Severe crackdown! Why was the tiny earthworm included in the Central Government’s No. 1 document?

Recently, the release of the 2023 Central Document No. 1 has attracted widespread attention from the whole society. In the section "Strengthening the construction of high-standard farmland", there is a clear statement of "severely cracking down on illegal digging of black soil, electric catching of earthworms and other soil-damaging behaviors". This is the first time that "severely cracking down on electric catching of earthworms" has appeared in the Central Document No. 1. Earthworms, also known as "earth dragons", are a traditional Chinese medicinal material. The electric earthworm catching device is also called the "earth dragon instrument". It relies on voltage stimulation to catch all the earthworms within a certain range. It is also called the "extinction-style" earthworm catching, but it seriously damages the soil ecological environment and affects crop yields. The fact that it has been paid attention to by the Central Document No. 1 this time shows that protecting earthworms is urgent both from the law enforcement level and the ecological level.

Although the weight is small, it can weigh thousands of pounds. Earthworms are an important indicator for evaluating the quality of cultivated land.

Earthworms are a very easy species to find. There are nearly 3,000 species in the world, and there are more than 200 species in my country, with more species in the south than in the north. In the past, earthworms were most likely encountered by humans through "fishing" and "bait", but it was still a surprise to many people that they were included in the Central Document No. 1.

In fact, wild earthworms are an evaluation indicator of arable land quality. In a study on the "Indicator System for Evaluation of Arable Land Quality" conducted by the former Ministry of Land and Resources in 2016, soil fertility, farming conditions, health conditions and biological characteristics became the four primary indicators for evaluating arable land quality, and topographic location, field slope, etc. became 29 secondary indicators.

Among the 29 secondary indicators, “soil earthworms” were specifically included under the primary indicator “biological characteristics”.

The research report also pointed out that soil earthworms are one of the largest common groups of soil animals, and they have an important impact on the material circulation and energy transfer of soil processes through activities such as feeding, digestion, excretion, secretion and burrowing.

Therefore, earthworms are one of the important species in the soil ecosystem, belonging to both the predatory food chain and the saprophytic food chain. Earthworms use the remains of animals and plants as the starting point of the food chain, which can play a role in the decomposition of soil organic matter and the circulation of nutrients; they can break, decompose and mix organic matter (such as decomposing leaves); and they can also improve the spatial distribution of organic matter.

Earthworms also have an impact on the physical and chemical properties of the soil. Their excrement, including the passage through the holes, can loosen the soil structure, making the soil compacted and allowing air and water to flow in easily. Earthworms also have an impact on plant microorganisms, including animals in the soil. Plants grow better in places with earthworms. Earthworm feces itself is also a high-quality organic fertilizer. Using earthworm organic fertilizer, agricultural products will be more organic and taste better.

The “black industry chain” behind the crazy electric fishing
Some people make crazy profits from this

As the saying goes, "No gain, no pain", the main reason why earthworms are caught crazily is their high economic value, and the most important "money-making prospect" here is "using them as medicine".

In the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia", there are four types of earthworms with high medicinal value, namely, Earthworm, William's Earthworm, Common Earthworm and Ctenophora obliquus. After they are dried, they are called "earthworms". The dried body of the first type is called "Guang earthworm" (because it is mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places), and the latter three are called "Shanghai earthworms" (because they are mainly distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai).

Data shows that the domestic demand for earthworms was 400 tons in 2010, but by 2020, the demand had grown to 675 tons, an increase of more than 50% in 10 years. In addition, the four types of earthworms that can be used as medicine have not yet been fully cultivated artificially and can only be caught in the wild, which has also invisibly increased their prices.

According to a report by a Red Star News reporter in 2022, in Yulin, Guangxi and other places, the purchase price of earthworms was 40 to 50 yuan per kilogram in the early years. Later, due to the increase in demand, it has now reached 230 yuan per kilogram.

A buyer said that when the earthworm instrument was first introduced, some people could catch 500 kilograms of earthworms a day. But now it is not possible to catch that much, after all, there are too many people using electricity to catch earthworms, and after so many years, there are very few earthworms. If you want to make money, you have to go to a farther place.

Good for the artificial breeding industry, there should be laws to prevent "electrical earthworm capture"

In fact, in July 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other departments, jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Wild Earthworms and Improving Soil Ecological Environment", deploying localities to verify issues such as electric capture of wild earthworms, strengthen supervision according to their responsibilities, and rectify the chaos of illegal hunting, purchasing, and processing of wild earthworms.

Under the coordinated supervision of multiple departments, all products such as "electric earthworm machines" and "earthworm instruments" sold on e-commerce platforms are now removed from the shelves. In addition, the Central Government's No. 1 Document clearly stated that it would crack down on the practice of electric earthworm catching. The "road to wealth" of electric earthworm catching is probably coming to an end.

For example, Beijing, Guangdong, Hainan and many other places have issued regulations to include wild earthworms in the scope of protection. As early as 2018, the Haikou Municipal People's Government promulgated the "Several Regulations on the Protection of Wetlands in Haikou City", which was the first to stipulate regulations prohibiting the use of electric shock on earthworms in wetlands.

On March 31, 2020, the newly revised "Guangdong Provincial Wildlife Protection and Management Regulations" took the lead in expanding the scope of application to "other terrestrial wild animals" outside the list. On June 1, 2020, Beijing implemented the new version of the "Beijing Wildlife Protection and Management Regulations", which expanded the scope of protection of wild animals and strengthened the fasting system, expanding the scope of the fasting from national key protected wild animals to all terrestrial wild animals and listed aquatic wild animals.

Kong Xiangbin, professor at the College of Land Science and Technology of China Agricultural University, believes that the first appearance of "little earthworms" in the Central Government's Document No. 1 is a landmark event in promoting the construction of high-standard farmland, which means that the country pays more attention to the biological characteristics of cultivated land, the relationship between agricultural development and biodiversity, and the optimization of soil at the micro level.

Yang Zhaoxia, director of the Ecological Law Research Center of Beijing Forestry University, said that the call for a ban on electric fishing of earthworms has long been in a "lawless" situation. The reason is that earthworms were not included in the "National Key Protected Wildlife List" and the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Value" in the past. This meant that law enforcement agencies had no relevant laws and regulations as a basis for enforcement, which led to the disorderly development of the electric earthworm industry and even a disaster, causing damage to biodiversity and soil ecosystems.

She suggested that at the national level, both listed wild animals and other wild animals not included in the list should be protected. On the basis of adhering to the basic principle of key protection and strictly protecting listed wild animals, special principles of universal protection and bottom-line protection should be added. Only in this way can the overall protection of biodiversity and ecological security be achieved.

On another level, the "electricity ban" is also good news for the artificial breeding of earthworms. It is understood that as early as the 1980s, earthworms had been artificially bred, but the artificial breeding technology was not yet mature. Driven by the "electricity ban", related breeding technology is expected to break through the bottleneck and benefit more breeders.

(Source: Beijing News, China Business News, Guangming Online, Red Star News, etc.)

Source: Beijing Science and Technology News Agency