Worms on the Menu is the article about the owner of a restaurant named David Krick who makes the dirt that is full of nutrients by feeding kitchen waste to worms. The article is used for the Achieve 3000 course. Below are the answers to Worms on the Menu Achieve 3000 and about the article.
Worms on the Menu Achieve 3000 answers
Dictionary:
- Compost (noun): dead leaves, food, and other things that are added to soil to make it better
- Decomposer (noun): an organism that breaks down already dead organism; It’s last in the food chain.
- Eliminate (verb): to get rid of
- Organic (adjective): produced by natural processes, without the use of chemicals or artificial substances
- Scavenger (noun): an organism that eats already dead organisms
- Sustainability (noun): the ability to preserve or maintain; the practice of trying to preserve natural resources for future generations
About Worms on the Menu article
As mentioned in the earlier paragraph, Worms on the Menu refers to the article about the owner of a restaurant named David Krick who makes the dirt that is full of nutrients by feeding kitchen waste to worms. At his restaurant which is located in Boise, Idaho, people are not only the ones that can enjoy the food. They also serve diners for another species called worms. The worms work hard to turn the dirty kitchen waste into something useful, which is compost. It is a good plan made by the owner of the restaurant to reduce the garbage.
For more than one year, David Krick has been giving about 100 pounds food waste each day to 200,000 worms, specifically Vermont red wiggler worms. These creatures are put in a metal bin in the basement of the restaurant. there is a metal screen in the 14 by 4 foot bin. The screen with dirt mixture is nestled by the worms. If you are wondering about the dirt mixture, it has everything from leftovers to kitchen scraps. The food is eaten by the worms and after eating, they will produce the solid waste known as castings, which then are mixed in with the dirt. The result of this process produces a compost soil that is full of nutrients. In the end, Krick uses the soil to grow the plants in the outdoor planters of his restaurant. Not only for the outdoor planters of his restaurant, he also brings it home and uses it in the garden at his home. There is actually a term to call this worm composting process, which is vermiculture. The effort has successfully reduced the waste of the restaurant.
Before deciding to turn the kitchen waste into compost, Krick examined the garbage produced by his restaurant. The man thought about the location where to reduce it. He calculated all the food scraps that are thrown away. After some thoughts, he then made a decision to use worms to make compost, which the process is called vermicomposting. Then, the vermicomposting bin was set up by him in the basement of his restaurant. About the process, he stated that they wanted to do onsite composing because it takes a little energy.
Apparently, there is only one other than the restaurant from the United States that has done vermicomposting. This one is located in Hawaii. A lot of restaurants probably want to follow the route but most of them probably do not have the space to do it. Another possible reason why they do not do vermicomposting is because they do not want the customers of their restaurants to feel disgusted by the thought of tons of squirming eaters like worms nearby.
A manager at the restaurant in Hawaii that practices vermicomposting named Tracy Solomon said that she actually expected that people would get disgusted. She said that sometimes a lot of people stare at her when it is her time to feed the worms. Most of them are wondering what she is doing in the bins. The reactions from the customers do not bother her because she still keeps the worm bins in an outdoor seating area, the one next to the dining table. Actually, she thinks that the worms are not as unappealing to the customers as she thought before. She added that people just think that the sounds sound like an interesting step to take.
In Idaho, United States, Krick is doing well with his vermicomposting project. Due to the success, he has a plan to get another bin and to double the number of worms to feed. He wishes someday he can sell the compost at the closest nursery. However, Krick is not obsessed with getting rich from this project. The bin for the worms costs about $12,000 and selling compost will only cover part of the startup costs. He said that they know that they are not going to cover the startup costs. Nevertheless, it is still OK because the most important thing is to reduce the garbage.
As the worm herd keeps increasing, Krick has a hope to sell starter buckets for home vermicomposting. He pictures the customers bringing home doggie bags from this place. He wants the leftovers to be given to the worms from the basement. While Krick has a plan to go well with the customers, Solomon is different. She actually does presentations for students at schools. Apart from that, she and the teams give starter bins of worms and castings to the schools for their own gardening.
Two things that play a big role in food chains and food webs are decomposers and scavengers. Things cannot grow anymore when they die. However, the building block chemicals that they have, including carbon and nitrogen, have to be recycled into the soil, which allows them to be reused in food webs. It is where the decomposers and scavengers enter. If there are no decomposers and scavengers, the world will be full of dead material. In addition to that, plants will not get the nutrients they need to grow.
