July 8, 1994 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408/459-2495)

UCSC HOSTS FREE PUBLIC LECTURE JULY 18 BY LEADING EXPERT ON EARTHWORMS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--From kitchen scraps to municipal waste, earthworms are capable of transforming tons of organic matter into low-cost, usable fertilizer and compost. Known as vermiculture, the raising of earthworms to transform organic waste into useful products is gaining support from environmentalists, city planners, farmers, and educators.

On Monday, July 18, one of the world's leading experts on vermiculture will present a free public lecture at 7 p.m. at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Uday Bhawalkar is the director of the Bhawalkar Earthworm Research Institute in India. Since 1981, Bhawalkar has pioneered the large-scale use of vermiculture to process waste from dairies, sugar mills, distilleries, tanneries, slaughterhouses, pulp and paper processing plants, and food processing operations. More than 5,000 farmers in India are using vermiculture to process vegetative and animal waste into fertilizer.

Vermiculture can be used on a small scale in the home or on a large scale in commercial operations, says Matt Werner, a soil biologist with the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (formerly the Agroecology Program). "A box of earthworms can turn kitchen scraps into fertilizer for your garden without the hassle of building a compost pile," says Werner. "On a larger scale, there's a business in southern California that contracts with cities to recycle yard waste, and it uses earthworms to process 10 to 15 tons of waste a day. And Cuba produces 100,000 tons of earthworm castings annually that they use as fertilizer."

To learn more about vermiculture, attend Bhawalkar's talk at the Louise Cain Gatehouse at the entrance to the UCSC Farm. For more information, call (408) 459-4140.

(This release is also available on UC NewsWire, the University of California's electronic news service. To access by modem, dial 1- 209-244-6971.)

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