The Muncher is the powerful true story of inventor Mo Mohammed Momen, whose childhood loss became the catalyst for a revolutionary breakthrough in soil regeneration technology. After watching his mother and many neighbours die from rare cancers linked to agricultural chemicals and toxic runoff, Mo committed his life to creating a solution that could prevent future communities from suffering the same fate. That commitment led to the birth of The Muncher, an advanced aerobic waste-processing system capable of turning organic waste into a super-nutrient-rich, biologically active fertilizer in under an hour.
The film follows Mo, soil biologist Leighton Morrison, farmers, composting operators, and wildfire survivors as they uncover how this new process is transforming agriculture, waste management, and the future of healthy soil. Despite long-held scientific beliefs that waste can’t be digested aerobically, The Muncher uses heat, oxygen, agitation, and a dynamic “chaotic” pH process to rapidly break down organic matter—essentially catalyzing what nature’s soil food web already does. This creates what the team calls “Muncher Juice”, a living biological inoculant packed with bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, plant hormones, and biofilm that rebuilds soil structure and unlocks trapped nutrients.
Farmers featured in the film describe declining soil health, rising input costs, and decreasing crop vitality over the last two decades. After applying Muncher Juice, they record rapid increases in nitrogen and potassium availability, better water retention, stabilized nutrient levels, and healthier, more resilient crops. The technology allows farms to turn their own waste into regenerative fertility—closing the loop of sustainable agriculture and reducing dependency on synthetic fertilizers.
Commercial composting operators show how Muncher Juice accelerates pathogen reduction, boosts microbial diversity, and dramatically improves the quality of large-scale compost. This addresses a major waste-industry challenge—managing millions of tons of green waste while meeting strict environmental regulations. With The Muncher, compost becomes more biologically active, more nutrient dense, and more beneficial for growers and home gardeners alike.
One of the film’s most emotional arcs follows Kayla, a permaculture teacher whose home and garden were destroyed in California’s catastrophic wildfires. Facing toxic ash and chemical contamination, she learns that Muncher Juice can actually break apart and neutralize harmful carbon-based toxins left behind by burning homes. The film documents the application of the biology onto burn scars, demonstrating how natural degraders and solubilizing bacteria can detoxify soils that would otherwise remain damaged for decades.
By weaving origin story, scientific exploration, and real-world application, the film reveals a hopeful message: biology can fix what humans have broken. As Leighton says, “All life comes from the soil, and all life goes back to the soil.” The Muncher offers a scalable, nature-aligned method to regenerate degraded land, eliminate methane-producing waste streams, restore nutrition to food, and help communities heal from ecological disasters. In a world searching for climate solutions, this technology shows that the key to our survival may be right beneath our feet—in healthy, living soil.
[music]
My mother died of cancer at 47. She was
a kind of small town farm girl. She
would help take care of the farm by
cooking and cleaning all the various
things like that while the men were out
working. [music] She was only 47 years
old when she passed. You know, that was
uh a little a little too young. You have
these clusters of all these relatively
young people getting sick and dying.
It's like, yo, this [music] doesn't make
sense. and it was largely attributed to
exposure to chemicals like an
agricultural runoff. I was very young at
the time, but I became aware of [music]
what was happening and I wanted to do
something about this and I wanted to
create something that would move us away
from using [music] these compounds and
help prevent people from having to die
the way my mother did. [music] What I
was initially aiming to do was simply
clear uh agricultural runoff of
contamination. [music]
That was the only thing that I was
initially interested in. It grew little
by little to become the process that it
is today called [music] the muncher.
[music]
My name is Mo Muhammad Meman of
Ecosphere Sciences. [music] I am the
inventor and creator of the aerobic
waste processing system that we call the
Muncher. The aerobic process that the
muncher uses rapidly breaks down the
waste, [music] breaks it down into its
basic components and turns it into a
super nutrient-rich, biologically active
fertilizer product in less than an hour.
[music]
There has been a longstanding belief
that you cannot break down waste
aerobically. You're not supposed to be
able to break waste down this way.
>> So [music] I called Mo and I said, "Hi
Mo, my name is Leighton Morrison. You
know, I'm a soil biologist, soil
engineer, blah blah blah." I immediately
just tried [music] to tear them apart
and you like lovingly. I wasn't, you
know, being nasty to him, but I was
like, you know,
I was I was asking really hard [music]
questions.
>> He was just like, "No, you can't be
doing this. This is impossible.
>> I don't think it's possible to do
aerobic digestion. Digestion is is done
anorobically. All living things digest
anorobically."
>> He looked at what I had created and he
was just like, "Oh, you're just so full
of it." I I just could not believe that
he had accomplished something that I
thought was impossible.
>> I challenged him. I said, "Go for it.
Try to break it apart."
>> I brought home samples. I scoped them. I
was just blown away. When I got done
trying to poke holes in moan, I
couldn't. I was ecstatic. And then I
started this journey and [music] I was
like, "Oh my god, this you did it. You
did it."
>> Didn't really have the full [music]
understanding, explanation. And then
Leighton introduced us to the uh soil
food web and that kind of brought around
the full picture and we're like okay now
this is really making sense. This is how
we are functioning within this uh
ecosystem.
People don't realize as above as below.
The soil food web is a consortium is a
family [music] is an ecosystem of
bacteria, fungi, yeast, molds,
nematodes, microarththopods,
earthworms. In a really healthy soil
environment, one teaspoon has more life,
more different organisms [music]
than there are people on the planet.
Those microbes are the reason for
everything above the soil. People don't
really comprehend just [music] what that
means. There would be no life. There
would be no humans. There would be
nothing if it wasn't for them. And we've
degraded our soils to the point that
they have been [music] depleted.
Looking at farming in the last 20 years,
things have got progressively [music]
worse. People see food on the table,
they see it in the stores, but they
don't realize that [music] it takes a
lot of effort, a lot of stress upon
farmers to try to produce a high quality
crop. It led me into [music] questioning
why things aren't thriving. It came down
to our soil was not balanced. [music]
When I was a kid, peaches were the size
of your hand and trees were really
healthy. [music] Things were thriving
and we really weren't having to put
heavy inputs into the soil. the native
soil were doing their job because of
[music] our soil profile. Our crops are
getting harder to grow. Costs are
increasing. We have [music] a lot of
things up against us that we didn't have
20 years ago. The soil in our area has a
lot of potential. There's a lot of
things that are locked up in the soil
[music] that was just not available to
the root structure. When I first heard
about the Muncher, I got very excited.
[music] It's a perfect fit for being
able to replenish the soil. Being able
to take that product that comes from the
farm that [music] which is a waste that
normally would go to a dump site and be
able to make that into a solution to
directly inject or to [music] put
through sprinklers is exciting thing for
me because what comes from the farm and
what's produced [music] off these trees
is the best quality nutrients that you
can replenish the soil with. It could be
a complete game changer for local
farmers and possibly people around the
world.
>> The farmers, it's not their fault.
they've only been [music] given the
tools that they have to do what they
have to do to support themselves and
supply uh [music] all of us with with
food. It's an escalation that started
with the farming revolution of of really
pushing NPK. [music] The sales people
keep telling you, "No, you need more
nitrogen. You need more nitrogen." In
reality, you don't need any nitrogen.
You just need the biology that can that
can break that organic nitrogen up and
make it plant available. The real issue
[music] now is lack of information. We
need to move into organic [music]
regenerative practices which bring back
the environment, bring back the ecology.
Anything that's dead or or diseased or
whatever, it falls to the ground and
comes back into soil and comes back into
the plant. That's what nature does.
Nature doesn't take anything away. We
[music] take things away. That's the
problem. The best food for a plant is
the plant itself.
Right now, all the waste is being hauled
to landfills. [music]
They take this organic matter, they
grind it up, and they're forced to go
through pathogen reduction. You cook it
160°, you turn it five times over, I
think it's [music] 30 days, it's being
buried, and it's releasing methane. The
existing [music] system is is kind of
problematic.
>> My name is David Camrio. I've been with
Agramman since 1990 911. We started with
the green waste in Ventura County and
then it just started growing from there.
Green waste is picked up from
residential areas and that is brought to
the facility. We're managing it, making
compost, biomulch, and any other soil
blends that we can from the recycled
material. As of today, we are at 1.2
million tons of green waste removed from
landfills. We're always on the bubble
because of regulations in California on
keeping material on site. Not many
composters have prozzoa and ciliates in
their compost. The muncher juice
contains the [music] catalyst to produce
the prozzo and the nematodes that we
rarely have. And having [music] systems
like the muncher and the ability that it
has to at least get us quality compost,
there's a big benefit to that. So, how
can you mix boutique type composters
[music]
with commercial composters? Can you have
a really high quality compost produced
at a massive level? That is the fight
that we're all fighting now.
>> We were able to increase the nutritional
value of the compost. We had
nematodeses. We had prozzoa. It was it
was incredible. [music]
So, we turned a compost that's immature
and flipped it on its head and made it
so that it [music] had 100% seed
germination and 100% plant vigor. So, by
using Muncher [music] Juice, we could
literally just get through pathogen
reduction, spray it on the product,
create this biointensive compost, and go
out the door on the ninth day. And we
[music] had biologics in in in a matter
of a couple of days. But it's winning
because now it's turned into gold. spun
lead into gold. Instead of creating a
problem, you're creating a solution that
fixes, like I said, all the way up the
chain. The Muncher Juice is solving so
many [music] problems.
>> We started smelling the smoke and then
seeing the smoke. There's the whole
ridge [music] line right behind me. And
the winds kept getting stronger and
stronger. [music]
We had just evacuated a month before.
And so from where I [music] was sitting,
like, sure, this was really scary and
this was really big, but we've done this
before. [music]
The next day we found out that the house
had burned down. And it's one of those
[music] things that you almost can't
believe. It's so intangible and you
don't get [music] to see it. And the
fires were still going. There was still
so much loss happening. It was just in
[music] shock for a while. We started to
kind of hear about the chemicals that
were being leeched [music] into the air
from these houses burning. And I think
that's when it really started to hit me
cuz I started to think about my garden.
That these [music] plants and that this
land and that this soil that I had
poured so much time and love into
[music]
could just be wiped out.
[music] I'm standing here and I'm
looking around at like what used to be a
kitchen and a home and smelling toxins
and looking out at land [music] that I
can't tend to or help heal.
I came [music] back to the house for the
first time and saw the state that it was
in. Ecosphere got put on my radar and I
[music] had a call with Ron and I just
remember like my whole body lighting up.
He shared with me how [music] the
muncher juice was able to lift
glyophates out of the soil and like that
alone blew [music] my mind. I study
permaculture. I've been teaching
permaculture for 7 years. the way they
were able to use this simple technology
of composting [music] to break the bonds
of these toxic chemicals that were being
stored in the soil to use this problem
as an opportunity [music] to create
solution on a much larger scale is
beautiful, right? Cuz this doesn't just
apply to burn sites. This applies
[music] to any soil that we as humans
have degraded and misused. This is the
[music] beginning of a road back to how
we can mend our relationship with soil
which is the building block of life.
Biology can solve any problem. [music]
You know, it's bad that a house burns,
but when you concentrate so many houses
so [music] close together and then you
burn them, you're turning different
compounds into other compounds and other
volatile organic compounds. [music] So,
it really it creates a toxic soup for
lack of better words or or [music] a
toxic ash. What the muncher juice does
is starts to attack these compounds and
degrades [music]
them in a way that logarithmically pulls
them apart into their original
components which are harmless. What we
understand of how toxic compounds
degrade [music] is through solubilizing
and degrading bacteria specifically in
in the soil [music] and situ. We also
have fungi and plants that help. But in
the in the muncher specifically,
um, by having these degraders and
desolubilizers, [music] you can start
with this really long complex carbon
chain, which is is the toxic compound,
and you can start snapping it in half
[music] and breaking again and breaking
again, and then the other biology mines
it from the ends. So now you've
logarithmically [music] broken this
thing down to something that's harmless,
back to natural elements. So by applying
muncher juice to burn scars um you can
really [music] turn them around quite
quickly.
>> All I was doing was figuring out how to
break down uh toxins in agricultural
runoff. We know the bacteria breaks
things down and so that was the starting
point. Create a well let's just say a
toxic environment and see if the
bacteria could correct it. I don't have
any formal training. I would be
considered more of a citizen scientist.
I did [music] it all by just studying
research on my own, trial and error as I
was developing the process. And that
took several years to uh to figure out.
And then I started discovering that,
wait a minute, there's there's more
things going on here. I would be pouring
a liquid when I was even just running
the water [music]
uh treatment. I would just pour it out
into my yard and all of a sudden I'm
noticing, wow, my plants are growing
pretty amazingly. We'd put it on the
trees, they come back to full life. So,
this is pretty inc something's going on
here. H this could be possible that I
could do this with solid waste as well
and therefore not only reduce
contamination in the agricultural runoff
in the water systems but take care of
solid organic waste as well which is a
huge problem but as I started moving
into the solid waste it went to a whole
different level. We bring organic waste
into a large grinding system and that
goes to a fine grinding system. And
there, as it turns out, there just is no
one machine that does it. Didn't realize
[music] that I had stepped into one of
the most difficult issues or problems in
the grinding uh world. I couldn't tell
you how many high-speed shredders that I
just destroyed [laughter] going, "Oh,
there goes another one." The rental
company was like, "You can't rent any
more of these, Mo." when you start
mixing different kinds of materials,
you're going to clog that machine. So,
we ended up incorporating a mixture of
equipment to be able to accomplish this.
Our objective here is to bring the
particles down to first a uniform size
and then to the smallest size possible
so that it can run through the [music]
system more efficiently. So, we put it
through the big grinder, we put it
through a fine grinder. [music]
I then have a grinder pump that finally
merates the material. [music]
Then it goes into the homogenizing tank
which is a tank where we establish a
liquid and solid ratio. So that again
the waste will ideally process within
the digtor. And once the waste is then
sent into the digtor again with [music]
its liquid solid ratio established it is
inoculated to the uh biological mix. And
now through a combination of heat,
agitation, and irerration, it is broken
down very rapidly [music] and turned
into this super nutrient-rich output
product that we generate. It's all
maintained automatically. [music]
We have pH monitors and sensors. And we
like to operate within a neutral range
of pH between 6 and 7. This is ideal for
aerobic bacteria to thrive. It's pumped
out with a portion of the material
[music] being recirculated back through
the system to maintain the biological
process and it just keeps running
[music] and by maintaining that
biological process we can continuously
rapidly [music] introduce batches of
waste and rapidly break them down. So
here is some muncher juice. This is the
uh liquid output from the Muncher
system. And this is a super biologically
rich biologically activated fertilizer
product. The Muncher juice [music] is
nature catalyzed and stimulated and
amplified. It's four products in one.
It's a biological inoculent providing
what we need, the nutrient cyclingers.
It provides what we call bio stimulant.
It's a secondary and tertiary
metabolites. So it has plant hormones,
plant growth regulators, plant growth
promoters, root stimulators and lastly
and most importantly, it has the
biofilm. The biofilm [music] is what
allows those sand silk clay particles to
come together, bond and begin to form
aggregates. It creates the perfect
[music] environment like amniotic fluid,
like primordial soup [music] where
everything comes together and starts to
function at an incredibly fast pace.
trees.
>> [music]
[music]
>> What makes you most excited about
[laughter]
what we've just done for the last eight
hours.
>> Um I think just the potential for
growth. I mean it is so unbelievably
[music] exciting to me that this land is
being given the opportunity to heal and
I just am like seeing the ripple effect
too. Like if this is what five of us can
[music] get done in a single day just
just imagining what can be done on a
citywide [music] scale or a statewide
scale like this. This is total magic.
I'm so excited to see [music] what
starts to blossom here and be able to
scatter some more seeds.
So, we sprayed the muncher juice on the
pile to [music] inoculate it. And what
happens is that those microbes, those
communities and families of of microbes
are going to uh help the plants that
they're applied [music] to release the
nutrients that are bound up in the soil.
Andy Risos Sciences um she showed us the
increased level of microbes, the protozo
and nematodeses, and we were in the
millions, buddy. [music]
>> I saw the little bugs and I that was
like tripping me. I was like, that's in
there? That is crazy [music]
cuz it was just like a couple drops on a
slide and I'm looking at which looks
like a snake under the microscope, you
know, moving around and then I'm seeing
these little circles [music] like
floating around a little proone. I was
like, "Oh my god, I can't believe that's
in there." And [music] that's where it
starts. I mean, if we have a quality
product um that's going to produce a a
higher quality vegetable or flour that
our customers are growing using our
products and our bag products in the
future, I [music] think that's great.
That's more business for us.
>> So, now that we've sprayed the land, I'm
so curious. Can you tell me like what's
what is the [music] muncher juice
actually doing? Like if we were going to
zoom in.
>> So, if you if [snorts] you start pulling
apart a longchain
carbon [music] compound, say you grab a
carbon off of it, now you've exposed
something that was behind it.
>> The microisy [music] stole the carbon.
So now a bacteria can come in and steal
the calcium or steal the phosphate and
that so [music] that compound starts to
break down. So they're eating it from
both ends. Also in the mix is bacteria
that are called solubilizing,
degrading and decomposing. [music]
So those guys can hit the middle of the
chain. So if you snap that in the
middle, [music] now you've got two open
ends and again and again and again. So
the faster they degrade and solubilize,
[music]
the faster that stuff goes away. It goes
back into its original form. Harmless,
actually beneficial.
>> So you're just amplifying exactly what
would naturally be happening.
>> That's it. Amplifying. That's a great
way of putting it.
>> How are the uh test results looking so
far?
>> After the first day of applying, I saw
an increase in nitrogen levels in the 8
in and then following down to 24 in
within [music] 72 hours. So far, we've
been seeing an increase in the potassium
levels and seeing the nitrogen levels
>> [music]
>> um start to stabilize.
>> Oh, that's that's great. That's really
good news.
>> It it's a big deal. Uh because, you
know, typically in a nitrate or anything
else you put in the ground just does
spikes and then a drop, [music]
>> right? You see it jump up and then drop
back down dramatically, right?
>> Yeah. It's not about the huge spikes,
not about the huge drops. It's about
finding that balance. We've also been
noticing really the the water retention
levels [music] have um started to
increase also really with the water
restrictions getting tighter and
tighter. We [music] have to just be
better and better utilizing every tool
to optimize growth, use the least amount
of water, make sure we have all the
nutrients possible. [music]
Once we create healthy soil and uh
restore the proper biology, it'll remain
that way. we can maintain [music] it,
maintain that health.
>> It's a great solution. So, there's a lot
to lot of good things to come and you
know, we're going to have tons of data
um SAP analysis backing that up. It's a
beginning step right now, but there's a
lot of potential here.
>> Yeah. [music] Yeah. Agree.
>> Data is critical because everybody wants
to touch the palms of Jesus's hand and
feel the nail hole. We humans are are
very particular in what we [music]
believe in. Especially nowadays in 2025,
if your data is done responsibly,
[music] it builds a stairway that that
is a path that leads you along to
understanding that's undisputable
[music]
whether it's in your mind or whether
it's in the science. We really did
create something amazing and from just
believing it and being kind of intuitive
about it then we started really figuring
out what was going on and we are just
beginning to tap into [music] the
unknown and it is it is a vast vast
ocean. So there's still a lot of work we
need to do on this but we've unlocked a
tremendous amount that validates the
continuing testing [music] of this. So
we're like three stories up with what Mo
can do, what the machine can do. It can
take something [music] that people are
paying to get rid of and heal the soil
at the same time.
Come on, [music] man. That's a dream
come true. And it does what my dream was
is to fix [music] soil and bring health
back to people. We have amazing advances
in science and technology and just
incredible [music] things that we've
accomplished. Um, but to do well, to
survive and be healthy, we need to go
back to natural practices and we need to
create a healthy world again uh that can
coexist with that technology. 10 years
ago, I was laughed at quite often when I
talked about biology and making better
compost [music] and managing these kinds
of greenway systems. Now, I get calls
from them saying, "Hey, remember that
stuff you used to talk about? Well,
we're getting more and more demand. So,
it's an honor to be here present [music]
at this point in time with enough
knowledge and resources that I can help
them move that needle in in a in [music]
a more responsible way.
>> We want to help mankind. We want to make
soil healthy again, plants healthy
again, [music] and therefore make
humanity healthy.
>> The biggest answer to our human
survival,
it's not going to be computer. It's not
going to be AI. It's going to be soil.
There's nothing nothing biology can't
fix. All [music] life comes from the
soil. All life goes back to the soil.
And the answer is how do we take what
we've depleted and degraded and allow
the biology to bring [music] it back
into its fertility? That's the muncher
juice.