Book Review: The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart

I stumbled into this book, and I was like, why not? Now my mind is blown. Who knew common earthworms could be so fascinating with their physics, connection to our ecosystems, and how they could transform our waste problems in the future? The book is written by a hobbyist, and Amy Stewart makes that clear. But don’t let that turn you away from the book. She makes a compelling case here. She brings not only out to positive impact earthworms have on our soil, but she goes over also where introducing them to the environment has caused severe problems.

The book handles a lot about the impact Charles Darwin has had on our understanding of earthworms and what part earthworms played in expanding our knowledge about nature and biology. But unfortunately, the book sometimes meanders a lot, repeating what it has already said. Still, then I got caught with the fascination that comes with earthworms, and I shrugged it off as a minor inconvenience.

After reading the book, I keep wondering about the statement the writer proposed: earthworms do more to our environment than we humans do. For example, they aid in getting water into our soil and roots and fungi to grow, to mention a few. Yet, they are often ignored by us. They consume the pesticides, plastics, and other harmful poisons we dumb into our soil, and there it moves onto birds and everywhere else. I think we are getting a lot of things wrong with our actions. The book proposes that organic farming (plus mixed farming) yields more crops later on than farming relying solely on pesticides, and we could solve some of our problems with it. This might be, but the book doesn’t go into proving its statement, which is understandable to some extent as the book is about earthworms. Yet, such oversights show the book had potential, but it doesn’t quite deliver all it could. I would still insist that the book was highly fascinating, and I think earthworms play a more important role in my environment than I do.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day ❤ Wave at an earthworm when you see one. They are doing an important job.