Why Jumping Worms: Sustainable Agriculture
Regenerative and sustainable agricultural techniques are gaining popularity and importance, thanks to their potential for environmentally friendlier farming and improved soil health. The core tenets of regenerative farming focus on the idea of soil-building and soil-preserving practices, which can include reduced or no tilling, use of perennial and cover crops, biodiverse intercropping, and organic mulches and compost.
These practices increase soil fertility, water retention, resistance to erosion, and microbial activity. Croplands become more resistant to drought and extreme rains. More broadly, soil-saving farming methods also sequester more carbon, lower irrigation needs, result in less waterway pollution, and promote more habitat for local wildlife.
Jumping Worms May Put Healthy Agriculture at Risk
Unfortunately, the same methods that farmers use to build soil health also creates ideal habitat for jumping worms, which thrive in the moist, organic mulches.
The intersection of agriculture and the jumping worm invasion is very new. Many farmers are only just noticing jumping worm infestations in their soil. We don’t know yet what the outcomes will be or how growers can adapt. However, based on what we’ve seen in forests and backyards and laboratories, we suspect many of the benefits of regenerative farming will be reduced or negated without mitigating measures:
Because jumping worm castings replace mulches and compost, but do not hold water, crops may be more vulnerable to drought.
Castings are extremely prone to erosion—30 percent more than even in conventional farms—so farmers are likely to lose topsoil mass and contribute to watershed pollution.
In backyard vegetable gardens affected by jumping worms, some crops like eggplants have been observed to collapse due to poor rooting; similar effects could occur in farms.
Organic matter like compost, mulch, straw, leaf litter, and manure will be rapidly consumed and require more frequent applications, potentially increasing cost and labor. However, adding fresh organic material risks sustaining high populations of worms, creating a no-win situation.
Mycorrhizal fungi networks may be disrupted, impairing some crops’ ability to take up nutrients and water from the soil.
Jumping worms appear to outcompete the European worms, so beneficial earthworm populations may drop.
Ironically, conventional farms are less likely to be invaded by jumping worms because their disruptive soil practices, such as tilling, fallowing, and use of chemical herbicides and pesticides, disrupt the worms’ habitat. We do not believe a return to these methods is the solution however, because the cost of the polluting and soil degrading of these types of agriculture are too high.