Vol. XVIII No. 6
November / December 2024
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Firewood Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
NEWS
Attention Readers !
Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, check out these leading companies advertised inside:
Automatic Floor Systems Keith Manufacturing Co – pg 14 Bagging/Palletizing Equipment Amadas Industries – pg 8 Premier Tech – pg 10 Compost Turner Resource Machinery & Engineering – pg 5 Conveyors & Conveyor Parts Amadas Industries – pg 8 Smalis Conveyors – pg 3 Equipment Sales GrinderTrader.com – pg 8 Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Action Vibratory Equipment – pg 12 Amadas Industries – pg 8 Bandit – pg 19 Diamond Z – pg 9 HogZilla – pg 5 Maverick Environmental Equipment – pg 16 Precision Husky – pg 17 Rawlings Wood Hogs – pg 22 Rotochopper – pg 21 Sundance Grinders – pg 10 Viably – pg 7 Mulch Coloring Equipment/ Colorants AgriCoatings – pg 15 Amerimulch – pg 23 Britton Industries – pg 18 CMC – pg 13 Colorbiotics – pg 2 Faltech – pg 6 Milagro Rubber Inc – pg 4 T.H. Glennon Co – pg 24 Mulch Suppliers Ohio Mulch – pg 16 Payload Weighing & Measuring Systems Walz Scale – pg 11 Trailers Weaver Systems – pg 20 Trommel Brushes Power Brushes Inc – pg 8 Wear Parts ArmorHog – pg 12
Arizona Worm Farm Turns Trash to Treasure
W
By P.J. Heller
hen Zach Brooks took a midlife sharp U-turn change in careers, he had a unique goal in mind. “We set out to create a fully off-the-grid sustainable farm where we turn sunshine, rainwater and other people’s garbage into food and shelter and improvements to the planet,” he says. “That was kind of our North Star.” Brooks laid out a 10-year plan to achieve those goals, but notes, “it did not include becoming a full-blown worm farm, that kind of evolved.” Today, roughly seven years since he gave up his job as a partner in a management consulting firm, Brooks is believed to be one of the top 10 worm producers in the nation. The Arizona Worm Farm, located on a 10-acre site in south Phoenix at the base of South Mountain, sells approximately 4 million red wiggler worms a year, 700-800 yards of worm castings, compost, raised bed mix, seed starter mix, vegetable starts and small trees. On Fridays and Saturdays, the company produces and sells an active worm-casting tea. His vermiculture/vermicomposting business is also developing black soldier fly larvae products, including a rich organic soil amendment made from the frass (poop). Brooks’ goal is to take food and landscape waste, divert it from the landfill by feeding
it to worms and larvae that then turn it into high‑protein feed and fertilizer. The insects and their byproducts are then fed to the farm hens and spread on gardens to produce sustainable food and growing products. “We’re determined to use this circular process to combat ‘climate change’, divert waste from landfills, and use regenerative soil efforts to put carbon back in the ground where it belongs,” Brooks says. The Arizona Worm Farm, started in 2017 on what was an old cotton farm, has grown from $80,000 a year in revenue to more than $2 million. It employs 11 people fulltime as well as about a half dozen part-time staffers and interns. It targets predominantly backyard gardeners and small farms. The vast majority of the company’s products are sold from its facility, with garden centers accounting for only a tiny percentage of sales. “What we’re trying to do for ourselves and our community is to create mechanisms whereby people can recycle their own [food and landscape] waste and can turn their garbage into food and soil in their yards,” Brooks explains. “We think we can have a positive impact on the earth and we can help you have a great backyard garden.” He says compost producers would also benefit from adding worms to their mix. Continued on page 3