is a classic today, well-worth reading, still

in print, and available from us at http://www.wormwoman.com

4. OFFER TRAINING PROGRAMS

Green-PIK offers regular seminars, conducted by Professor Igonin, Dr.

Titov, and others on a regular basis. Their five-day course includes technological
production of vermicompost, bedding preparation and technology,
vermicomposting, raw vermicompost production, humification, and commercial
vermicompost production. In addition, the course presents training on
vermicompost and the trade-marked product, Humistar, including agrochemical,
physical, and chemical characteristics, vermicompost as a fertilizer, and the
characteristics and usage of the liquid humic preparation. Further instruction is
given on production characteristics of their earthworm trademarked as Staratel,
the relationship to agrotechnologies and soil fertility, the technology of soil
recovery, and small-scale and commercial usage of this earthworm. Three-day
and one-day seminars are also given as demand fills the classes. One-day
seminars are given regularly on a monthly basis.

This is a far cry from the situation in the United States where few
opportunities are available for people to learn about vermicomposting
technology and production at a consistent location and with a defined
curriculum. The most consistent seminar, Best Management Practices in
Vermicomposting, offered by Pete Bogdanov of Vermico for the past several years
in Portland, Oregon, in October has provided the best opportunity for obtaining
information with development of a vermiculture business as a focus.
Unfortunately, his seminar will not be held in year 2004, so it deprives not only
participants from this excellent training opportunity, but deprives the presenters
from getting caught up with new developments.

End of Part I. Vermicomposting in Russia will continue in the next newsletter

2============================ESSAY=========================
==

ACDI/VOCA Provides Opportunities for Travel and Service

Mary Appelhof

Have you always wanted to travel abroad, but never felt you had the time
or the money? Or have you wanted a better reason than to travel just as a tourist?

Consider offering your talent and know-how to serve as an ACDI/VOCA

volunteer. This 40-year old organization combined the Agricultural Cooperative
Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance
to help non-governmental organizations, cooperatives, and private enterprises
do a better job of such activities as growing and processing food, baking bread,
setting up their books, marketing their products, and becoming profitable
enterprises. They want projects to have long-term, self-help benefits, and those
which contribute to democratic processes and civil liberties of host country
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nationals.

As a volunteer you will have your travel, lodging, and meals paid in
exchange for sharing your expertise in key areas such as food production and
processing, food security, sustainable agriculture, business development, and
natural resource management and training. Since 1971, ADCI/VOCA volunteers
participated in over 8000 projects in 120 countries. I know of requests for help in
vermicomposting projects in Kazakhstan (reported in Worm Digest, Issue #2,
Fall, 1993) and Uzbekistan in addition to the Belarussian (Worm Digest, #20) and
Russian projects I have participated in.

World Travel Leads to Quest for Greater Understanding

Although ACDI/VOCA is funded through the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), USDA, World Bank and other sponsors, it
isn’t a way for you to make money. Its a way for you to provide service to people
who will broaden your understanding and enrich your life in ways you would
never have thought possible. I have been an ACDI/VOCA volunteer three times
to date: Belarus (1997), and in Russia, St. Petersburg (1998), and Vladimir, (2004).
I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything. I have made lifetime friendships
that enhance my life every day. I have read book after book describing the
events, policies, and challenges which citizens faced during Soviet times and the
consequences of which they face today. Its only after tasting these cultures and
becoming aware of how little I knew was I driven to seek out this information.

I am an active member of the Kalamazoo/Pushkin (Russia) Partnership, a

group of citizens in Kalamazoo who have reciprocal delegations between the
cities and who put on a Russian Festival every year. Dr. Svetlana Maksimova, my
ACDI/VOCA host in Belarus, collaborated with me in translating my
vermicomposting display so that we each have a Russian/English bi-lingual,
illustrated display on how to set up a worm bin.

Rooftop Gardening and Vermicomposting in St. Petersburg

Alla Sokol of the St. Petersburg Urban Gardeners Association wanted help
designing the vermicomposting system located in the basement of the 9-story
cooperative apartment building she lived in. She already had residents growing
vegetables and berries on the large flat roofs. If residents would save their food
waste and feed it to redworms, they could provide nutrient-rich vermicompost
for the rooftop garden plants without having to use synthetic fertilizers. While I
was there we met with city officials to explain the entire project and help
establish credibility for it.

Alla told me that the book of photographs I sent her saved her days of
agonizing review by tax assessors who came to her apartment to determine how
the project should be taxed. She was able to show them the whole story of the
gardens on the rooftops, the collection of food waste in a white bucket, the worm
bins in the basement, and bags of biohumus (vermicompost) sold in garden
centers, merely by leafing through the album. What could easily have taken a
week without this documentation was finished within an hour and a half, much
to her relief.
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Earthworms and Soil Fertility Focus in Vladimir

My most recent assignment was in Russia as an ACDI/VOCA volunteer
in the Farmer to Farmer Program where I worked with Dr. Igor Titov and Mr.
Sergey Konin of Green-PIK, who are involved in establishing vermiculture
technologies in the Vladimir region northeast of Moscow. In addition to
preparing and giving presentations at the 2nd International Conference on
Earthworms and Soil Fertility, I met with gardeners, schoolchildren, college
students, and teachers. Before the assignment ended I had to prepare a final
report giving recommendations to my host on how they could improve their
operations, establish greater credibility in their markets, and other
recommendations specific to the project.

How Can You Get Involved?

You, too, can enrich your life by offering to be an ACDI/VOCA volunteer.
Find out more about the program at: http://www.acdivoca.org
To view descriptions of some of the projects currently seeking volunteers,
go to::

http://www.acdivoca.org/acdivoca/webdocs.nsf/VolunteerbyCountry?OpenF
orm

Many people reading this are not from the United States. You won’t be
eligible to become a volunteer. But you may be in a very good position to request
assistance from ADCI/VOCA and get a volunteer to help you in your own
program! Check out the ADCI/VOCA website at
http://www.acdivoca.org/acdivoca/acdiweb2.nsf/wherewework?openpage
to see if your country is among those with an office. If so, contact them to see if
you can develop a scope of work that will aid you in becoming more
knowledgeable, more efficient, more productive in your vermicomposting
operation. After all, the more worms we have the better soil we will have, the
more life in the soil, the better crops. The better crops will produce better
nutrition, and with better nutrition, better lives. Better lives for everyone means
less need to compete and more bounty to share.

Mary Appelhof is an author, publisher, and developer of educational materials

and supplies for vermicomposting. Her website is
http://www.wormwoman.com

ACDI/VOCA is a private, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

ACDI/VOCA sends highly qualified individuals abroad to provide short-term

specialized technical assistance to cooperatives, private-sector agricultural
enterprises and government agencies upon request.

3=========================NOTABLE
BITS========================

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A. DIARY OF A COMPOST HOTLINE OPERATOR WINS AWARD. Spring

Gillard's book won a 2004 "Garden Globe Award of Achievement" from the
Garden Writers Association. The Garden Writers Association (GWA), of which I
am a member) is an organization of over 1800 professional communicators in the
lawn and garden industry.
http://www.gwaa.org/

Book Link:
http://cityfarmer.org/springbook.html#diary

Spring Gillard works for City Farmer - Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture in
Vancouver, answering compost questions on the Compost Hotline. Her book is
published by New Society Publishers

B. GREEN TEACHER REVIEWS COMPOST, BY GOSH! Composting with

worms is a hands-on green activity that kids can enjoy even before they can read,
and Compost, By Gosh! aims to get them started on it with a minimum of adult
help. Written by Michelle Eva Portman for the preschool to Grade 3 level, this
how-to book is a cutely rhymed story with colorful and inventive graphics that
show a girl doing most of the work and having all the fun with her wiggly
friends. The story and supplementary section at the back of the book, give
enough information to get started, and the author lists a few other sources you
may need to consult for the stickier details (such as how to separate the worms
from the compost before putting it on the garden). Enthusiastically
recommended (and published) by noted worm woman Mary Appelhof, author
of Worms Eat My Garbage. (GF)

2003, ISBN 0-942256-16-6 (hardcover), 42pp., US $16.95 plus $5 s&h from Flower
Press, 10332 Shaver Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49024, 269-327-0108
http://www.wormwoman.com

Reviewed in GREEN TEACHER, Vol. 73, Spring 2004, p 49.

http://www.greenteacher.com

C.. WORM COMPOSTING BOXES MADE FROM RECYCLED REDWOOD

FENCE. A former Councilwoman from San Jose and her husband were taking
down an old redwood fence. Ken Kelly learned about it from his wife, a current
councilwoman. Ken manages Santa Clara County’s home composting education
program and, avid recycler and proponent of vermicomposting that he is, picked
up 200 of the old fence boards to recycle into worm composting boxes. Hell
donate the worm bins to schools to use in campus food-waste recycling
programs

D. HOSPITAL IN INDIA USES VERMICOMPOSTING FOR MANAGING

WASTE. According to the Hindu Times, the Cooperative Hospital at Kakkanad
uses earthworms to turn the hospital waste into manure in specially prepared
compost pits. A recent documentary film showing that and other
vermicomposting projects has been produced, entitled, Biowaste Management: A
Silent Revolution. Micro-level management is the solution to managing waste,
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according to this film,managing waste at the point of its generation. For the
article and more information on the film, go to:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=200407150005020
0.htm&date=2004/07/15/&prd=thlf&

4==============COMMENTS FROM THE EMAILROOM=============

Subject: Worms on the pavement

Dear Jody,

Thank you for your note saying that you heard me on KQED on Friday. I
am amazed at how many people I have heard from who listened to the program!
I'm glad you found our conversation interesting. . . I always enjoy talking about
worms!
So you are a worm saver! Many people are, and I'm always glad to hear
from more. If the worms are on the sidewalk, a driveway, or parking lot, they
would have come from nearby, so placing them on soil under grass on the edge
of the pavement would probably be your best choice. During the night and in
rain, they can move without any deterrents, so they may move quite a distance.
Their bodies don't dry out in the rain. When the sun comes out, however, the UV
light can break down the collagen in their bodies that provides firm tissue for
them to be able to move through a combination of muscles contracting against
their fluid-filled body. It may be impossible for them to find their own way to
shelter on their own, so this caring behavior on your part probably saves some
worms. It may be too late for others, but at least your heart is in the right place!

Thanks again for writing.

Mary Appelhof

5======================COMING
EVENTS========================
A. SEPT. 22, 23, 2004. ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. MARY APPELHOF TO SPEAK AT
MISSOURI BOTANIC GARDEN. Jean Ponzi is working out a schedule for a
presentation to the public one evening, followed by a teacher training workshop
the following day. Contact Jean at 314-577-0246 for more details as the date gets
closer.

B. OCTOBER 15, 16. 17. BIONEERS GREAT LAKES CONFERENCE, TRAVERSE

CITY, MICHIGAN. The awesome and inspiring Bioneers Conference which I
have attended the past three years in San Rafael, California, is offering satellite
conferences in several locations, including in my home state. I will be "thinking
globally, acting locally" this year by giving a workshop on vermicomposting in
Traverse City, rather than flying out to California for the conference which will
draw 3000 people. Each plenary session, consisting of 5 speakers who have 25
minutes each to deliver their powerful, stimulating message, will be beamed by
satellite to the regional conferences. Traverse City had over 250 attendees last
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year, and I heard was every bit as exciting as the one in California. The
advantage of going to a more local conference is that you hear from local experts
during workshops relevant locally, and can connect with activists in your own
region to get things moving in positive directions. To find out more about
Bioneers and learn where the other satellite conferences are, go to:

http://www.bioneers.org

6. =====================PRODUCT
HIGHLIGHTS===================
A. IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GET YOUR COMPOST TEA BREWER FOR THE
SEASON!
We are still very enthusiastic about compost tea, and more and more reports are
coming in about its effectiveness in stimulating plant growth, suppressing
diseases, and reducing the demand for watering. When I give my Worm Bins and
Compost Tea presentation at conferences, I still give out handouts written by Dr.
Elaine Ingham describing how to make your own actively aerated compost tea
brewer using an aquarium aerator and a 5 gallon bucket. The article, Brewing
Compost Tea, originally appeared in Kitchen Gardener, but that magazine is now
out of print. You may, however, find and print your own copy at:
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00030.asp

Following the instructions and guidelines she gave in this article, I assembled my
own Actively Aerated Compost Tea Brewer for about $30 for the parts and
pieces. It makes great tea with worm castings from my bin and some leaf mold
compost to give it a better inoculum of fungi. But it takes 24 hours to brew. And I
face the problem of many homeowners who don’t have the resources to pay a
couple of hundred dollars to get a sample of my vermicompost analyzed to
confirm that the organisms are there.

Knowing that some people would prefer to have someone else do the job of
lining up a suitable aeration pump and pay for the biological tests to determine if
the compost/vermicompost contains the desired numbers and kinds of active
and total bacteria, active and total fungi, protozoa, and beneficial nematodes, we
now offer Leon Hussey's KIS 5 Gallon Compost Tea Brewer. It consists of a
powerful pump for excellent aeration, a diffusion coil for producing the bubbles,
and all necessary tubing and connections. All you have to provide is the bucket.
Enough good quality compost and food sources come with the unit to make 3 5-
gallon batches of tea. Leon has paid thousands of dollars in testing to ensure that
the system multiplies all of the organisms you want in a tea. . . bacteria, fungi,
and protozoa. This brewer is so efficient it can deliver excellent compost tea in
12 hours, not the 48 hours for the home-assembled brewer described above. You
can set it up Friday night, let it brew overnight, and spread your freshly-brewed
compost tea on Saturday! And make another batch for a friend or neighbor for
Sunday!

Order from us at our website for $129.50 plus applicable sales tax and shipping.

http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/Compost_Tea_Brewer.html
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B. RUSSIAN WORM CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS AND PAPERS.

Full Title: Earthworms and Soil's Fertility Abstracts The 2nd International Scientific
Practical Conference on Earthworms and Soil's Fertility. Held in Vladimir, Russia, in
March 2004 the conference attracted over 200 participants from 19 countries.
Papers were presented by scientists and worm industry representatives from
USA, China, South Africa, India, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and other states of the
former Soviet Union. Dr.. Clive Edwards and Mary Appelhof from USA, Dr. Sun
Zhenzhun from China, and Dr. Svetlana Maksimova from Belarus from the
Vermillennium all attended.The 220+ abstracts and papers in this 293 page
publication provide the most comprehensive information available on the extent
to which Russian scientists take vermicomposting and vermiculture seriously.
All abstracts are in Russian, with translation to English of 100 of those deemed
most important to the conference editorial committee. According to Dr. Igor N.
Titov, conference coordinator and head of Green-PIK's Innovation Center, "This
digest is not only a source of new scientific information, but of new contacts, as
well, because it contains full addresses of authors of all articles." Although the
accompanying CD-ROM is supposed to contain the complete texts and graphic
information of all articles in both Russian and English, we were unable to open it
on our PC. You may have better luck.

Major topic areas:

-Biology Biochemistry and Genetics of Earthworms

-Composting and Vermicomposting

-Organic fertilizer: Production, Properties, and Use

-Remediation and Recultivation of the Soil

-Humine Preparates: Preparation, Properties and Use (Humic and Fulvic acids)

Publisher: Green-PIK, Kovrov, Russia

Level: Adult-technical

Language: Russian and English

Specs: Paperbound, 8 1/8 x 11 1/4 in, 20.5 x 28.5 cm, 220+ abstracts

Price: $40 plus MI sales tax and shipping. To order, go to:

http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/Russian_Worm_Conference__Abstrac
ts.html
7==================ABOUT THE
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AUTHOR=========================

Mary Appelhof is founder and president of Flowerfield Enterprises, which

develops and markets educational materials on vermicomposting. Its publishing
imprint is Flower Press, publisher of the how-to book Worms Eat My Garbage, the
classroom activity book and curriculum guide, Worms Eat Our Garbage: Classroom
Activities for a Better Environment, The Worm Cafe: Mid-scale vermicomposting of
lunchroom wastes. Compost, by Gosh!, and Diabetes at 14:Choosing tighter control for
an active life, which is not about vermicomposting, but is an invaluable asset for
anyone affected by diabetes.

8====================== THE Small PRINT====================

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http://www.wormwoman.com Vol. 3 No.3 May-June-July 2004

WormEzine