Big money in the worm trade

Abstract

Indulging, no doubt , a taste for earthy humor, Hugh Carter, the President's cousin, began his Georgia worm business in an old coffin. By 1973, Carter was selling 25 million red wigglers to the bait trade, some 100 other worm breeders were digging full time and 50,000 were moonlighting. 1 The healthy growth of recreational fishing had stimulated a vigorous side industry-vermicul ture . Not all the 26 million license-holders used worms, but then not all fishermen used licenses. A few years later, the worm industry achieved real status. In Nebraska the governor's wife proudly showed visitors her worm farm, installed in the adjacent fallout shelter. In California alone, there were more than 10,000 worm growers in 1976, according to the California Farm Bureau. One expert insists that worm raising is nearing a billion dollar gross. Whatever the figure, the earthworm is doing double duty these days, performing as usual on the hook and winning applause in a new ro le tha t of an ecological Hercules. He is a living plow, possesses an organic garbage