When I started worm farming, it helped feed a dream to be zero waste. Additionally, I realized that worm castings were like a magic elixir for my plants. I’d sprinkle them on the soil and things would grow, and colors would become more saturated. As I started to expand vermicomposting beyond just my family’s food waste, I got out and started collecting waste from nearby sources, mostly local businesses. There’s a lot of waste out there, and it’s amazing how worms can dispose of it.

Brooklyn Worm Poop is a grass-roots operation, literally grown out of local trash, and I wondered if the merits of being local extended beyond the obvious fuel or energy saved, both in our zero-emissions method of recycling, and also the opportunity cost of not needing to pick up the trash and transport it elsewhere. I accessed my background as a professional bread baker and fermentation hobbyist: What makes San Francisco sourdough taste a certain way? What makes a Pinot Noir from burgundy taste different than one from Sonoma? Why does NYC pizza taste the way it does? The ground, the climate, the air, the water…

The idea of bacteria and microbial life lurking in the background of fermentation, or in the dough, has always fascinated me. Some time in to my waste reduction journey I started giving soil health more thought, and became even more enthralled by decomposition. I enrolled in the DSNY Master Composter Program. I began researching more about soil and bacteria and fungi.

I started to apply my thoughts on bread baking to our soils and plants. Is there an additional benefit to using local trash to make local worm castings to help grow local plants? Do you have to be in San Francisco to make San Francisco sourdough? (Ah, the age old question)…

The connection of all living things can be referred to as GAIA. Fungal life takes on this same “connected” principal and it can be viewed and looked at and studied. Korean Natural Farming and Jadam are predicated on techniques of being local. No-till farming seeks to preserve the local soil food web, and cover crops replenish it. Scientifically or empirically, at the very least there must be something going on down there, something all around us.

Charles Darwin studied the power of the worms, and was fascinated by these “movers of earth.” Farmer Yon of Hattie Carthan Community Garden talks about the prominent role of electrons and electrical charges in the soil, and therefore our ability to interact with the soil by touch. Ray Figuroa of the Community Garden Coalition reminds us to respect the connection between our bodies and our land, microbes in our bodies are connected to microbes in the soil.

I think that advocates of composting, and gardening, and the environment are making the same argument: there’s a lifeblood in “local” beyond the numbers and the science. We may try and count the pounds we keep from the landfill, the energy we save, and the amount of NPK present, which are all real and important values, but whether you’re a community of microbes or a community of humans, local is vital, even beyond the numbers. Sometimes it’s just hard to measure. Maybe we don’t need to.