Black soldier flies, they sound pretty mean, but they may be a huge step in creating a more sustainable food source. They are incredibly easy to breed and grow. They can eat many things that we currently throw away commercially, and even their waste and shells can be used as fertilizer. Best yet we don’t even need to eat them ourselves to create all these changes.
Humans are making protein a more common diet source than ever before. It takes drastically more land to produce things like pork, beef, and chicken than it does corn, because of all the grains we need to feed the livestock to get the same amount of protein total.
There is currently a facility in Columbus Ohio named EnviroFlight that is making huge strides in this field. They feed their flies waste from a brewery and a local chicken nugget plant. In a 3 by 5 space they can produce 225 pounds of protein filled black fly larvae every 12 days. This makes a great food source for chickens and growing pigs and can be used to supplement a cow’s diet.
These flies can be easy to produce in any climate, and the adults don’t even eat. It would decrease the amount of land people currently need to manufacture produce. There is a social stigma about this process and that is something that will need to be worked on with the public for this to be successful. It will not solve every problem, but this would be a huge step in the right direction.
~DB
Further information can be found here.
This absolutely disgusting but you did identify many problems like using our grains and other foods to feed animals to get protein. However seeing as how people do not realize what their food eats anyhow I don’t see why this isn’t catching on more quickly. Not sure what got you on this topic but it was one of the more interesting ones I have read. Great Job.
Very innovative topic, and use of resources.
I must agree with Ayrek on how people don’t normally realize, let alone think about what their food has eaten. So why not start feeding this fly larvae? Not like many would probably ever care to notice.
This is quite fascinating, however just as you said it would take effort to have the idea accepted beyond using the ground larva as animal feed.
I think flies are very interesting, even though they are disgusting. I am amazed by how much larvae these flies produce. Good job at pointing out the fascinating facts. I am looking forward to your project.
This is cool and so is your presentation. Yet how gross are these bugs. Humans eat these too?