Analytical summary:
Maggot farming is a viable business on several levels. Maggots can process offal and then be used as livestock feed. They have a higher protein content than conventional soy-based feed. This could significantly reduce the carbon and water footprint of the meat industry. Maggot wound treatment is also making a comeback. It has proven particularly effective on severe diabetic lesions. In addition, maggots are now being used to process human waste and can also be processed into sources of protein, fat, and chitin. Combining these different applications generates multiple cash flow streams, making the business resilient. The system is not capital-intensive, allowing startup projects to become profitable quickly.
Keywords:
Maggots, food, overfishing, surgical dressings, resilient businesses, local economic development, multiple cash flows.
Maggots, food, overfishing, surgical dressings, resilient businesses, 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
Maggot farming: Food for fish and quail
When I visited the Songhai Centre in Porto Novo, Benin, I was impressed by the groundbreaking work of Father Godfrey Nzamujo. In 1985, he acquired land in the peri-urban area of Porto Novo to realize his dream of improving the livelihoods of Africans. The integrated farm he created is among the best I have seen. It closely resembled what I learned from Professor George Chan in Mauritius, who pioneered integrated biosystems by combining livestock farming, fish farming, biogas production, natural wastewater treatment, and the transformation of waste
production into high-quality organic consumer goods. The only thing missing from the farm in my list of nature's five kingdoms was mushrooms, but this was quickly remedied by our colleague from Zimbabwe, Margaret Tagwira, who introduced mushroom cultivation.
production into high-quality organic consumer goods. The only thing missing from the farm in my list of nature's five kingdoms was mushrooms, but this was quickly remedied by our colleague from Zimbabwe, Margaret Tagwira, who introduced mushroom cultivation.
Songhai logo © 2006, ZERI
What I wanted to learn from Father Nzamujo was how to raise maggots. He had his own slaughterhouse, and all the offal was used to feed the flies and turn their eggs into maggots, which he then fed to the quail. He had a large supply of quail eggs, some of which were destined for export to Paris. For Father Nzamujo, this was a nice little extra profit. He pointed out that 90% of the cost of raising quail is feed. Since he used his own maggots as feed, it cost him much less to raise them, allowing him to be a competitive seller on the global market. Before my very eyes, I saw the concept of upsizing (or upcycling in German) that I had just described in my book of the same title unfold.
Songhai maggot farm in Porto Novo ©2006, ZERI
While Father Nzamujo focused on an integrated system, new entrepreneurs emerged, concentrating on producing protein from maggots. I first met the South African brothers Jason and David Drew in 2010, when they had just decided to sell their stakes in call centers to start a new maggot business. I visited their trial
Maggots at the AgriProtein Elsenburg experimental farm ©2010, ZERI
located on their farm outside Franschhoek (Western Cape, South Africa). Their company – AgriProtein – raised the necessary funds and collaborated with Stellenbosch University to transform its Elsenburg facilities into a maggot breeding trial unit. In the United States, the maggot story has its own champion. Glenn Courtright left the army after 22 years and, after working on biodiesel, turned to maggot farming. His company – EnviroFlight – now operates a 2,000-square-meter facility outside Dayton, Ohio. He has embarked on the production and breeding of flies and eggs. His trials have demonstrated that he can produce in ten days the same amount of protein as a pig in six months, from a stack of five vats of maggots. Glen also obtained a patent for his "love hut," the place where he raises and harvests welder fly eggs. He offers fish food that is 16% cheaper than fishmeal.
Glenn shares the vision of the Drew brothers from South Africa: it's time for a fundamental shift in the animal feed industry. Every ton of maggots can replace a ton of fish, caught solely to feed other fish. Salmon devour three kilograms of sardines to produce one kilogram of orange flesh. The nutritional value of sardines is superior to that of salmon, but marketing has left ordinary people (like me, until recently) with the impression that sardines are inferior. The value of pelagic fish has increased by 300% in the last decade; the opportunity to convert food waste and offal into protein is appealing, both environmentally and commercially. Even at his current small production scale, Glenn is able to offer fish feed that is 16% cheaper than fishmeal. He also sells the maggot waste as a premium fertilizer, providing him with additional income. The concept of the blue economy is gaining traction in both Africa and North America: local, better, and cheaper.
This new business model offers a distinct characteristic: people feel better about the product. Everything has become a commodity, and everyone is chasing the lowest price. It's not enough to have good ideas and good technology. You have to be clearly differentiated from the nearest competitor. This largely depends on how people perceive the product. Do they really want to encourage overfishing, or would they prefer to have food without depleting our fish stocks? Similarly, investors have a different perception of the company. If you have multiple revenue streams, there is more income, and this reduces risk.
This new business model offers a distinct characteristic: people feel better about the product. Everything has become a commodity, and everyone is chasing the lowest price. It's not enough to have good ideas and good technology. You have to be clearly differentiated from the nearest competitor. This largely depends on how people perceive the product. Do they really want to encourage overfishing, or would they prefer to have food without depleting our fish stocks? Similarly, investors have a different perception of the company. If you have multiple revenue streams, there's more income, and that reduces risk.
Maggot farming: Treatment of diabetic lesions
I have shared the story of maggot farming around the world. In 2005, I learned that the UK's National Health Service had a special division in Wales called the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory. Dr. Steve Thomas, then director, had taken charge of a research program aimed at reducing the annual cost of surgical dressings, used primarily on diabetic lesions. During a chance encounter in 1992, Steve realized it was time to revive the tradition of treating diabetic wounds with maggots. The increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics motivated the medical team, and it took only six months to develop a method before the first patients were treated with sterile maggots. Professor Nicky Cullum of the University of Manchester and his colleagues established that the larvae close leg ulcers in 14 days. This solid evidence paved the way for creative business developments that complemented those we were already familiar with.
1 Cullum, C., Bland, Dumville, Iglesias, O'Meara, Soares, Torgerson, Nelson, & Worthy. (2009). Study of larval therapy for leg ulcers. British Medical Journal, 338
The success and subsequent demand for the maggot treatment surprised everyone. Sales reached one million dollars, and by 2000, larvae production had outstripped the facility's capacity. The unit was therefore transformed into a private company, Zoobiotic Plc. However, it took seven years for the larvae treatment (marketed as LarvE) to obtain drug status. This status certifies its efficacy and allows for coverage of treatment costs by the National Health Service (NHS). The company encountered only one German competitor in the European market, which it quickly acquired, changing its name to Biomonde. It also successfully patented its unique dressing, the Biobag, which contains live maggots inside, allowing for controlled application of the maggots to patients suffering from ulcers, instead of letting them roam freely on the wounds. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved the same treatment in 2014, Biomonde established its third production facility in Gainesville, Florida. Maggots are now part of Florida's innovation hub. The market is vast. The United States spent $20 billion on diabetic foot ulcer treatments in 2013, and the number of Americans diagnosed with diabetes is projected to rise from 11 million in 2000 to 29 million in 2050.
BioBag packaging with maggots as a bandage ©2014, Biomonde
While following the project in Wales, I met Stephen Brittland from the University of Bradford. He had been researching the efficacy of extracted maggot saliva, obtained simply by immersing the "animals" in salt water. He partnered with a gel manufacturer—Advance Gel Technology (AGT)—to produce a topical product with a shelf life. Although the prospects were promising, the combination couldn't compete with the 48-hour window offered by BioBag. This AGT case, described as Case 2 in the first series of The Blue Economy under the subtitle "Nature's Nurses," lost out in the competition and gave way to a broader portfolio of opportunities.
Maggots and their prospects:
This work has inspired many people. I have spoken to entrepreneurs and academics around the world and encouraged them to pursue this new portfolio of business options, not only to provide better therapy but also to create new industries with proven demand, based on local resources. Dr. Jose Contreras of the Manuel Gea Gonzalez General Hospital in Mexico City introduced the treatment in 2000; Professor Luis Figueroa of the Universidad Austral in Chile began treatments in 2003; Professor Hilderman Pedraza Vargas of the National University of Colombia began applying maggot therapy to landmine victims in 2008. While many publish their results in scholarly articles, he chose to publish them on a public page, making the ancient Mayan know-how accessible.
Dr. Hilderman Pedraza Vargas
Dr. Jose Contreras
Starting up a small industrial facility costs between €3 million and €10 million. Investment proposals are funded because the business generates cash flow and multiple benefits. This is essential for providing higher-quality products at a lower cost, even during the initial phase of ramping up production. These multiple cash flows are not limited to maggot therapy and protein for animal feed. Various parts of the larvae are pure sources of chitin, oils, and lipids. Convincing food enthusiasts to switch to maggots may be challenging, but some examples in the United States show that this niche market is ripe for development. AgriProtein (South Africa) takes a different approach to creating value from its expertise. It helps local communities without sewage systems to treat human waste using maggot-based systems, creating a self-financing sewage service.
wix.com/larvaterapia; www.facebook.com/pages/Simbiosis-Larvaterapia/ 675073695918945
The Gates Foundation supported the initial trials and the results are expected to be published in 2015.
Thanks to a sound business model that doesn't require significant capital, more and more entrepreneurs are being drawn to maggot farming. The city of Leipzig has launched the ambitious idea of creating a maggot farm that would process 5,000 tons of offal, thus transforming the cost of shipping and incinerating the offal into an investment. This would create at least 1,000 new jobs and reduce the dependence of pig and poultry farms on imported feed. Unfortunately, the European Food Safety Authority has expressed reservations about farm animals eating other farm animals. The rationale for this prohibition stems from the "mad cow" disease, in which cows were forced into a form of cannibalism. The Agency is therefore technically correct, but the objections were not formulated with context in mind: when a farm fly eats the offal of a farmed cow, pig, or chicken, it is following the wisdom of a natural system. Furthermore, these reservations run counter to the NHS and FDA approval of using maggots to treat wounds.
The Agency realizes it's not just about feeding cows cow waste. It's now debating (1) what maggots should be allowed to eat and (2) which animals should be allowed to eat them. Quail, for example, have always fed on fly larvae. The US FDA is likely to be a proactive regulator. Besides the reluctance of
With the help of European authorities, few obstacles should stand in the way of this project becoming a high-growth global business opportunity.
Regulatory hiccups are not preventing entrepreneurs from moving forward. In addition to the pioneers already mentioned, we can cite Kees Aarts, who created Protix Biosystems in the Netherlands in 2013 and raised 10 million euros (protix.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 a lively debate on the sustainability of aquaculture feed 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 raising maggots using endemic species of Brazilian flies would bring a new portfolio of activities to the flourishing animal and human food industries, which would radically contrast with soy and its lack of respect for biodiversity.
Maggots in the future:
Thus, 18 years after first being exposed to the potential of maggots, a genuine group is emerging, combining food, health, biodiversity, and job creation, which can challenge traditional fishmeal and soy-based food production. It is perhaps worth adding here that maggots contain up to 60% protein and 25% fat, compared to 35% protein for the much-vaunted soy-based foods.
My prediction is that within a decade, maggot farming will be firmly established on every continent. The current businesses and operations we know will have grown to at least 500 production companies, with a combined daily output of around 1,000 tons at the lower end and 5,000 tons at the higher end. Maggot food and feed production will generate at least 250,000 jobs, a downward revision of the previously estimated 500,000. While the potential is certainly in the order of 5 million, large-scale implementation will still require several decades. However, the current amount of capital already committed is slightly less than €50 million, and the number of direct jobs exceeded 2,500 in 2015. The number of indirect jobs, particularly in the medical field with
over 1,500 medical facilities offering maggot treatment, is also significant, with an estimated 6,000 nurses and medical support staff employed to provide this treatment. As we can see, the drive to replace fish with fish food has unexpected consequences, generating a significant number of jobs in the healthcare sector. This is where we expect the greatest job growth in the coming years.
over 1,500 medical facilities offering maggot treatment, is also significant, with an estimated 6,000 nurses and medical support staff employed to provide this treatment. As we can see, the drive to replace fish with fish food has unexpected consequences, generating a significant number of jobs in the healthcare sector. This is where we expect the greatest job growth in the coming years.
A new and highly productive research program at universities worldwide will catapult the sector. This assumes that endemic species are utilized and that companies resist the old model of predictability through standardization and economies of scale, focusing instead on resilience and multiple revenue streams. The power of the maggot enterprise lies in the consolidation of all activities. Depending on the time and place, existing components can be deployed, and new ones can be conceived. Investors will need to provide between $500 million and $2 billion in cash for these 500 new companies to establish their capital base and provide working capital. The advantage is that the turnaround is not measured solely in days; the value generated from "nothing" competes with supply chains subject to stringent sustainability constraints.
Since the science is good and will continue to improve, I expect regulators to reconsider their initial concerns and support these highly resource-efficient clusters. However, I anticipate the biggest obstacle will come from traditional feed suppliers. They will fight back because it will drive down selling prices, reducing their margins due to new and fundamentally different competition. The question is how traditional feed producers will react to this compelling story. It is likely that by 2020-2025, the old guard will have accepted the newcomer and embraced the new business model. This could mean that it is time to launch insect-based products and services, further reducing the carbon and water footprint of the animal protein industry through a resource-efficient production model that can operate in urban, suburban, and rural environments.
Graphic: The integrated biosystem of the Songhaï Centre in Porto Novo (Benin)
© 2006, ZERI photo design by Songhai Center
Translation of the maggot affair in Gunter's Fables
The story of maggot farming is told in fable no. 50, entitled "Maggot Spit." It is dedicated to Father Godfrey Nzamujo, who inspired the creation of this collection in 1996. It was first published in Chinese and English in April 2015 and is available at www.guntersfables.com.
Documentation:
Viewers are advised that the images may not be suitable for a wide audience. Caution is advised when viewing the patients' critical condition at the beginning and the dramatic improvements that occur. This slideshow is only in Spanish, but the images are graphic.
www.slideshare.net/luafiro/terapia-larva-ly-presentacion-de-pacientes
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771513/
