The article's in the September 2008 National Geographic Magazine made a huge impact on me, knowing the benefits of vermicompost, it seems there is a huge gap that we must bridge between piling up waste and turning our garbage into good quality topsoil. Here is an extract of the article's written by Charles C. Mann and Joel K. Bourne, Jr.

To boost food production, Kramer and colleagues founded SOIL, a nonprofit group that builds composting toilets in rural communities to get much needed organic matter and fertility back into fields. "With the current hunger crisis, it's very clear," says Kramer, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. "If Haitians had more local production, they would not be so vulnerable to imported food prices."
Until then Haiti remains a poignant lesson in what soil scientists have preached for years: As a nation's soil goes, so goes the nation.

"Tè a fatige," said 70 percent of Haitian farmers in a recent survey when asked about the major agricultural problems they faced. "The earth is tired"

Africa cannot grow enough food to feed itself. It is not feasible to
expect a poor African farmer to spend 400 euro to 500 euro per hectare to grow a
crop if he can live on 1 euro per day as many do. For the money he has to spend
on one hectare - he can live for a year. The NEPAD conference shows that they are looking at chemical fertilizer as the solution.
The reasoning behind this is the success enjoyed by relatively wealthy farmers in Africa
(predominantly of European origin), who have enough money to buy fertilizer. "Tè a fatige"

The poor results obtained with organic farming in South Africa together with
the lack of credible research and information, were crucial in the decision
behind initiating research into organic farming as a discipline.