Why EM (Effective Microorganisms)

When there is a solution that does so much, beyond current reasonableness, it must be questioned. And it must be questioned not only by the measures of others, but by one's own personal, direct observations and experiences, particularly over the course of time. Your own consistent repeated observations, and especially the fluctuations of the dynamic interactions of biological life (microorganisms in your surroundings), are your best sources for your own understanding of EM.

Since its discovery in 1982 by a professor of horticulture, the use of EM has evolved from a way to stop relying on agricultural chemicals to resolving the problems of environmental contamination and understanding our connection of health with nature at the microbial level.

EM has gradually become a significant connector, or re-connector, to life and nature by people everywhere, especially the "non-experts", as society still continues in the direction that tries to wrestle and control nature. EM has shown, and continues to show in new areas, to be a low tech, low cost means with quality outputs with energy coming from nature itself (the interactions of microbes with other life and the elements). "Money does not grow on trees, but edible nuts and fruits do, freely provided by nature." With minimal human management and caring, and with the understanding and use of such things as EM, abundance can be achieved without having to fabricate and control the input and output (GMO's, chemical additives, chemical manipulations, geoengineering, etc.)

The Reliance On One Product

We do not need EM. If all of our foods were organically grown, and we didn't excessively use and misuse chemicals and antibiotics, then we wouldn't need something like EM.

However, we do need microorganisms. We need them for digestion, to keep our body healthy, to break down organic matter, as well as break down chemicals, and to pickle our foods, to brew beer, and so on. And other organisms need them as food and for the cycle of all life. It is not just the abilities of the microbes to break down contaminants (chemicals, toxins), it is also their abilities to restore a level of balance among life (in nature, in bodies of water, in animals and in the human body).

EM happens to be a combination of microbes that are in sync with nature, that produce the kinds of environments that are conducive to the kind of nature we consider vital, healthy and vibrant, and as live, adaptable organisms, can deal with a wide variety of conditions, turning what we humans consider toxic or hostile to life, into something on/from/by which life can thrive.

While there are other microbial products that are now being made with similar or equivalent effectiveness (which is a good thing), EM may still have a level of advancement (see the rest of the points below) that goes beyond the confines of our current social and economic paradigm (mainly that life should not be based on money and control, where the solution is all too often allowed to be compromised or corrupted for such purposes).

So, while the rest of the world (mainly science tied to commerce, which funds scientific research) catches up to EM and to the developments by the EM community, we (this site and volunteers otherwise) will rely on this one product to resolve many of our problems. This does not mean the exclusive use of EM, but rather that with the understanding that microbes are everywhere, a variety of methods (permaculture, vermiculture, etc.) can be integrated with EM. And with the understanding of what EM is and does, to be open to other methods, to adopt or adjust to different approaches and methods to continually improve and make advancements (always in sync with nature).

Why Trademarked/Registered

In Regards to Trademarks, Registered Mark and Branding, Teruo Higa's original intention with EM was to offer it to the world freely since he saw it as being part of the commons, i.e., a resource that's a common heritage of everyone and all life. However, he quickly experienced obstacles: the reluctance to something new, especially if it somehow posed a threat (to businesses or jobs); or that businesses (he needed them to make and supply the farmers and users) tend to monopolize and profiteer. The businesses that he offered the EM technology to early on, tried to take advantage of its uniqueness and effectiveness. They seemed more fiercely competitive, but to protect profits and seek exclusivity towards a monopoly-like advantage, instead of being open and collaborative. The farmers and endusers would be the ones to suffer in quality and cost. Luckily, he was able to take control of the EM technology. To this day, the making of EM is a trade secret. He has written in his books that he hopes to one day make it open to all.

While the exact species of microbes in EM are made available to the public, how those species are made to combine and bind with each other in balance in population and stability (EM has a shelf life of up to one year) is still held tight. On more than one occasion, Higa, through the EM Research Organization (which he help found but does not hold a position within the organization), has pulled the rights of a third-party business to produce EM because they started to veer away from producing high quality EM with safe ingredients and/or from keeping the EM product at a reasonably low price. To prevent going off track and to encourage staying on the right direction, he had the vision statement of the EM Research Organization (EMRO) be as follows:

"To improve humanity by developing a world society of coexistence and co-prosperity through sustainability, safety, convenience, low cost, high quality, and exchange of quality information through the use of EM technology."

And Higa has stated that these principles are based on what he observed how the EM microbes functioned.

EM cannot be patented because it consists of naturally existing organisms. Although, perhaps, the formula or manufacturing process itself could be patented, that process is kept instead as a trade secret, and the EM name is what's registered and trademarked. In the beginning, not much effort was put on branding (the identifying of a product by a particular company under a particular name). As others began to make copies, the need for branding became evident if only to prevent confusion among the users and for users to better able to recognize the genuine or original EM.

Among the copies were ineffective products and products producing mixed or weak results. There have been instances of where companies would purchase EM, through an individual for instance, and then try to use that EM as a seed stock to reproduce more EM. The problem with trying to produce more EM from an original EM is that once ingredients are mixed in to multiply the microbes, including water which has their own microbes, it breaks the balance and stability of the three key groups.

You can, however, multiply the EM microbes once and use it within a shorter time frame. This end-product is actually called Activated EM and the recipe for making it is open to the public (how these other companies tried to reproduce EM may not have been in this same way). It's actually recommended for users to make Activated EM with the original EM that they buy in order to make it even more economical. So if they used, say, a questionable EM to make Activated EM, the results may not be consistent. For these reasons, a branding effort has been carried out by EMRO. Higa and EMRO also continually improve the EM and the technology as they learn more and more about the microbial world and their connection to life and nature.

The Vision of, by, for EM

Why Does It Work

If there is anything to understand in this world, it is that life could not happen and continue to happen without microorganisms.

Microbes are critical to the cycle of life: in breaking down organic matter, making nutrients available, in the digestive functions of all life forms, and helping in the flow of energy among all life.

worms, certain insects, ... actually eat microbes, ... The microbes are therefore the essentials to soils ...

Currently, human activities and methods are pushing the conditions towards attracting and driving organisms that further affects us negatively (superbugs, antibiotic resistant organisms, pesticide resistant bugs, etc.). Where we live and where we excavate our resources and dump our waste,

We have come to understand life through chemistry, rather than through biological interactions at the molecular level and the physics of the flow of energy at the ...

It's the Combination of Different Species of Microbes

Microbes Are Everywhere

Microbes Are Necessary for the Cycle of Life

Microbes See Our Waste As Food

Microbes Excrete the Essentials for Life

In sync with nature.

Symbiotic

Synergistic

Science, Scientists and Money

Over time, even well-established science gets 'updated' or overturned or superceded by the latest development. In the EM world, over the last 30+ years since its discovery, a similar thing happens where certain findings gets overturned, sometimes negatively, but mostly positively. ...

One of the problems people may have with EM is that they are viewing, determining, and analyzing it based on the current paradigm of society. Much of which is influenced by science and technology, the scientists and engineers (tenure, job, funding, budget), the corporate executives overseeing them, the academic institutions that depend on research fundings and credibility, and the politicians involved through the financial and economic consequences to their state or district. When the science (the importance of understanding our world), scientists (people with concerns), and money (the means that limits, influences, and controls everything) become intertwined as they have in our society, a very specific overall tendency (paradigm) become the established structure or form by which it guides most everything. This may be good for standardization, but standardization also has its downsides. ...

The scientific direction on microorganisms, for example, could have taken many directions concurrently if it weren't for the restrictions of money, the influence of scientists and their political connections. From nearly the beginning (soon after the microscope was invented), the direction that the scientific perspective of microorganisms took went to viewing microbes as disease-causing. It could have also gone towards the direction as seeing microbes as elemental units of life of plants and animals, just as cells were for physical bodies and atoms for physical matter.

Why EM | Introduction to EM | What is EM | Background on EM | Microbes

goodmicrobes.org

Microbes are everywhere.