The Nightcrawlers

A Story of Worms, Cows, and Cash in the Underground Bait Industry

Joshua Steckley (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

262 Seiten

2025
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-41370-2 (ISBN)

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How does a banal earthworm become a valuable commodity? Lumbricus terrestris, otherwise known as the Canadian nightcrawler, is the most popular live bait used by recreational anglers throughout the world. Each year, as many as seven hundred million worms are handpicked from Ontario farmland for the bait market, earning the region the undisputed title of worm capital of the world. The Nightcrawlers goes deep into the empirical underground to see how capital confronts a diverse cast of human and nonhuman characters: stubborn worms, wealthy dairy farmers and their precious cow manure, immigrant pickers laboring at night, and worm wholesalers who undercut each other through tax fraud and money laundering. This eccentric tale of worms, cows, and cash reveals the inherent contradictions in capitalism's attempts to commodify the living world—including the soil organisms that are inches beneath our feet.

Joshua Steckley is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University.

Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments

Prologue: Bags Full of Cash
Introduction: Worm Traps and Worm Queens
1. From a "Plebeian Bait" to the "Canadian Nightcrawler"
2. Following the Worm
3. Cash-Cropping Worms
4. Underground Capital
5. The Worm-Picking Labor Process
6. Unexpected "Freedoms"
7. How a Bait Assemblage Falls Apart
Conclusion: "Closing the File on This Subject Forever"

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	21.05.2025
Reihe/Serie	Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics ; 17
Zusatzinfo	16 b-w illustrations, 1 map, 4 tables
Verlagsort	Berkerley
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	363 g
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Land- / Forstwirtschaft / Fischerei
ISBN-10	0-520-41370-9 / 0520413709
ISBN-13	978-0-520-41370-2 / 9780520413702
Zustand	Neuware