Symposium Speakers

Benny Erez, Director of Urban Agriculture, Compost and Vermicompost Specialist: After years working in an academic setting doing agricultural research,Benny Erez brings knowledge of theoretical and practical farming technology to ECO City Farms.

Anna de la Vega is the Founder and Director of The Urban Worm CIC, a UK based social enterprise dedicated to raising awareness of the potential for vermiculture to provide solutions for regenerative organic waste management and agriculture.

Peter Jan Brouwer, is founder and owner of Compost Academie and Wormenhotels in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  As a child, Peter Jan Brouwer (1962) knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up: either a farmer or a biologist.

Jack Chambers is a retired commercial airline captain turned worm farmer. He started Sonoma Valley Worm Farm in California 30 years ago and transformed it into a science-driven company called TerraVesco that sells vermicompost and vermi-extract.

Steve Churchill is the founder of the Urban Worm Company, a blog and online store dedicated to creating, educating, and equipping vermicomposters with products like the patented Urban Worm Bag.

Tom Herlihy has over 30 years of experience specializing in the design, permitting and operations of organic waste management facilities. He holds a Master’s in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and a Bachelor’s in Physics.

Francisco Niembro co-founded Aldea Verde in Mexico in 2005. He became CEO in 2008 and has led the design, training, and installation of over 50 industrial composting and vermicomposting facilities, most of them in Mexico, and some others in Central and South America, El Caribe, and United States.

Dr. Grégory Sempo, PUR VER sa, Belgium. Greg is an animal biologist. He graduated from the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) in 2004 with a Ph.D. on animal behaviour. His graduate studies primarily focused on collective decision making in ants.

I’m Michael Quintern, an international vermicomposting and agricultural consultant specialising in sustainable waste management and soil science. With my Ph.D. in Soil Science, I’ve focused on the innovative application of organic waste in agricultural management.

In 2013, Marco Calcaprina, together with his two partners, started Centro Lombricoltura Toscano (CLT) vermicomposting plant in the municipality of San Giuliano Terme, Pisa. They found in earthworm farming and the many aspects connected to it, a way to combine work with a passion for the environment and at the same time a technique to produce a high quality natural fertilizer.

Rhonda Sherman is the former Director of the Compost Learning Lab at North Carolina State University where she taught vermicomposting and composting for 30 years. Considered a leading authority on vermicomposting, she has been contacted by people in 126 countries about this topic and has authored over 65 publications, and her latest book is The Worm Farmer’s Handbook by Chelsea Green Publishing. Before her retirement, she organized an annual conference on large‐scale commercial vermicomposting (her final event, the 21st Annual Vermiculture Conference was held on October 22-23, 2022 and boasted 183 attendees).