According to a news report from stltoday.com, “Walt Gregory is an organic farmer who challenged two neighboring farmers to a worm-digging contest. He wanted to prove that farming with chemical fertilizers destroys the worms and other organisms that are nature’s way of enriching the soil, for free.”
“We dug one-foot-square holes,” Gregory said. “The first farmer counted three worms in his soil. The second had four. We dug mine and counted 179 worms. Both of them called me a liar to my face. They said, ‘This is b.s., you put the worms in there.’ We went out and dug another hole where they wanted in my field. They counted 180 worms.” With chubby cheeks and a flowing snow-white beard, Gregory, 62, looks like Santa Claus and plays the part every Christmas. But he can get cantankerous when extolling the benefits of organic farming, versus “poisoning” the soil, and the food supply, with chemicals,” said the story.
“We will see the day when the death rate from our food system will make the bubonic plague look like a head cold,” Gregory warned. “Don’t eat fast food, don’t buy at the supermarket. Go to your own backyard, or to an organic farm.” As ardent as a preacher, Gregory has an unusual pulpit — a circular demonstration garden that covers a half acre and is modeled after a pizza, with the different ingredients used in a pizza growing in the eight triangular wedges. Gregory saw his first “pizza garden” in California, and that grower is selling franchises for the patented idea,” according to the article.
