Years ago, people called them privy flies—those harmless, wasp-looking indigenous bugs that like to hang around livestock manure and outdoor toilets. Today, the black soldier fly is emerging as a major player in addressing two big environmental concerns.
The fly’s larvae have the potential to reduce massive amounts of organic waste, after which the larvae are easily converted to a protein-rich food source for animals, fish and maybe even humans. They achieve this through a perfect energy cycle that leaves a negligible carbon footprint. And, the fly is neither a disease carrier nor a household pest.
Now one regional company is aiming to scale up production of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) and commercialize its benefits. David Fluker, CEO of Port Allen-based Fluker Farms, is working with LSU to develop a model for farming BSFL and making the voracious garbage eaters and their by-products available to public and private clients. Fluker Farms is the nationwide leader in the production of live crickets for recreational fishing as well as feeder insects for reptiles and other animals.
Fluker has been following the progress of the black soldier fly research since it took off in 2002, when researchers from Texas A&M and the University of Georgia demonstrated the insects could be reared in a lab. By 2005, Fluker had bought the domain name, soliderfly.com, and was continuing to watch the market. He initially reached out to Texas A&M to form a partnership. When that failed to get off the ground, he contacted the LSU Department of Entomology.
Earlier this year, the department received a $60,000 grant from the LSU Sustainability Fund to develop a campus-based system for using BSFL to reduce LSU dining hall food waste.
While Soldier Fly Technologies is now on its way, it’ll still be some time before it’s scaled up to the level Fluker is planning.
“The food cycle in place now is not sustainable,” Fluker says. “This is a promising solution.”
Read the full feature on Fluker’s soldier fly project from the Oct. 22 edition of Business Report. Send comments to editor@Businessrport.com
