WEBVTT - Could Maggots End World Hunger?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb Here. Chances are that, you,

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<v Speaker 1>like me, have spent the better part of your sentient

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<v Speaker 1>life assuming that maggots are gross and a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>the mare due to their intolerable habit of eating rotting

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<v Speaker 1>flesh and feces. But have you considered that maggots might

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<v Speaker 1>be what saves you all of us in the end.

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<v Speaker 1>Not all maggots are created equal, of course. The one

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<v Speaker 1>that's going to save you is not the flesh eating

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<v Speaker 1>screw worm maggot of the Florida Keys, nor the larva

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<v Speaker 1>that invests Sardinia's infamous and illegal delicacy Kasu marzou, or

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<v Speaker 1>maggot cheese. There's only one maggot currently known to science

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<v Speaker 1>that could possibly save humanity, and that's the larva of

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<v Speaker 1>the black soldier fly. And they're still kind of gross.

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<v Speaker 1>Thousands of them will feast on a single food source

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<v Speaker 1>at once, creating a writhing, living fountain of maggots. But

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes you just have to set aside disgust in the

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<v Speaker 1>interest of survival. It's a writhing, living fountain of beneficent earth.

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<v Speaker 1>Saving Maggots common in much of the Western Hemisphere and Australia.

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<v Speaker 1>You may not have remembered noticing a black soldier fly before.

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<v Speaker 1>The adults are about one inch long around two and

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<v Speaker 1>a half centimeters and can be mistaken for wasps only.

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<v Speaker 1>They're extremely slow and lack a stinger. They often assue

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<v Speaker 1>flight and spend their fourteen days or so of adulthood

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<v Speaker 1>mosying around on the ground. But what black soldier flies

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<v Speaker 1>look like as adults hardly matters, as they spend very

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<v Speaker 1>little time in their grown up bodies. In fact, the

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<v Speaker 1>adults have no mouthparts or digestive organs because once they

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<v Speaker 1>become flies, it's sort of a hidden quiddit situation. They

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<v Speaker 1>can mate within a couple of days of hatching, and

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<v Speaker 1>they don't live more than a week or two after that.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's the larva that have sustainability researchers salivating. Literally,

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<v Speaker 1>if their plans come to fruition, we will all be

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<v Speaker 1>eating black soldier fly larva, which are referred to as

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<v Speaker 1>BSFL in the BIZ. This is because as BSFL contain

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<v Speaker 1>about fort protein in addition to some calcium and amino acids,

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<v Speaker 1>which is astronomical compared to every other plant and animal

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<v Speaker 1>based food on the planet, and they taste like peanuts

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<v Speaker 1>or fritos, depending on who you ask. According to a

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<v Speaker 1>United Nations report, insects already make up parts of the

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<v Speaker 1>diets of around two billion people worldwide, and as Earth's

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<v Speaker 1>human population grows, meat like beef and chicken will be

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<v Speaker 1>a protein option for fewer and fewer people. It only

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<v Speaker 1>takes one acre of BSFL to grow the same amount

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<v Speaker 1>of protein as three thousand acres of cattle or a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and thirty acres of soybeans. The larva themselves can

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<v Speaker 1>be dried and turned into flour, pressed for their oils,

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<v Speaker 1>or roasted and sprinkled over a salad for a little

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<v Speaker 1>extra crunch. The sky's the limit with these little buddies.

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<v Speaker 1>Not only that bsf l make great trash processors, they're

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<v Speaker 1>capable of eating a wide variety of organic waste, nearly

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<v Speaker 1>anything you can throw at them, from food scraps and

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<v Speaker 1>rotting carcasses to poop and toxic algae, although they reportedly

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<v Speaker 1>have a difficult time managing hair bones and pineapple rindes,

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<v Speaker 1>so farming with them would leave us with a smaller

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<v Speaker 1>carbon footprint and a whole lot of compost a group

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<v Speaker 1>of researchers at Texas A and M has even figured

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<v Speaker 1>out how to put BSFL to sleep for long periods

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<v Speaker 1>of time and then wake them up when it's time

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<v Speaker 1>to put them to work eating waste. A few different

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<v Speaker 1>companies are currently trying to make this BSFL thing happen,

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<v Speaker 1>But can we get over a revulsion in the interest

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<v Speaker 1>of survival Keep your ear to the ground of the

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<v Speaker 1>next few decades we're about to find out. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Jescelin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff this production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>For more on this and lots of other futuristically gross topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com and more. Podcasts.

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