Silent Spring by Rachael Carson is an eye opener - once you read it, you start examining the source of chemicals in your house. I happened to read this book a few months back - since then I was in search of the magic product that could replace lysol, harpic, room freshner ... and the list is on.. Anyway I stopped buying these products substituted them with bleaching powder and mild detergents. The girl who helps me with the domestic work, was not pleased with the substitutes - she couldn't see the lather that would ensure the 'germs ' are killed..
I happened to meet Mr. Arun Swami at Amritha institute of technology and he gave me Effective Micro Organism . I was exposed to EM technology during my first environmental workshop at Auroville in year 2006 by Dr.R Rajagopalan. Mr. Arun gave me the proportion to make EM2. This was my second experiment after composting.
I made 3 litres of EM2 , 50 Ml EM1, 250 g jaggery and 950ml well water - leave this concoction for 1 week. Ensure that we open the cap of the plastic bottle everyday in order to release the gas formed. The jaggery will provide food for the micro organism to multiply. In one week's time, the sugar is broken down to form EM2.
See the picture for the darker EM1 and lighter EM2. Mr. Arun asked me to feed the liquid to ants to check if the liquid is ready for domestic cleaning purposes.If the ants are attracted towards the liquid, then it is not yet ready . The ants won't feed on the liquid if it is ready. And yes, it worked ! I had made the substitute for all the toxic cleansing agents in the house. When you pour Em2 into the toilet, it removes any bad odour - however, it does not replace it with any strong odour that a lysol or harpic would typically have.
Happy making EM2 at home !
To know more about EM technology, buy a copy of An Earth Saving Revolution II - By Dr. Teruo Higa , English Translation by Anja Kanal (Published by Sunmark Publishing)
The book also provides mechanism to use EM for agriculture , and cleaning of sewage systems... interesting in this age of toxicity..
