WEBVTT - We'll All Be Eating Bugs Sooner Than You Think 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.320 A casual glance at economic news might make you think 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.600 the world is going to the dogs. But what if 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.640 it was going to the bugs and the maggots. Economic 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.320 forces like climate change and population growth have a new 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.040 generation of farmers scouring the globe for fresh sources of protein. 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:26.520 The edible insect market may exceed one billion dollars in 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.880 five years, and along the way diffuse a potential food crisis. 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:45.120 Welcome to Benchmark. I'm Daniel Moss, columnist at Bloomberg Opinion 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.800 in New York, and Dame Scott landman and economics editor 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.120 with Bloomberg News in Washington. Two guests today come at 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.520 the boom in gastronomy from different places. First will be 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:02.000 joined by Olympia Yaga, who at North Carolina for Canberra, 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.560 where she's CEO of go Tera. Go Tera builds mobile 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.200 insect farming systems. In June. I ate some worms and 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.360 crocodile at an event with Olympia. The worms were fine, 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.000 croc was a bit dodgy. Our second guest is Agnesca 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.120 to Susa, who covers commodities and agriculture for Bloomberg News 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:28.040 in London with two colleagues. She recently wrote an article 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.679 called Bugs Are Coming Soon to your dinner table. First, 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:50.040 let's go to our intrepid Australian insect farmer, Olympia. Why 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.400 don't we start by describing your role in this emerging 0:01:54.640 --> 0:02:00.920 constellation of the insect gastronomy. Sure, so, I'm the founder 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.080 and CEO of a company called go Tera that manages 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:09.320 food waste using insects in robotic modular systems. And I'm 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.880 also the chairwoman of the Insect Protein Association of Australia, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.920 which is the national representative body for insect farmers and 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:23.520 insect retailers in Australia and Olympia. When you talk about 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:28.080 insect farming insect protein, what kind of insects are we 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.720 actually talking about? That both the ones that you do 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:36.400 and other people in your association have been working with. Yes, So, 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.839 for insects for food, the big three are meal worms, 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.160 and there's a couple of different types of meal worm, cricket, 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.320 and in that group you could probably put your locusts 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:53.600 in your grasshopper, and then cockroach or beetle. And then 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.640 there's some other novel ones where people grow sort of 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.720 spiders or scarabs and things like that. But those three 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:05.560 the most conventional that people farm in commercial quantities, both 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.760 in Australia and around the world. So the cockroaches that 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:13.320 I've seen walking around various apartments, that I've let those 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.440 become food? Is that what you're talking about? How does 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.720 that happen? You are a cockroach farmer without realizing it. Yeah, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.280 they Yes, those are the cockroaches that we're talking about. 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.960 They are actually really clean. And this is sort of 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:33.040 an interesting segue into the culture of insects and how 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.920 we perceive what insects are. So they're always being considered 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.840 dirty things, but cockroaches as as an animal are actually 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:47.400 quite clean, and they have a very distinct flavor that 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:52.400 is appealing, and they're mostly turned into a meal which 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.520 people use as a flower substitute. Okay, So just so 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.600 we're clear on this, are we at the point where 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.680 we will soon be able to walk into Whole Foods 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.840 or Woolworths or Tesco or Carrap and say, hey, where's 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.640 the aisle that has the cockroach flour? How far off 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.280 is that? I don't think we're that far away at all. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.200 The challenge for any new industry, but in this case, 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:25.520 this industry is the commercial capacity to produce commodity for 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:30.040 fm CG. So what is fm CG. So fm CG 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:35.520 is fast moving consumer goods. So those are chips, cakes, muffins, 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.880 you know, the things that we buy as snacks and things, 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.240 and so those you've got to farm enough insects for 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.680 your products to become mainstream. And so the industry is 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.760 merging and we're getting more farmers and more farmers are 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.400 getting to commercial capacity, and so that's a barrier to 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.640 becoming mainstream. If you can't make enough product to even 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.400 get shelf space in the more conventional stores, you're not 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.080 going to be able to move there. I think we're 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.400 probably less than two years away from cricket products being 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.240 found in aisles of our sort of your more traded 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.200 Joe whole food type places. Isn't what you make now? 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.320 Is that more for for livestock use as it is 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.280 it going to animal feed and that sort of thing. Yes, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.760 So intec farming does lend itself to being used for 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.719 for livestock feed. And there are people go Terror is 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:38.200 one of them that farms insects for livestock feed. But 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:44.320 the opportunities is equally spit so there's just as much 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:49.800 opportunity to raise insects for livestock feed based on wage 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.680 substrates that make you that are available, that should be used, 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.800 that should be utilized as a resource um as there 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.480 is for insects to be farmed for human can assumption. 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.120 I think you have hit on a point that's accurate, 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.040 and it is a challenge of the industry. Is that 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:11.440 for centuries, insects are bad is a deeply ingrained understanding 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.240 in pretty much most of most cultures, and that is 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:20.560 a barrier to consumption or adoption. Is that cultural conversation 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.720 and how do we bring these products to market when 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.200 we've been told for our whole lives that having an 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.080 insect in your food is really bad. But I don't 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.960 think that that's as unsurmountable a challenge as as actually 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.320 the farming side, to be perfectly frank, I think the 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.680 farming getting people to commercial capacity in an industry that's 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.440 as new as it is, is actually the greater challenge. Now, 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.120 at an event at the Australian National University, you were 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:52.279 a panist, I was there. We dined, among other things, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:57.640 on crocodile loin, on seaweed. That's before we got to 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.839 the worms which were an optional extra to talk about 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:06.000 the croc not typically something urban nights would eat. What's 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.880 the appeal there and is it broadly part of the 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:13.440 same movement that gets us bug astronomy? Yeah, I think 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.400 you know, Australians have been eating crocodile what since the nineties, 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.240 but it's never really taken I don't know if it's 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.760 ever really made it into mainstream. You can find it 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.960 in your regular grocery stores, but it's not like there's 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.320 not lots of it. There's just sort of a little 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.200 bit off to the side. But yeah, I think the 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:34.320 challenge with food is we don't know how to cook it. 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.560 Our parents teach us how to cook or our peers 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.000 and and so that our understanding of what to cook 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.840 and what we bring into our homes when we leave 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.480 home is generally what we've been taught. And so culturally, 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.240 you know, Greek and so I was raised on Greek 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.720 type foods and that's what I teach my children how 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.520 to make. And so when confronted by crocodile, don't know 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.400 what to do with it, it showed actually to be 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.920 frank I found not that you were responsible for preparing 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.080 that meal, but but you know, you've brought me to 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.880 my next point, which is, you know, the meal worms 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.520 that were an optional extra. I indulged in them, and 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.600 I found them pretty unoffensive. It wasn't the world's strongest taste, 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.280 but they were okay. I found at that meal the 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:31.960 crocodile to be pretty ordinary, fairly tasteless, quite rubbery and texture. Now, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:36.760 after leaving lunch, walking back to the main conference session, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.760 I did feel a certain spring in my step. Were 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.400 those worms doing something for me that I was not 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:51.079 aware of as I ate them? Obviously, I think you 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.000 would probably luck just glad to be moving, most likely 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.240 because that was quite a dense meal. The meal webs 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:03.920 are sixty A protein, and so maybe you ingested extra 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.840 protein you felt better for it. But I don't know 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.360 if I should take full responsibility for your demeanor after lunch. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.840 The crocodile. I think it was a true example of 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.560 the challenges of new things. It wasn't cooks particularly well. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:23.960 That's not normally how crocodile tastes um. But you know, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.120 if you aren't used to dealing with that meat, it's 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.600 quite hard to manage it. And it's the same you know, 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.360 if I gave meal worms to somebody who'd never eat 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.000 them to it before, how would they know how to 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.360 cook it? So I think that's where you're using the 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.520 product in fastness. Moving consumer goods is easier because it's 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.160 already conveyed in a product that you can consume. We 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.480 can put it into chips and bars and things, and 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.560 that makes sense to us. We already eat those things. Um, 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.520 and it sort of is a good entry as far 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:03.600 as you're looking at market demographics, because you're generally paleo 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:08.120 eaters or vegan eaters or slow food eaters. Those people 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.520 who have already committed to specific types of eating are 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:17.480 more readily engaged in adopting new products that fit their ethos, 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:21.960 not necessarily their palates or what they like to eat. 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.560 So so one more question from me, Olympia, if I 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.520 heard you correctly earlier, you said that you're not necessarily 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.400 worried about demand in your line of business. It's more 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:39.079 the supply, getting the capacity for farming to meet what 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.280 you think is going to be strong demand. What is 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:46.440 business like in your company and in your industry? Is it? 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.320 Is it growing at a very rapid rate? Can you 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.960 can you give us any numbers? Sure? So the industry 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.240 globally is expected to both in food, so insects for 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.360 food production and in sex for feed production. Both expect 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.640 to have a hundred percent growth over the next two 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:12.280 years to both reach a billion dollar industry, and so 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.960 that's pretty speedy given how long the industry has been around. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.560 And those things are about the fact that we've got 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:27.280 farms in Canada and Europe and the US who are 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:33.400 currently at commercial commodity capacity and can produce those commercial 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.400 commodity quantities, and so we're now seeing these products get 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.640 to market for people to consume, and that's lifting the 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:48.239 entire industry as it goes Olympia. What role are robots 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:54.320 playing in your business? Yeah, so we have designed a 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:59.240 robotic modular system for farming insects. The nature of Australian 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:04.120 and agriculture and how the demographic of our land mass, 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.440 how we are spread out with with cities quite far 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.480 distances from each other, and we have these regional hubs 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:17.120 that are almost isolated, so you'll drives and suddenly there's 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.240 fifty people living in the middle of nowhere. When you 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:26.000 consider using insects to eat waste or waste streams, that 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.160 means you it's a better option to move b where 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.040 the waste is than it is to be trying to 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.079 truck waste to you, so you can raise insects. So 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.200 I created a robotic system to farm insects on site 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:43.320 where waste is created. It can form either black soldier 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:48.200 fly or meal worm, and we will be commercializing that 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.040 product in the next d eighteen months and getting it 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.439 out into trials. But what that will mean for us 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.360 and our goal of where these end up being is 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.600 that we can put them under shopping malls where large 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.680 volumes of waste, certain food waste, of being thrown away, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.480 and they can consume that waste on site using insects 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.240 without the need for human interaction or human intervention, which 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.600 is generally where you find challenges with employment and certainly 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:23.240 manually raising insects on food waste is not economically viable 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:28.440 in an industrialized world country. So robots managing food waste 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:33.360 under shopping malls. So this is an instance where robots 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:39.200 are assisting you with your disruption of the food industry. Yes, 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.240 so we're disrupting waste management, which is an industry that 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.520 hasn't been disrupted in its existence. So even though we 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:51.080 have different ways of managing waste. Bioreactors and all those 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:55.760 different new methods, we still pick up waste from one 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.920 location and drag it or truck it to another and 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:03.000 manage it in an an alternate location to where it 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:09.840 was created. Um. We believe that those mechanisms of managing 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.160 waste are becoming more and more prohibitive, mostly around the 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:17.360 cost of petrol and trucking, but also around the need 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:25.240 to keep regional communities vibrant and industry based in regional areas. 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.400 And so for us, it's about decentralizing waste management and 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.880 keeping it close to its region rather than dragging it 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.560 across country for management. We think that's a more viable 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.760 way to move into a future. Well, Olympia, thanks for 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.440 joining us and good luck to you. Thank you so 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:54.680 much for having me. It has been fun. So that's 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.360 our on the ground or in the ground perspective. Now 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:04.200 let's go Agnesca do SUSA in London. Aggie, thanks for 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:09.520 joining us. When you researched and reported bugs are coming 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:14.000 soon to your dinner table? What really struck you? So? 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.520 While researching from my article, what I didn't expect to 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:22.440 find is how many people there were committed to insect farming, 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:28.280 particularly here in Europe. I thought this was very Asian 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.840 oriented industry. You know, there are at least twenty thousand 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:39.000 farms in Thailand. Insects are a popular food in that region. 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.480 So I thought that if if we were to consume 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.560 insects here in Europe, that would still be imported from Asia. 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:51.000 And what I discovered was that actually people here are 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:58.080 more and more committed to rearing insects locally. What I 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.760 found surprising was to to meet people who who had 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:07.720 other jobs in the past, other careers, uh, city dwellers 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:12.160 or who would hear about this possibility and that would 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.520 just completely make make a career change and switch to 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.840 insects insect farming. And at the same time it was 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.640 it was interesting to find people as well who would 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:29.240 such as the Sconing family who are traditional farmers and 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:34.240 learned about this possibility that they could actually do it 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:38.640 in Finland and and we're willing to take that opportunity. 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:43.640 What about the financial incentives for the farmers to get 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:47.440 into this field or the city folk that you you discussed. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.160 Is it becoming a lucrative business or is it is 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:56.760 it already there? It's a slow journey. I think you are. 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.760 You're seeing people who are committed because they believe in it, 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.199 but they do acknowledge that right now, it's not going 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:09.439 to be a lucrative business straightaway. It's a very young industry, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.560 particularly here in Europe or in the West in general. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.760 So so you know, because it's quite small, you do 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.159 not have the economy of scale. The production costs are 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.720 going to be much higher than what you obtain in Asia. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.119 So so, just to give you example, you know, the 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.520 price of crickets or cricket flower in Europe and North 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.960 America can be as much as five times the price 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:40.960 of the same product farmed in Asia, in Thailand specifically, 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.600 So so you have to wait. You have to see 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.680 more investment in technology. You need to see the economy 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.640 scale achieved in order to actually bring the production costs 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.399 down and be able to sell the product at the 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.639 appropriate price. So so so that takes time. But I 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:02.919 think you know, as as the demand picks up, you know, 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.160 many of these people hope that they will be able 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.480 to achieve good profits at the end of it. So 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.560 let's talk more broadly about this. This is not just 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:18.480 farmers shifting from livestock to bugs because say they're having 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:23.120 a midlife crisis. What are the economic forces that are 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:28.480 making this a real business proposition. One attractive thing about 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:35.280 insects farming is how few resources they use, So you know, 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.760 insect faring doesn't require as much land that then they're 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.399 so tiny you can just keep them in you know, 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.000 you know, a very compact place. You know, they do 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:51.280 not require huge water resources. You know, in terms of that, 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.000 I think that really helps. Then in terms of the feed, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.080 you know, you need to be feeding them in order 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.320 to to rear them. And if you look had the 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.640 feed conversion ratio, you know the amount of feed you 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.480 need to get in order to produce one kilogram of 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:15.240 let's say cricket that is five times smaller than what 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:20.080 you require for beef. What role does climate change and 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.160 population growth play A big one, because more and more 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:30.480 consumers are aware of the impact traditional livestock traditional meat 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:36.920 sector has on the environment. Where aware that rearing cattle 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.199 contributes to climate change. It is a major source of 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:45.520 greenhouse gas emissions. So more and more consumers are trying 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:52.240 to adjust their diets. They're more aware environmentally conscious, and 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.719 they want to through their dietary choices they want to 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.640 bring about the change. So insects are a good proposition 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.960 because you know they are not emitting as huge quantities 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.600 of greenhouse gas guys this as pigs or cows. So 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.720 so definitely, this is something that many people are watching 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.879 when when they reach out for protein. And and another 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.720 thing is we are more and more aware that you know, 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:27.440 the population will continue to increase. We're expecting to reach 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.840 the population of nine billion by twenty fifty, and we 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.840 are aware that we're going to have to increase our 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:41.040 food supplies by at least fifty by that time. And 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:45.840 because our global resources are limited, we are um and 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:50.320 and scientists and organizations and and food companies are trying 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.320 to find the answers, how are we going to do it? 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.639 How are we going to find those alternative proteins? And 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:00.840 you do have certain options. For example, you have meat alternatives. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:06.320 So you hear about love grown meat or plant based 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:10.280 products that resemble meat, that smell like meat or taste 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.760 like meat. But we but but we know, you know, 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:17.520 we are still far from this um mass production of 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:21.879 such products, and we know they cost a lot, so 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.520 so so you know, it makes you think you know, 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:29.160 perhaps insects could be that that alternative, given that they're 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:35.000 actually very high in protein. Aggie. In your article, you 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.960 write about a couple of restaurants in Finland that are 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.880 serving crickets on their menu, and you also discuss how 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.280 ground up crickets, for example, can be made into I 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.119 guess the kind of powder that could be added to 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:55.359 foods like sausages, cookies, muffins, tofu and even ice cream. 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.560 Is this actually happening already in some of the foods 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.919 in our grocery store or you know, when when is 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.800 this supposed to start really hitting the mainstream. So some 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:12.680 cricket flower or insect flower is it's a very fast 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:18.280 growing segment of the market. Its ground up crickets. They 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:23.280 don't taste of much and and they don't look like insects, 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:27.240 so it helps consumers to overcome this echy the factor. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:29.679 You know, it's much easier to consume an insect for 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:33.520 many people if if the product doesn't look like an insect, 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.119 particularly here in the West. So you're seeing more and 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:41.880 more products that use that contain the flower, and the 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:45.480 most common one these days that you actually already see 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:50.800 in supermarkets. Um, maybe more the the niche supermarkets, or 0:22:50.880 --> 0:22:55.000 the the organic or the vegan focused was or the 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.960 you know the health that the health stores. You do 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.760 see energy bars, so you know, so this is aimed 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.600 at people who work out and you know, people who 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:10.320 just meet a snack. Have you tried any any of 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.800 these products? Yeah? I did. I did. Actually, they don't 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:17.560 taste of insects. It didn't strike me as um as 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:22.639 anything different because insect flower accounts for ten percent of 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.040 the products, so if you actually look at the ingredients, 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:27.920 it's not the majority of what you get in the bar. 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:31.080 And then you know, I tried licorice that was a 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:36.040 finished product. I tried crackers, so you know, once it's 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:38.199 ground up, you know, you just you can just consume 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.040 it like as if it was any any other product. 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:46.159 So I think the appeal here is more nutrition driven 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:50.680 rather than taste driven. Aggie, thanks for joining us. Well, 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:57.560 thank you. My Pleasure Benchmark will be back next week. 0:23:57.760 --> 0:23:59.920 Until then, you can find us on the Bloomberg term, 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.280 Bloomberg dot com, or Bloomberg app, as well as podcast 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:07.560 destinations such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:09.960 We'd love it if you took the time to rate 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:13.040 and review the show so more listeners can find us, 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:16.400 and you can find us on Twitter follow me at 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:21.280 scott Landman Dan. You're at Moss on the School ecode 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:26.160 our guest Olympia Yargur is at go Tera Underscore CEO, 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:31.640 and Aggie Ta Susa is at Aggie Ta SUSA. Benchmark 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.120 is produced by tofor Foreheads. The head of Bloomberg Podcasts 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:38.520 is Francesco Levie. Thanks for listening, See you next time.