Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Both products are sold at arm's length by the manufacturers themselves and through other re-
tailers who have resale agreement with the manufacturers. Both are very high quality and work tre-
mendously well. I have no problem highly recommending either one.
Fig. 3.2:
TeraGanix EM1 and SCD Probiotics ProBio Balance Plus.
For worldwide sources of EM1, visit
emrojapan.com
.
Regardless of anything that is written out there on the Internet, it is not possible to recreate or
manufactureEMinahome-basedsetting.Thetechniquesandequipmentneededtogetthemicrobes
in the EM mother culture to function in consortium are far above and beyond what any normal
homeowner would have or could do. Homebrewers can kind of make EM-like cultures, but they
won'tbeabletorecreateanythingwiththelifespan,depth,ordiversityofanEMmotherculture.So
ignore what you read — you can't make EM at home. Most homemade EM recipes are just lacto-
bacillus serums — effective for some things, but not EM, which contains a variety of microbes,
not just lactobacillus. Later I will delve into a microbial solution that a homebrewer can make, but
again, it won't be able to compete with EM in terms of shelf life, effectiveness, quality, or ease of
use — and EM is cheap when you get right down to it. Most people would be better off purchasing
a high-quality EM mother culture when they make bokashi bran because it gives them a known in-
gredient versus an unknown variable (homemade culture). That means a more consistent product,
and less time wasted trying to get the process to work the way that you want it to work.
So why is EM so important to the bokashi composting process? In its simplest form, bokashi
compostingisafermentativeprocess,andforthefermentationtosuccessfullyhappen,themicrobes
being applied to the food waste need to have the robustness to outcompete and control any existing
microbesthatarealreadyinthesystem.EMdoesthis.Thankstotheconsortiumofmicrobeswithin
EM,bokashibraninoculatedwithithastheabilitytoreeducateother“wild”microbes.VinnyPinto,
