Chickens, pigs, and some other animals don't share the same distaste for bugs that people did in the thriller novel and film, Snowpiercer. (Although in parts of the world, people do eat caterpillars, locusts, and termites.)
Some kids keep ant farms and net containers, where caterpillar larvae turn into butterflies. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga kept the larvae of black soldier flies in a laundry room of their apartment building to start their company, Grubby Farms, in Georgia. Other firms, such as Enviro Flight in Ohio, Enterra Feed in Canada, J.M.Green in China, and Agri Protein in South Africa, also are attempting to make a profit by producing animal feed from black soldier fly larvae.
What is the dual objective motivating this effort? Protein from black soldier fly larvae could replace the fish meal animals now eat. About 75% of the fish in fish meal comes from anchovies, herring, sardines, and the other disappearing small fish eaten by commercial seafood catches, whales, sea lions, and other large mammals. Moreover, since black soldier fly larvae live on food and human waste, they could reduce what ends up in landfills.
At present, the industrial scale production technology needed to make this waste mass into biomass process profitable is still developing. The operation requires heavy machinery to move waste tonnage to a processing plant where heavy buckets of waste are carried to the shallow bins where larvae feed. After oil and protein powder are produced, markets need to be found. Government approvals present other obstacles. A blog developed by dipterra.com does an excellent job of presenting the many challenges confronting this business.
Since the technology involved in the bug business is still in its infancy, African investors and entrepreneurs have a good opportunity to become players in the field. Africans might find insects other than black soldier flies that could become a new protein source, and Africa, with its growing under-35 years of age population, also has the right innovators to take advantage of new opportunities. As Bill Gates noted in his speech at the University of Pretoria on July 18, 2016, he and Mark Zuckerberg were college-aged, when they made their innovative contributions to society.
(Also see the earlier posts, "Why Will Africa Overcome Poverty?" "Invest in Africa's Agricultural Future," "Want An Exciting Career?" and "Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes.")
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