Jason Drew from Cape Town, South Africa, is a very different kind of farmer. His type of farming, although very lucrative, would not be a choice for very many people. But Jason knows that his business, harvesting Black Fly larvae (maggots) to sell as animal feed, is proving to be a very eco-friendly alternative to feeding the world's growing population.
How Jason developed his fly farm
The business idea began seven years ago when Jason began pursuing the idea of more environmentally friendly ways to feed chickens. Most chickens are fed fish meal, which depletes more and more of the sea's animal life. His idea was to collect food waste from hotels, grocery stores and restaurants around Cape Town, and breed flies that can then be processed to the maggot stage, pressed, crushed and dried into maggot meal. In addition to helping the environment, maggot meal is far less expensive than fish meal to ship as well.
Jason uses Black Soldier Flies which do not carry disease like common flies. AgriProtein, the name of Jason's company, is already planning to expand into North America, Latin America and Europe. The annual growth potential is estimated at millions of tons.
Growth comes quickly
In order to get his business off the ground, Jason invested $2.6 million from the sale of his family's farm. Along with another $11 million from investors, he was able to start building his farm. Jason looks at his business as a good investment idea because of the increasing demand to feed a growing world population, estimated by The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations to increase to 2 billion people by the year 2050.
To read more, visit www.time.com/3825158/farming-flies-south-africa/