Sherman releases vermiculture book

Rhonda Sherman, solid waste Cooperative Extension specialist in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, is co-editor of the first scientific book on vermicomposting. Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management was released this week by CRC Press.

This 35-chapter book is edited by Dr. Clive Edwards  of Ohio State University, Dr. Norman Arancon  of the University of Hawaii-Hilo and Sherman. Contributing authors are from Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

The book explores the dramatic growth and changes in vermiculture technology since 1988. Contributors discuss outdoor and indoor windrows, container systems, wedge systems and low labor-requirement, fully-automated continuous-flow vermicomposting reactor systems that can process more than 1,000 tons of organic waste per reactor per year. They also highlight the science and biology behind the use and efficacy of vermicomposting, examine its importance to developing countries and examine the technology of the past, present and future. This volume chronicles how vermiculture can be brought into full commercial and industrial development and be integrated into waste management systems.

For 10 years, Sherman has hosted the annual Vermiculture Conference, which in May attracted  116 participants from 28 U.S. states – including 49 from North Carolina — and five other countries. For more information on vermiculture and the conference, visit worms.ncsu.edu.

For information on ordering the book and a 20 percent discount available during December, visit http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/pubs/vermiculture_book.pdf .