Business

A bacteria brew marvel

When Eric Lancaster of Tucson saw a recent news photo of aid workers spraying rows of dead bodies in tsunami-ravaged areas along the Indian Ocean, he knew exactly what the spray was. That's because Lancaster works at the Tucson plant that manufactures Effective Microorganisms, known widely as EM, for use in North America. The Tucson plant is called EMRO USA and employs two people. It's one of 60 around the world that manufactures EM, a brew of common bacteria that's used in alternative agriculture, waste control and a host of other applications both locally and around the globe. A Thailand-based manufacturing facility has been distributing it to aid efforts in that country's tsunami-damaged coastlines. There, it's being used to control odor coming from so many decaying bodies - and to stave off the feared growth of disease-causing pathogens that could complicate life for the survivors. "This is the first time we've actually seen it used for something like this," Lancaster says. But he's not surprised. EM, developed by an Okinawa researcher named Teruo Higa, is a mix of three basic types of bacteria: the same lactic acid-producing bacteria that's used in yogurt cultures, the same yeast that's used to ferment beer and wine, and phototrophic bacteria, which turn light into energy and are found throughout the world's water sources. The concoction is produced in huge vats that mirror the ones you'd see in a brewery - they produce tons upon tons of product that's shipped in identical containers. The difference comes when you feed and grow the brew. Depending on the growing conditions, it can become a mix that's appropriate for staving off plant pathogens and improving crop yields in everything from citrus to coffee. Lancaster says it can keep diseases at bay in aquaculture projects, resulting in robust populations of shrimp. Used with chicks raised for food, advocates say it eliminates the need for antibiotics. It can even freshen hog waste lagoons - the notoriously nasty, collected fecal matter from hog farms - when installing treatment facilities would bankrupt most hog farmers. "EM will basically make lagoon water into swimming water at a fraction of the cost," Lancaster says. Lancaster, who markets the Tucson-manufactured product to Mexico, Canada and the United States, says the job is easier for his counterparts elsewhere in the world. EM is used heavily in developing countries like Thailand because "it's cheap and it works," he says. "It's used around the world. It's basically an unknown product in the U.S." That's because studies resulting from EM's use in developing countries are sometimes viewed with skepticism in more sophisticated societies and because "so many people have sold stuff before that doesn't work," Lancaster says, adding: "Having the same product for everything makes it look like snake oil." Snake oil or not, the technology has won over a handful of local organic gardeners at the San Xavier Cooperative Association and at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy. At Pusch Ridge, science department chairwoman Nancy Gifford goes by the affectionate nickname "Recycle Queen" because she uses EM in a schoolwide program to compost cafeteria waste. She also uses EM in the school's small garden, and sends students home with bags of the stuff to bury under their favorite trees. Gifford says EM is helping her teach students about principles beyond gardening. She says her students' generation may someday have to think seriously about alternatives to landfills as they approach capacity. With EM, "trash is not going to the landfill," she says. "It's getting recycled back into the soil." Bill Worthey, farm manager at the San Xavier co-op, says he was skeptical when he was first told about EM - but he's since become a proponent. "I've been in agriculture my whole life," he says. "This to me is probably the most unique product on the market, and I've seen hundreds of them. The product's ability to build the soil is real." Worthey used EM on a farm in Marana, which he leased for seven years. He watched his cotton crops fight off about a quarter of the root rot they succumbed to under other farming methods, and he says his grapes showed an even more dramatic result. "We saw up to an 85 reduction in the root knot nematode," he says. Now, Worthey will use EM in his efforts to expand and transform the entire growing operation at San Xavier into a large-scale, organic farm. "I would like to call it an EM showcase farm," he says.