Alternative Proteins Magazine ISSUE FOCUS 36 October 2025 In a village in Kisumu County, Kenya, chicken farmers have found an unlikely ally: Flies and their squirmy larvae. At first, one farmer wouldn’t dare touch the wriggling critters as they devoured piles of organic waste. She was frightened by their appearance. But that fear quickly faded once she discovered how useful they were—not only harmless, but a healthy, affordable feed for her chickens. “Even the chickens love them,” she says with a smile. “They eat them at a high speed.” A FOOD SYSTEM UNDER STRAIN Her experience speaks to a much bigger story. Food systems around the world are under strain. Farmers face rising costs for fertilizer and animal feed. Land and water are becoming scarcer. At the same time, unsustainable farming practices and heavy use of chemicals are degrading soils, harming biodiversity, and polluting water. Food loss and waste occur across the entire value chain, with some estimates suggesting that almost 30% of food produced never reaches consumers. This waste generates billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Meanwhile, the global population is growing, and demand for meat, milk, and fish is expected to rise by up to 70% by 2050—with much of this heightened demand expected to be in developing countries. This places even greater pressure on feed supplies and makes finding sustainable, affordable solutions more urgent than ever. The humble black soldier fly is emerging as an innovative, circular solution that can help solve many of these challenges by turning waste into food security. Soybeans and fishmeal are major protein sources for animal feed production. Around 85% of the world’s soybeans are processed into animal feed, while more than 20% of all fish caught globally are processed into fishmeal for pigs, poultry, cattle, and farmed fish. This is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Soybeans demand vast amounts of land and water, and their cultivation often relies on intensive monoculture farming that depletes soils and reduces biodiversity. Prices of soybeans and fishmeal have also soared, leaving farmers paying far more to “Soybeans demand vast amounts of land and water, and their cultivation often relies on intensive monoculture farming that depletes soils and reduces biodiversity. Prices of soybeans and fishmeal have also soared, leaving farmers paying far more to raise animals to market size. For farmers in developing countries in particular, this volatility makes traditional feed sources increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable.” Black Soldier Fly: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS Dr. Solomie Gebrezgabher Senior Researcher International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
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