Olympia Yarger always dreamed of being a farmer, but probably didn't imagine she's be farming maggots.
Now she runs a multi-million dollar company in Australia that uses maggots to turn food waste into animal feed and fertilizer, as well as a plethora of other products.
The idea to turn food waste into a product with value was born of necessity, she says.
Olympia Yarger Photo: Goterra Farms
The cost of feed was so high it made the balance sheet reality of turning a profit nigh on impossible, she told Jesse Mulligan.
“We were looking at options to do small farming, like a small holding a market garden or free-range chickens. And even then, the cost of production, 70 percent was feed, and feed is a commodity with a volatile price.
“So, you were having good price or bad price. And as a small holder, you can't really buffer for those things.”
The idea that you have to work off farm to have a farm didn’t make sense to her, she says.
“You shouldn't work somewhere else to have a farm. And so I was just like there's got to be a way to fix this balance sheet problem.”
That’s when she had the idea to put food waste and insects together.
“We have food waste and it's in multiple supply, and you have insects that is a high protein source that will eat that waste, so now you've created new protein to market without tapping existing supply chains or resources.”
Her company designed a ‘mega robot’ to automate the process of turning waste into products.
“It's an autonomous robotic system that's housed inside a shipping container. And it moves the insects from their place in the racks to feed and then back again.
“And it keeps those insects happy and healthy whilst they're in there eating.
“And we connect it to a receivable system which accepts the waste, manages the waste, treats the waste and then feeds the waste into the insect.”
The waste is macerated, loaded into an auger to be mixed, it is then heat treated, fermented and then pumped into the insects, she says.
Maggots like any other product have to be harvested when they are at their prime, she says.
“We put the insects in at five days, and we pull them out at 12 days later. So, the 17th day of their life, which is about the time that they're starting to think I've eaten enough, it's time for me to fly.”
At this point the insects are removed and separated from their manure, she says.
“So now we have two products, the manure of the insects, and the maggot themselves which is a protein. And we can do whatever we like with them.”
There are numerous uses for the two, Yarger says.
“The manure is very exciting because it's really high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium [NPK] depending on what they've eaten it can range between 3/2/4, ours is generally 4/2/1 on NPK.
So really high in nitrogen, which is a great thing for Australian farmers, certainly but more farmers across the world.
The insect themselves are high in melanin, chitin, lauric acid and the oil is comparable to palm oil, she says.
“We can turn the insects into livestock feed, because they're really high in protein.”
The oil can be used in cosmetics, the melanin in the electronics industry primarily for semiconductors and the chitin can be used to make plastic, she says.
“Isn’t it the coolest thing? All in this tiny little maggot that's just for so many years as a sheep farmer, we've just spent a lot of time trying to kill.”
It's an “exciting time to be a farmer,” she says.
“I just think there's something really exciting about a product that can be split into so many valuable things that can be grown without water without arable land and on a waste stream that is in need of management.
Now she says her company plans to scale up production and
“So now it's time to just execute the crap out of this thing and scale it and grow.”
