Analytical summary:
Asticots breeding is a viable commercial enterprise on several levels. The maggots can transform the offal and then be used as food for cattle. They have a higher protein content than usual soy -based food. This could considerably reduce the carbon footprint and water from the meat industry. The treatment of wounds with maggots also makes a comeback. It turned out to be particularly effective on serious diabetic lesions. In addition, asticots are now used to treat human waste and can also be transformed into sources of protein, fat and chitine. The grouping of these different applications generates multiple cash flows, making the company resilient. The system is not greedy in capital, which allows start -up projects to be quickly profitable.
Keywords:
asticots, food, overfishing, surgical dressings, resilient companies, local economic development, multiple cash flows.
asticots, food, overfishing, surgical dressings, resilient companies, local economic development, multiple cash flows.
Author: Gunter Pauli
Editor: Tara Van Ryneveld
Illustrator: Henning Brand
Photographer: The Zeri Network
Editor: Tara Van Ryneveld
Illustrator: Henning Brand
Photographer: The Zeri Network
Asticots breeding: fish for fish and quail
When I visited the Songhai center in Porto Novo (Benin), I was impressed by the innovative work of Father Godfrey Nzamujo. In 1985, he had obtained land in the peri -urban area of Porto Novo, in order to realize his dream of improving the means of subsistence of Africans. The integrated farm he created is among the best I have seen. She was very close to what I learned from Professor George Chan, in Mauritius, who was the pioneer of integrated biosystems by combining breeding, fish farming, biogas production, treatment of natural wastewater and waste transformation.
production of biological quality consumer goods. The only thing that was missing on the farm in my list of five nature kingdoms was the mushrooms, but it was quickly rectified by our colleague from Zimbabwe, Margaret Tagwira, who introduced the culture of mushrooms.
production of biological quality consumer goods. The only thing that was missing on the farm in my list of five nature kingdoms was the mushrooms, but it was quickly rectified by our colleague from Zimbabwe, Margaret Tagwira, who introduced the culture of mushrooms.
Songhai © 2006 logo, Zeri
What I wanted to learn from the father was the breeding of asticotic s. It was its own slaughterhouse and all the offs were used to feed the flies and transform their eggs into asticots, which he then gave to the quail. He had an abundant reserve of quail eggs, some of which were intended to be exported to Paris. For Father Nzamujo, it was a great additional gain. He indicated that 90% of the cost of breeding quail is made up of food. As he uses his own asticots like food, it costs him much less to raise them, which allows him to be a competitive seller on the world market. Before my eyes, I saw the concept of upsizing (or upcycling in German) deployed that I had just described in my book bearing the same title.
Ferme d'Asticots Songhai in Porto Novo © 2006, Zeri
While Father Nzamujo focused on an integrated system, new entrepreneurs emerged by focusing on protein production from maggots. For the first time, I met the South African brothers Jason and David Drew in 2010, when they had just decided to sell their participations in call centers in order to create a new "asticot" business. I visited their test
Asticots at the Agriprotein Elsenburg © 2010 test farm, Zeri
Located on their farm outside of Franschoek (Western Cape, South Africa). Their company - Agriprotein - brought together the necessary funds and collaborated with the University of Stellenbosch to transform its Elsenburg facilities into an asticot breeding unit. In the United States, the history of asticots has its own champion. Glenn Courrright left the army after 22 years and, after working on biodiesel, turned to the breeding of maggots. His company - Environment - now manages an installation of 2,000 square meters outside Dayton, in Ohio. He embarked on the production and procreation of flies and eggs. His trials have shown that he could produce the same amount of protein in ten days as a pork in six months, from a stack of five bins of asticots. Glen also obtained a patent for his "love hut", the place where he raises and harvested the eggs of welding flies. Offer food for fish 16 % cheaper than fish flour.
Glenn shares the vision of the Drew brothers of South Africa: it is time to fundamentally modify the animal food sector. Each tonne of maggots can replace a ton of fish, only caught to feed other fish. The salmon devour three kilograms of sardines to give a kilogram of orange flesh. The nutritional value of sardine is greater than that of salmon, but marketing has left ordinary people (like me, until recently) the impression that sardine is of less quality. The value of pelagic fish has increased by 300 % over the past decade; The opportunity to convert food waste and protein offal is attractive from an environmental and commercial point of view. Even on the small current production scale, Glen is able to offer fish for fish 16 % cheaper than fish flour. It also sells asticot waste as high -end fertilizers, which gives it additional income. The concept of the blue economy is confirmed both in Africa and North America: local, better and cheaper.
This new commercial model offers a distinct characteristic: people feel better compared to the product. Everything has become a commodity, and everyone runs after the lowest price. It is not enough to have good ideas and good technology. We must be clearly distinguished from the nearest competitor. It largely depends on how people perceive the product. Do they really want to encourage overfishing, or do they prefer to have food without exhausting our fish stocks? Likewise, investors have a different perception of the company. If you have multiple income, there is more income and that reduces the risk.
This new commercial model offers a distinct characteristic: people feel better compared to the product. Everything has become a commodity, and everyone runs after the lowest price. It is not enough to have good ideas and good technology. We must be clearly distinguished from the nearest competitor. It largely depends on how people perceive the product. Do they really want to encourage overfishing, or do they prefer to have food without exhausting our fish stocks? Likewise, investors have a different perception of the company. If you have multiple income, there is more income and that reduces the risk.
Assignment of maggots: treatment of diabetic lesions
I shared the history of asticot breeding worldwide. In 2005, I learned that the National Health Service of the United Kingdom had a special division in Wales, called Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory. Dr. Steve Thomas, then director, had taken care of a research program to reduce the annual cost of surgical dressings, used mainly on diabetic lesions. During a chance meeting in 1992, Steve realized that it was time to revive the tradition of treatment of diabetic wounds by maggots. The growing ineffectiveness of antibiotics motivated the medical team and it only took 6 months to develop a method before the first patients were treated with sterile maggots. Professor Nicky Cullum at the University of Manchester1 and his colleagues have established that the larvae close the leg ulcers in 14 days. This solid evidence has paved the way for creative business developments complementary to those we already know.
1 Cullum, C., Bland ,, Dumville ,, Iglesias ,, O'Meara ,, Soares ,, Torgerson ,, Nelson, & Worthy. (2009). Study on larval therapy for leg ulcers. British Medical Journal, 338
Success and subsequent demand for the processing of maggots have surprised everyone. Sales reached a million dollars and, in 2000, the production of larvae exceeded the facilities. The unit was therefore transformed into a private company, Zobiotic PLC. However, it took seven years for the larval treatment (marketed under the name of larva) to obtain the status of medication. This status certifies its effectiveness and allows the cost of treatment costs by the National Health Service (NHS). The company met only one German competitor on the European market, which it quickly bought, while changing its name to become biomonde. She also managed to patent her unique dressing, the biobag which contains living maggots inside, which allows a controlled application of maggots for patients with ulcers, instead of letting them wander on the wounds. When the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (finally) approved the same treatment in 2014, Biomonde created its third production unit in Gainesville, Florida (United States). Asticots are now part of Florida's innovation square. The market is large. The United States spent $ 20 billion on diabetic wounds in 2013, and the number of diabetic diagnosed Americans is expected to increase from 11 million to 29 million in 2050.
Biobag packaging with maggots like dressing © 2014, Biomonde
While I followed the project in Wales, I met Stephen Brittland, of the University of Bradford. He had undertaken research on the effectiveness of extracted maggot saliva, simply obtained by immersing the "animals" in salt water. He joined a freezing manufacturer - Advance Gel Technology (AGT) - to produce a topical product with a shelf life. Even if the prospects were good, the combination could not compete with the 48 -hour window offered by the biobag. This AGT case describes as the case 2 in the first series of The Blue Economy under the subtitle "Nature's Nurses" lost the game of competition and has given way to a wider portfolio of opportunities.
Asticots and their perspectives:
This work has inspired many people. I spoke to entrepreneurs and academics from around the world and I encouraged them to continue this new portfolio of commercial options, not only to offer better therapy, but also to create new industries, with proven demand, Based on local resources. Doctor Jose Contreras of General Hospital Manuel Gea Gonzalez from Mexico City introduced treatment in 2000; Professor Luis Figueroa of Universidad Austral in Chile began treatment in 2003; Professor Hilderman Pedraza Vargas of the National University of Colombia began in 2008 to apply the treatment with asticot to victims of land mines. While many publish their results in learned articles, he chose to publish them on a public page3, thus making the old know-how of the Mayans accessible.
Dr. Hilderman Pedraza Vargas
Dr. Jose Contreras
The start of a small industrial installation oscillates between 3 and 10 million euros. Investment proposals are funded because the company generates cash flows and multiple advantages. This is an essential condition for providing better quality products at a lower cost, even during the initial phase of increasing production. Multiple financial flows are not limited to asticots and protein therapy for animal feed. Various parts of the larvae are pure sources of chitine, oils and lipids. It may be difficult to convince food lovers to turn to maggots, but some examples in the United States show that this niche market is ready to be served. Agriprotein (South Africa) has another approach to value creation from its know-how. It helps local communities that do not have sewer systems to treat human waste thanks to asticot systems, thus creating a sewer service that is self -financing.
wix.com/larvaterapia; www.facebook.com/pages/simbiosis-larvaterapia/ 675073695918945
The Gates Foundation supported the first trials and results should be published in 2015.
Thanks to a solid economic model, which does not require significant capital, more and more entrepreneurs are attracted to maggots. The city of Leipzig has launched the ambitious idea of creating an asticot farm which would deal with 5,000 tonnes of organs, thus transforming the cost of shipping of the organs and that of incineration into an investment. This would create at least 1,000 new jobs and reduce the dependence on pig and poultry farms with regard to imported foods. Unfortunately, the European Food Safety Authority has issued reservations that a breeding animal can eat another breeding animal. The logic of this prohibition is based on the disease of the "crazy cow", where the cows were forced to a kind of cannibalism. The agency is therefore technically right, but the objections have not been formulated taking into account the context: when a breeding fly eats the offs of a cow, a pork or a farm chicken , it follows the wisdom of a natural system. In addition, these reservations are against the NHS and the FDA approval to use maggots for injury treatment.
The agency realizes that it is not only a question of feeding cows with cow waste. It is now debating (1) that asticots should be allowed to eat and (2) animals that should be allowed to eat them. The quail, for example, have always fed on flies. The American FDA is likely to be a proactive regulator. In addition to the reluctance of
With the help of the European authorities, few obstacles should oppose that this project becomes a high -growth global commercial opportunity.
The hiccups of the regulation do not prevent entrepreneurs from moving forward. In addition to the pioneers already mentioned, we can cite Kees Aarts, who created Prix Biosystems in the Netherlands in 2013 and raised 10 million euros (Prix.eu); Jean-Gabriel Levon, Alexis Angot and Antoine Hubert, who created Ynsect in Paris (Ynsect.com) and raised 5 million euros; Enterra Feed, from Vancouver (Enterrafeed.com), which was created in 2007 following an animated debate on the sustainability of foods for aquaculture between Brad Marchant, a serial entrepreneur, and Dr. David Suzuki; and entologics, from Brazil (entologics.com), created by Carlos Muccioli and François Rozwadowski. They understood that the breeding of asticots using endemic species of Brazilian flies would bring a new portfolio of activities to the flourishing industries of animal and human food, which would decide radically with soybeans and its little respect for biodiversity.
Asticots in the future:
Thus, 18 years after being exposed for the first time to the opportunity of maggots, a real group emerges, combining food, health, biodiversity and job creation, which can attack the traditional production of food based on of fish and soy flour. It may be added here that maggots contain up to 60 % protein and 25 % fat, compared to 35 % protein for soy-based food so much praised.
My prognosis is that within a decade, the pile of asticots will be firmly established on all continents. The current companies and operations that we know will have increased to at least 500 production companies, with a combined daily production of around 1,000 tonnes per day at the bottom and 5,000 tonnes in the high -end. The production of food and food for maggots will generate at least 250,000 jobs, a decreased revision of the 500,000 estimated jobs. If the potential is certainly of the order of 5 million, a large -scale implementation will require a few more decades. However, the current amount of capital already engaged is slightly less than 50 million euros, and the number of direct jobs exceeded 2,500 in 2015. The number of indirect jobs, especially in the medical field with
+1,500 Medical establishments offering treatment with maggots, the number of nurses and medical support personnel are estimated at 6,000 to provide "treatment with maggots". As we can see, the desire to replace the fish with fish for fish has unexpected consequences, generating a multiple number of jobs in the field of health care. This is where we see the greatest growth in employment in the years to come.
+1,500 Medical establishments offering treatment with maggots, the number of nurses and medical support personnel are estimated at 6,000 to provide "treatment with maggots". As we can see, the desire to replace the fish with fish for fish has unexpected consequences, generating a multiple number of jobs in the field of health care. This is where we see the greatest growth in employment in the years to come.
A new very rich research program in universities around the world will catapult the sector. This supposes that endemic species are used and that companies are resisting the old predictability model by standardization and economies of scale and focus on resilience and multiple income. The power of the Asticots company lies in the grouping of all activities. Depending on the moment and the place, parts can be deployed, and new ones can be imagined. Investors will have to put between $ 500 million and $ 2 billion in liquidity so that these 500 new companies can constitute their capital base and provide the working capital. The advantage is that the recovery is not only measured in days, the value generated from "nothing" is in competition with supply chains subject to strong constraints of sustainability.
Since science is good and that it will improve, I expect the regulators to meet their initial concerns and support these highly effective clusters in terms of resources. However, I expect the largest obstacle to traditional animal food suppliers. They will fight because it will lower selling prices, reducing their margins due to new and fundamentally different competition. The question is how traditional animal food producers will react to this formidable story to tell. It is likely that, by 2020-2025, the old guard will have accepted the newcomer and adopted the new business model. This could mean that it is time to launch products and insect services, further reducing the carbon and water imprint in the animal protein industry thanks to an effective production model in terms of resources that can work In an urban, peri -urban and rural environment.
Graphic: the integrated biosystem of the Songhai center in Porto Novo (Benin)
© 2006, Zeri Photo Design by Songhai Center
Translation of the Acticot affair in the Gunter fables
The story of the breeding of maggots is translated into fable n ° 50 entitled "Maggot Spit". She is dedicated to Father Godfrey Nzamujo, who inspired the creation of this cluster in 1996. She was published for the first time in Chinese and English in April 2015 and is available on www.guntersfables.com.
Documentation:
Viewers are informed that images may not be intended for a large audience. You have to be careful when you see the critical condition of patients at the beginning, and the spectacular improvements that occur. This slideshow is only in Spanish, but the images are explicit.
www.slideshare.net/luafiro/terapia-larva-ly-presentacion-de-pacientes
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2771513/
