Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
EM is a synergistic consortium of microorganisms, a group of more than one type of microbes
that works together so that each organism causes benefit, not harm, to the other organisms in the
consortium.Asdescribedin
Chapter2:TheHistoryofBokashi
,
theoriginalEMproduct,EM1,was
formulated and popularized bythe Japanese researcher Teruo Higa, whospent many years trying to
get individually beneficial microbes to function together in a consortium which would then be even
more beneficial. He knew it was important to develop a consortium because individually many of
the microbes that he saw as beneficial only functioned under a very specific set of environmental
conditions which made their use very limited or impractical in widespread, real-world applications
where conditions can vary greatly. By creating a successful consortium, he was able to greatly in-
crease the ability of the member microbes to function over a larger range of temperature, pH, and
environmental conditions. This adaptability and versatility made the end product much more stable
and usable in the real world. EM1 was universally applicable, something that Dr. Higa had striven
for in his quest to find a microbial product to ultimately replace harmful agricultural chemicals. In
An Earth Saving Revolution
, Higa describes EM as:
a large group of microorganisms…. photosynthetic bacteria, yeasts, lactic acid bacteria, and
fungi are just some of the strains of anabiotic microorganisms belonging to the EM group.
When a combination of them is present in the soil and they are proliferating in sufficient
numbers they bring about an increase in antioxidation levels and a resultant intensification
in energy concentrations. In other words, their activity instigates the regeneration process,
purifying the air and water content of the soil and intensifying plant growth. A further pos-
itive feature of anabiotic microorganisms is that their secretions contain large amounts of
nutrients beneficial to both plants and animals including amino acids, organic acids, poly-
saccharides, and vitamins.
9
All of the microbes in EM1 and EM1-type products are naturally occurring microbes from
aroundtheworld.Noneofthemaregeneticallymodifiedinanyway.Ataminimum,allqualityEM
cultures will contain various species of yeasts, lactic acid bacteria, and purple non-sulfur bacteria
(PNSB). The total number of species of each type of microbe in any given bottle of EM mother
culturecanvaryfromafewtomorethanonehundred.Eachmanufacturerformulatestheirproducts
slightly differently, based on their research and the intended end use for the particular product. For
example, I have one bottle of an EM-type product that states that it includes at least seven species
of microbes (probably many more are included, but not listed on the bottle):
•
Lactobacillus plantarum
•
Lactobacillus casei
•
Lactobacillus fermentum
•
Lactobacillus delbrueckii
•
Bacillus subtilis
•
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
•
Rhodopseudomonas palustris
