Sustainability and Science
Black soldier fly larvae convert low-grade plant material into protein, fat and minerals. What they do not convert, they leave behind as frass. One insect, two products, and very little that goes nowhere.
That is the whole of our sustainability position. It is a description of how the business works rather than a policy attached to it afterwards.
What the larvae are reared on
Our larvae are reared exclusively on pre-consumer, vegetable-based material: the trimmings, rejects and by-products of food production that never reached a consumer. Never manure. Never animal material. Never post-consumer food waste.
This is a deliberate restriction and it costs us something. Post-consumer streams are cheaper and far more plentiful, and a good deal of the insect sector uses them. They are also variable in composition and carry a contamination and regulatory burden we are not willing to pass on to somebody feeding wild birds, or scattering a material across ground he manages.
Consistency is the point. A customer ordering a second pallet should receive what he received the first time.
Why insects, specifically
Larvae are reared in stacked trays rather than across land, at ambient temperature in tropical conditions rather than heated, and reach harvest weight in around a fortnight. Against the soy and fishmeal that insect protein displaces, the land, water and energy requirements are a small fraction.
Fishmeal in particular is worth naming. Every tonne of insect protein used in feed is a tonne of pressure taken off wild-caught fish stocks, and that is a more direct environmental argument than most of what is claimed for insect farming.
Nothing left over
The residue left after rearing is frass: a mixture of castings, shed exoskeleton and unconsumed substrate. Rather than treat it as waste we sell it as Root & Rise, a bioactive organic fertiliser with a 5:2:2 NPK profile and a high natural chitin content.
What we do not claim
We have not commissioned a full life cycle assessment, so we do not publish carbon figures. There are numbers circulating in this industry that are not supportable, and we would rather say nothing than add to them.
When that work is done we will publish it, including the parts that do not flatter us.
