Bogdanov Vexatious Vermicomposting
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This document discusses several vermicomposting operations that failed or had issues. It notes the common reasons for failure include human error, greed, miscalculation, and lack of foresight. Specifically, it describes mistakes made by two companies - Pacific Southwest Farms included using feedstock containing glass shards and a worker death in a compost fire, while B&B Worm Farms and Ecology Farms resulted in millions lost due to using vermicomposting as a façade to collect fees. The document stresses that failure should be a teacher, not an undertaker.
Bogdanov Vexatious Vermicomposting
- 1. Peter Bogdanov Director, VermiCo Arizona, U.S.A. Minsk, Belarus June 2013
- 5. 1. Shame, embarrassment (No names used here, unless publicly reported) 2. Secrecy. Principals depart. 3. No interest by researchers. a. Fear of losing funding b. It gives others a negative perception of our industry
- 6. Usual reasons: 1. Human error (mismanagement) 2. Greed (fraud) 3. Miscalculation (poor planning) 4. Lack of foresight (contingency)
- 9. Water pumps and irrigation equipement cost = $100,000
- 13. The “gate fee” or “tip fee” is an important source of revenue
- 15. Dairy
- 18. The company that built and owns this continuous flow reactor had the most knowledgeable owner in vermicomposting (a former professor of vermiculture) and the most sophisticated system. The company is no longer in business. It found that it could not continue in business because of insufficient sales.
- 24. Dr. Subler’s Living Soil
- 25. Shards of glass are in this Municipal Solid Waste feedstock and cannot be removed from finished vermicompost. Warning on label: Be careful, contains small bits of glass
- 26. 1. Composted Municipal solid waste (household garbage) 2. Composted Landscape debris (leaves, garden waste) 3. Paper waste (cardboard) What is in this bag?
- 27. Ecology Farms, Temecula, CA
- 30. 1. Feedstocks—uncontaminated (biosolids, manure) 2.Earthworms—biomass acquired, optimum maintained 3. Feedstock-loading rates 4. Monitor temperature, moisture, oxygen 5. Threats to Earthworms—birds, flatworms, moles, heat, crawling
- 32. Mass Migration of Earthworms
- 34. Mistakes made by Pacific Southwest Farms— Ontario, CA • Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) glass shards in the feedstock, end- product • One worker died in a compost fire • Plastic, contaminants were in product • Used vermicomposting as façade to bring in waste and collect tip fees
- 35. B & B Worm Farms Meeker, Oklahoma 3,000 investor/growers; lost over $20 million (USD) Ecology Farms Temecula, California 25 investors; lost over $8.5 million (USD)
- 38. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. Denis Waitley
- 39. Без муки нет науки. Adversity is a good teacher. Literal: Without torture no science.