{"id":26471,"date":"2017-10-27T03:43:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T10:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=26471"},"modified":"2017-10-25T23:20:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T06:20:32","slug":"eat-bugs-to-repair-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/10\/27\/eat-bugs-to-repair-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Eat bugs to repair the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burgers made with insect protein, and no meat. (photo from Eran Gronich)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

While the thought of eating insects or worms may sound outlandish or disgusting to many of us, there is growing support for doing just that.<\/p>\n

In less than 25 years, the world will have nine billion people living on it. As things stand, there is not enough space or resources to support conventional protein production \u2013 beef, chicken, fish, etc. \u2013 for that many people. One solution that has been brought to the fore is that we can start eating insect protein. And now, the Israeli company Flying Spark is raising capital to make this a reality.<\/p>\n

Leading the charge is Eran Gronich, a serial entrepreneur, and his partner, entomologist Dr. Yoram Yerushalmi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was looking for my next project, looking into all kinds of ideas, start-ups, etc., I came across a TED Talk in which this university professor was talking about the world having nine billion people by 2040,\u201d said Gronich. \u201cHe was talking about all the damages of livestock farming \u2013 causing global warming, [using] 70% of growing seed, oceans over-fished…. He was saying the best solution is switching to insect consumption \u2026 and, I don\u2019t know why, but I was fascinated. I started to learn about it…. When I realized I don\u2019t know anything about insects, I found my partner, Dr. Yerushalmi, and together we started Flying Spark.\u201d<\/p>\n

They chose the larva of fruit flies to work with because it has a number of benefits, such as high values of protein, iron, calcium and magnesium. Its fat is unsaturated and, unlike some other insects, a fruit fly has no cholesterol.<\/p>\n

The fruit fly uses less than one percent of water and land resources, has hardly any waste and 100% of the larva can be used. The lifespan of the larva is only six days and it multiplies 15 times in that time.<\/p>\n

As it\u2019s a vegetation-eating fly, it is a safe insect to use. No antibiotics, hormones or additives are used in the growing process, and the insect does not share any diseases with human beings.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Flying Spark\u2019s Eran Gronich. (photo from Eran Gronich)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gronich and Yerushalmi\u2019s project was chosen as the winner of a mass accelerator challenge in Boston. \u201cWe spent four months in Boston working on accelerating the growth of the company,\u201d said Gronich. \u201cWe raised some money there from investors and sent it to Israel. We developed the farming and ecosystem technology around farming the larva, reducing the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the food lab, we developed the process that\u2019s basically taking the larva and turning it into high-quality, 70% protein powder and high-quality oil. Also, we worked on all kinds of applications and the functionality of the protein powder. We made all kinds of products just to prove the point that you can make almost anything out of our materials \u2013 bread, pasta, cereal, cakes, whatever. And, also, achieve meat replacement, even milk, with more protein than cows.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the larvae will be fed by fruit surpluses, which, according to Gronich, exist everywhere. \u201cThey are in every country and also throughout the supply chain \u2013 surplus that the farmer or grocery chain has,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good food, but doesn\u2019t look so good anymore. So, we developed this formula \u2013 based on feeding software \u2013 to calculate the right percentage \u2026 to get the nutritional diet needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gronich is working with several major food manufacturers, trying out various applications, with varying degrees of success.<\/p>\n

According to Gronich, the product is not kosher and his market is not yet in Israel, though he does have some Israeli and Jewish backers. One of his backers is the Strauss Group, which invested money and provides support with offices, labs and a lot of technical support for marketing and networking with institutions worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Strauss, it\u2019s a financial investment,\u201d said Gronich. \u201cStrauss believes insects will be a part of the human diet in the near future and decided to invest in the best company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another important collaboration in which Flying Spark is involved is with IKEA. \u201cIKEA, eight months ago, [invited] all kinds of start-ups to apply for special programs focused on making the world a better place, especially sustainability aspects. Thirteen hundred companies applied from about 80 countries around the world; they chose 10. We were lucky enough to be one of those 10 companies. So, we started a three-month program. My partner is in Sweden right now, in the IKEA centre, and the goal of the program in the end is to have a product made from our material in the IKEA restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gronich is currently working on designing Flying Spark\u2019s first production facility in Israel, with operations scheduled for the end of 2018. \u201cNow, we are raising three and a half million dollars to build the facility, which will be in Ashdod,\u201d said Gronich.<\/p>\n

While selling the product to the Western world is a bit tricky, in the Eastern world or in South America, insects are eaten regularly. So, heading east with their product is an obvious choice.<\/p>\n

As for the West, Gronich said, \u201cNow, people from Western countries … when I\u2019m explaining to them about the larva \u2013 about how it cleans itself and its nutritional value \u2013 people understand it. They get that it is one of the best sources of protein. If you\u2019re comparing it to shrimp or other kinds of seafood, it looks much better. It definitely looks much better than a dead chicken. And millennials are very much aware of what they put into their bodies, and aspects of food and farming, so it\u2019s easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying Spark was very happy with their positive reception in Boston. There, more than 85% of millennials told them they had no problem tasting it. And, when they gave people samples, the reaction was positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we\u2019re working with companies that have heard about us through PR,\u201d said Gronich. \u201cMultinational companies approached us and the conversations with them have all been focused on nutritional value \u2013 source of the protein, they don\u2019t care about it…. We call it the industrial approach. We\u2019re not serving the insect in its original form. We\u2019re turning it into a white powder and are selling it to regular, traditional food manufacturers \u2013 and there is a need for this product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa <\/strong>is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burgers made with insect protein, and no meat. (photo from Eran Gronich) While the thought of eating insects or worms may sound outlandish or disgusting to many of us, there is growing support for doing just that. In less than 25 years, the world will have nine billion people living on it. As things stand, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2845,7519,7520,7521,3416,4330,2225],"class_list":["post-26471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-environment","tag-eran-gronich","tag-flying-spark","tag-ikea","tag-insects","tag-israel","tag-science"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}