Fly farming could help save the planet

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Saturday, September 29, 2012  4:00 PM

AN author and environmental entrepreneur is claiming that fly farming could help save the planet.

Jason Drew, author of The Story of the Fly and how it could save the World, believes that the insect, widely regarded as a pest, should be used to provide a protein-rich diet for chickens and fish.

Fly larvae provides a natural alternative to fishmeal as an animal feed - helping reduce the pressure on our overfished seas, he argues.

The farming method can also be used to recycle waste, which is fed to the insects, he says.

AgriProtein – a business he co-founded - is already producing and selling larvae - dried and packaged as a product called Magmeal.

“Every ton of Magmeal we make and sell is a ton of fish we don’t have to take from our seas,” he says.

The business is leading what he believes will become a new global industry – that of waste nutrient recycling.

Around 25% of all fish we take from the seas is used in industrial agriculture and pet food and not for direct human consumption, says Mr Drew.

The waste is fed to the eggs of flies, which grow into larvae and are then harvested and made into the feed.

A single female fly can lay up to 1,000 eggs, which AgriProtein then hatches into larvae. These are fed on waste nutrients such as abattoir blood. The harvested larvae are then dried, milled into flake form and packed ready for inclusion in animal feed preparations.

“We should embrace the potential of the fly as a protein source given their exceptional breeding rates and the fact that they are a natural food – tried and tested by Mother Nature for tens of millions of years,” said Mr Drew.

“Nutrient recycling and fly farming could help save the planet delivering protein for animal feed in a natural and sustainable way.”

The Story of the Fly and How it could save the World is published by Cheviot Publishing. 

OTHER LINKS: 

• Jason Drew Wbebsite click here

• Magmeal: A new source of protein for farmed fish?

• Click here to listen to story on ABC RN on Fly Farming

• ABC: Five hundred million flies 30 November 2012 , 5:53 PM by Rebecca McLaren