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Do you want to read 2,000 words on maggot farming today? Of *course* you do washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Right now we're harvesting wild fish to feed farmed fish to feed humans. Most ocean fisheries are already maxed out and the population is growing. Humans (and their animals) need lots of protein. Where's it gonna come from? washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
One solution: the larvae of the black soldier fly, which will happily devour nearly anything you throw at it -- food waste, brewery waste, manure -- into protein. Lots and lots and lots of protein. If I could sum up this story in one chart, it's this. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/… 
If you own a lizard there's a chance you're familiar with soldier fly larvae - they started being raised for lizard feed in the mid-2000s. (I stumbled into this story as a result of trying to feed my ravenous doofus, Holly) washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Fast forward 10 years and big Ag is now getting seriously invested in soldier fly technology. Just last week, Cargill announced a partnership with a French soldier fly company to produce fish feed washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
I visited a smaller US facility, Symton, to learn about maggot farming. For starters, maggots are surprisingly mischievous! Leave them alone in a bin with no food and they start piling themselves in a corner, World War Z-style, to escape. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Soy is on there. The reasons BSF yield are so high, even relative to plant sources:
1. The life cycle is so fast you get literally dozens of harvests a year, compared to just one
2. They can be stacked vertically (I believe the chart assumes 1 story)
1. The life cycle is so fast you get literally dozens of harvests a year, compared to just one
2. They can be stacked vertically (I believe the chart assumes 1 story)
These yields are *real*, btw, not theoretical maxima. Enviroflight is already putting out 1 to 2 million pounds of protein per acre, although that figure doesn't account for acreage used to grow the food (distillery waste, in this case) the flies eat. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
Aside from protein production, the flies are also currently being used on an industrial scale to process food waste in China. 50 tons of it a day at one massive plant. evoconsys.com/blog/what-we-d…
The promise of this bug is its potential to transform waste into protein on a truly massive scale, thus addressing two major environmental problems. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
A lot of people are like "gross I would never eat maggots." But I tried some and they're... good? They basically get dried and then they're like savory bits of puffed grain or something. Put some ranch or bbq seasoning on them and I'd eat them by the bagful, honest to God
The advantage of larvae versus say, crickets, is that they don't really look or feel like bugs. No faces, no legs, no wings. They have the mouthfeel of maybe some kind of exotic grain? Whereas when you eat chapulines you're picking legs out of your teeth and whatnot
Also most people don't bat an eye over eating things like crab and lobster, which are basically just giant sea-bugs
