Latvian hockey players make massive investment in earthworm breeding program

KHL goalie Edgars Masaļskis, worm sex enabler.

Andrew Ference may be hockey's most well-known environmentalist, but he's hardly the only guy in the game looking to do his part for the earth.

And sure, he's restoring the Brazil's Atlantic forest with every Tyler Seguin goal, but there are much, much weirder ways for Ference to go green. Over in Latvia, four KHLers just invested over half a million dollars into an earthworm breeding program.

Yes. Earthworm breeding. Helping earthworms get busy. Ria Novosti, on hockey's real green men:

Two things: First, I'm genuinely upset that none of these guys are named James, because then we could call him Earthworm Jim and that would be awesome. Second, speaking of awesome things, Latvia has an earthworm breeding association.

I say good. Someone has to help these things back into each other.

For the uninitiated, vermicompost is basically the manure worms produce after they process compost. It's been shown to reduce the levels of contaminants and infuse into the compost, making it a fantastic organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. Of course, in order to produce enough of this for the agriculture industry, you need a great deal of worms, which means someone has to convince a lot of worms to hook up and one assumes it's slightly more difficult than spinning some Marvin Gaye and dimming the lights.

Thankfully, these four hockey players are willing to help make it happen.

If you're interested in learning more about the use of vermicompost in sustainable agriculture, here's a lengthy essay with that exact title.