SBIR-STTR Award

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the fragility of our current commercial food and agricultural supply chains as many faced food shortages and food insecurities during this global pandemic [1]. Now is the opportune time to reevaluate how food is produced and distributed in the United States and innovate in food production systems to better mitigate the effects of this crisis while also addressing multiple ongoing crises (i.e. food shortages climate change feeding growing populations energy shortages). Insect farming could be the sustainable method for strengthening food security and stimulating the economy in this country. Insects are an excellent source of protein fat and essential nutrients for livestock pets and animals (wild and in captivity) and their mass production uses minimal land and water resources [2]. However live meal worms and other insects are expensive to produce [3] partially due to high electrical operational costs to maintain optimal growth temperatures. To address this issue From The Land LLC is proposing an innovation to increase energy efficiency in insect production systems that will increase the economical value and could mitigate food shortages from current and ongoing crisis (e.g. COVID-19 climate change energy shortages and feeding growing populations).This USDA NIFA SBIR Phase I project proposes to build the first zero net energy insect production facility specifically for live mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) using sustainable architectural strategies and renewable energies. The proposed facility will utilize naturally sourced building material (adobe/cob) passive and active solar collection practices geothermal ventilation designs a smart self-regulating temperature controlled system to regulate optimal mealworm growth conditions (26-28°C) and photovoltaic technology to operate mechanical and automated systems. The two technical objectives for this project are to (1) build test and calibrate this system design and to (2) preform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of mealworm production within the system border to quantify energy efficiency and evaluate zero net energy feasibility within the company border. If successful these methods could increase energy efficiency in traditional mass insect production systems by at least a 50%. Also with automation a $31680 annual cost savings is estimated for a facility of the proposed size [24]. This innovation has been designed to be cost effective easy to acquire and easy to incorporate into any small to mid-size farm as a profitable new market. Implementation of these methods has the potential to increase sustainable localized insect protein production systems in both rural and urban areas to increase food security for both human and animal food security and economic growth. Using these methods for building temperature-controlled facilities has great potential of decreasing the environmental impacts while reducing operational costs of multiple agricultural industries including livestock and animal feed industries.