China’s taste for worms is killing the soil
- Shocking video shows men using electric currents to lure earthworms out of the ground for the cooking pot
- The method is destroying the environment
A taste for earthworms – which have a similar flavour to pork belly – is putting the health of China’s soils at risk and a legal loophole means there is little authorities can do to prevent the practice.
The problem is the method used to catch the worms, as demonstrated by a group of men from Guangdong province in southern China who were recently filmed using electrical currents to drive their prey to the surface.
In the footage uploaded to Pear Video, the men can be seen inserting wires into the ground near a highway in Foshan. When an electric current is switched on between the wires, it drives the worms to the surface.
One of the men said they were intending to cook and eat their catch, which amounted to a full bucket of worms in just a few hours.
“We will make soups with it, or put it in hotpot, or fry it with salt and pepper,” the unnamed man said in the video.