Worm Revolutionaries

Philippine Press

August 22, 2007

I see nothing less than a revolution led by earthworms here in the Philippines.

-- Tony de Castro

Since our bulate documentary came out, we have received assorted queries about earthworms, particularly where to source the champion variety called African Night Crawlers .

One obvious supplier is the worm man we featured, Tony de Castro.  Viewers may recall Tony's earnestly dramatic sound bite: “I see nothing less than a revolution led by earthworms here in the Philippines: A revolution in farming, a revolution in the way we produce our food, a revolution in our health, and a revolution in the way we treat our waste.”

The idea is rich with political symbolism, for worms are like the masses: individually, they're powerless; but working together, they are capable of breaking down and transforming all kinds of biodegradeables, including perhaps the rot that permeates our society. But don't let me get carried away with the metaphor...

Then there is our documentary's other bulate king, Way Kurat ("No fear"), an organic farmer from Mindanao who is also an unorthodox Philippine congressman famous for biking to work. He welcomes visitors to his bulate compost station just outside the Batasan building. He might even give you a handful of worms and a bag of their rich waste product, the ideal organic fertilizer.

Way Kurat told me just tonight that he is working with Baham Mitra, the chairman of the House agriculture committee, to make sure that the Department of Agriculture incorporates earthworms into its farmers' programs. So the bulate revolution may come sooner than we think.