An Earth Saving Revolution A means to resolve our world's problems through Effective Microorganisms (EM) Teruo Higa, Ph.D. English Translation by Anja Kanal Foreword At this moment of time, the Earth is sick, very sick. Witness the floods and earthquakes occurring not only in Japan but around the world; the bloody racial conflicts; the movements of vast numbers of refugees; a global recession that leaves no nation unaffected; and, on the medical front, AIDS, an insidious disease for which no complete cure has yet been found and which is rapidly spreading over the entire planet. Disasters and incidents such as these are now occurring with a frequency that would seem to herald the end of the world in a manner which many might see as giving credence to the prophesies of Nostradamus. Is it possible that such calamities could culminate in the destruction of the planet? If it is, then it is up to us, the human race to take steps to ensure such an eventuality is prevented. It is our task: the burden lies on our shoulders. It is both the duty and responsibility of the human race to save Planet Earth. The first priority in the task of rescuing the Earth is to resolve the problem of food shortages. After that we need to come to grips with environmental issues and problems facing us on the medical front. Energy is another pressing problem that needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. I believe I have identified a way of tackling and solving the primary problem of the food supply, and it lies in making use of the tiny creatures I call "effective microorganisms.: Effective Microorganisms, or EM for short, and their various applications form the subject of this book. When I first stated out on this course, it was with the belief that the use of EM on a global scale would have a beneficial effect on food production. However, I have since come to realize it can also be used to great advantage in far wider range of applications than I ever envisaged when I began to work with it. Not only does EM seem to offer a solution to another of Earth's currently pressing problems, that of global environmental pollution, it also promises beneficial results in the area of medical health, and research is currently progressing into the application of EM in both these fields. Although a number of regional municipal organizations in Japan have already begun using EM, the speed with which EM technology is spreading in other countries around the world is so great that I find most of my time is now taken up lecturing and advising on the use of it outside Japan. As you will come to understand in greater detail as you read this book, used for agricultural purposes, EM has the ability to turn any type of soil, deserts included, into good, arable land capable of producing harvests many times greater than the current yield, and this totally without the use of pesticides, agricultural chemicals or artificial fertilizers of any kind. It might be immodest on my part to make such a claim, but the agricultural use of EM would seem to provide the ideal natural method of organic farming we have been dreaming about for so long, and it is my hope that it will come to be used in this way on a global scale. I believe the general use of EM agricultural methods has the potential to generate happiness for the individual in all nations everywhere. the realization of personal happiness for all individuals would constitute a positive move that would carry us away from the current social order with its basis on confrontation and competition, and bring us a step nearer to a world united in coexistence and co-prosperity. If this could be achieved, it would mean the end to an age where the principle of military dominance has held sway, and it is my belief that EM has no small role to play at this time of such major changes in the history of the human race. Technologies and concepts, like that of EM, needed for problem-solving in the coming age of coexistence and universal co-prosperity--even to those for solving something like the energy problem--already exist. All that is required now is to devise a basic structure to ensure they will be used in an absolutely correct manner in the future. I am not for one moment claiming EM to be the panacea for all Earth's problems, but it is my hope that this book will provide the layman or anyone not intimately connected with the field with some understanding of a technology which is already becoming established as one of the trends in the newly unfolding history of humanity. Teruo Higa Okinawa, Japan, August 1993 Contents Foreword...3 Prologue, EM-HOPE FOR THE PLANET...11 The Amazing Regenerative Power of Anabiotic Microorganisms...12 Food for a World of 10 Billion...17 The "Follow-the-Leader" Proclivity of Microorganisms...22 "Problem Busters" from Kitchen Garbage to Environmental Pollution...28 Growing Interest on the Medical Front...35 Competition Must Give Way to Coexistence and Co-prosperity...37 Chapter 1, EM: THE COMPLETE SOLUTION TO ALL FOOD PROBLEMS...47 "It's All in the Mix!" A Lucky Accident and a Discovery...48 The Day of Agricultural Chemicals and Pesticides is Over...55 The Senselessness of an Agricultural Policy Detrimental to Producers and Consumers Alike...62 Lifeless Soil, Lifeless Human Beings...69 Antioxidation: The Vital Factor in Effective Environmental Pollution Control...73 Two-In-One: Pest Control and Greater Proliferation of Beneficial Insects...78 EM's Triple Benefits: Continuous Cropping, Excellent Weed Control and Increased Yield...81 The Power to Make Any Soil Productive...86 Japan's Agriculture Structure Must Be Radically Overhauled if the Nation is to Survive...89 An Abundant Food Supply Can Save the Planet...95 EM: The Missing Quotient in Organic Agriculture...100 Ushering in Perhaps the Greatest Earth Changes Since the Industrial Revolution...106 Chapter 2, RESOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS...119 Recycled Paper and Plastic As Good As New...120 Cost Savings of an Amazing 90%...124 A Demand for More, Not Less Organic Waste...132 High-Speed Deodorization for Livestock Operations...140 Recycling Waste Water Solves a Water Shortage...147 EM and Cleaning Up Our Rivers...154 Eradicating Residues from Agricultural Chemicals...159 EM Instead of Chlorine in Swimming Pools...161 The Vital Role of Microorganisms in the Natural World...167 Preventing Further Destruction of the Ozone Layer...172 The Anachronism of "The Japanese Way"...176 Too Much Scholarship. Too Much Bureaucracy. Too Little Down-To-Earth Practicality...180 Relieving Starvation and Poverty on the African Continent...188 How are Effective Microorganisms Able to Solve Environmental Problems?...191 Effective Microorganisms Must Be Allowed to Flourish If We Are to Save the Earth...196 Chapter 3, A WAY OUT OF OUR MEDICAL MALAISE...207 Medicine Ought to Be a Declining Industry...208 Taking Responsibility: Determining for Ourselves What Can Be Put and What Cannot Be Put Into Our Own Bodies...212 We Have Increased Longevity, but Poor Health Is Still a Social Problem...218 The Healing Power of Antioxidation...222 Amassing Medical Evidence...228 Why Do Some Smokers Get Cancer and Others Not?...232 Energy-Draining Cancer: The Antioxidants Which Are Its Greatest Adversary...236 Mental and Psychological Ill-Health Also Generates Active Oxygen...241 Regenerative Microorganisms Have What It Takes to Make and Keep Us Healthy...249 Chapter 4, CREATING A SOCIETY BASED ON COEXISTENCE AND CO-PROSPERITY...259 Agriculture and Growing Things: My Passion Since Childhood...260 Theory Without Application Vs. Application Without Theory and the Successful Launch of Mandarin Orange Cultivation in Okinawa...266 A Time of Social Transition: From Competition to Coexistence and Co-Prosperity...272 Food, Health, the Environment: All Must Be Exempt from the Principles of Competition...278 Mark of Authenticity: Positive Benefits at Affordable Prices...283 Paring Down Redundant Burdens That Drain Society...288 Agriculture Not Medicine Is Where The Big Money Is...292 Getting Our Priorities Right: Problem Solving Over Knowledge and Memory...300 Japan Is Currently the Only Nation with the Potential to Establish the Ideal Society...311 POSTSCRIPT...325 PROFILES...332 Japanese Prefectures Mentioned in This Book...335 Copyright © 1993 by Teruo Higa, and Sunmark Publishing Inc.