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Think of all the food made in the world each year.
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Hard to picture?
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Then, imagine that you are all of humanity,
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and on a plate in front of you
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is the one lovely annual meal you make for yourself.
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You did all sorts of work putting that meal on your table.
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You must be eager to consume the fruits of your labor.
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And the vegetables.and meats and waffles of your labor, too, right?
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Well, oddly enough, a third of that meal ends up in the trash.
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A third of the food we eat globally,
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an estimated 1.3 billion tons ends up as waste.
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All the work we put into producing that food is wasted.
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And what's worse, it costs us.
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America alone spends an estimated 165 billion dollars a year managing food waste.
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We're wasting food, energy and and money.
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Perhaps worst of all, we're wasting the chance to change,
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to make the system of food consumption more efficient.
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If you want to bring on that change,
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you should know about a humble yet diligent and ever-so-crucial ally: the worm.
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Worms convert organic waste
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and other compostable products into natural fertilizers.
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Up to 75% of what we put in the waste stream
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can become food and bedding material
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for vermicomposting.
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You can create a worm bin in your own home
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to see the composting process in action.
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First off, you need worms
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and not your typical earthworms.
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You need redworms,
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eisenia foetida,
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the species responsible for most
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vermicomposting in North America.
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These red wigglers are surface dwellers
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who don't burrow too deep,
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they're optimal feeders around room temperature,
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and they're well-suited to converting organic waste
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into usable fertilizer
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Now, your worms might be vermin,
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but they need a comfortable space to live and work:
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some bedding materials,
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either shredded paper or cardboard,
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some moisture,
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and, of course, food,
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namely, your leftovers,
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slightly decomposed table scraps.
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The worms break down food waste
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and other organic matter into castings,
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a fancy synonym for worm poop.
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Their excrement is absolutely teeming with microbes,
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which continue the decomposition process,
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making all those once-wasted nutrients
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available again as fertilizer.
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The timeline for the whole process varies
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depending on the quantity of worms,
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the temperature,
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and how much waste is added to the bin.
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And there's another timeline to consider.
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In a healthy worm-bin habitat,
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worm reproduction will occur
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when the wigglers become sexually mature,
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indicated by an elongation of the segments into a bulbous structure.
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Three-month old wigglers can produce
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two to three semi-translucent yellow worm cocoons a week.
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You thought only moths and butterflies
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come out of cocoons?
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Well, we can't all be majestic.
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It takes around 11 weeks for new babies to hatch.
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When your bin seems to be full of living vermicelli noodles, it's time to share the bounty with your friends and start a vermicompost club.
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Or keep those worms to yourself
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and start a business.
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Vermicomposting isn't confined
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only to small worm bins,
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it's an emerging entrepreneurial enterprise.
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Large-scale facilities convert
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bulk organic waste and even manure
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into rich, black castings called black gold.
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Its value as a soil additive is unparalleled,
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and it can help plants resist harmful pathogens.
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The lack of available land in urban environments,
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coupled with growing interest in smaller-scale farming
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means there is a market for vermicomposting.
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Many communities use composting as part of zero-waste strategies,
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and they can sell their worm-eaten table scraps to local farms, hungry for rich fertilizer.
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So, instead of wasting money,
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dumping wasted food in landfills,
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we can remake waste into an asset,
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putting it back into our food system to make it more sustainable,
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all with the help of the humble worm,
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the tiny organism that can help us
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change the way we look at food's place in our lives
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and our place in the world,
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as long as we give the little guy
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a place at our table.
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Well, not an actual seat at the table.
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A bin in the shed is fine.