SBIR Phase II: Scalable insect farming for agriculture

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project are foundations for an emerging industry: insects in agriculture. Beta Hatch is pioneering the production of new animal feed ingredients, developing technology to mass produce insects, and creating STEM jobs. The proposed work will allow scaling insects as a sustainable protein-rich feed ingredient. With predictable year-round production, this will contribute to a more robust and secure agricultural system. The Beta Hatch insect ranch, which will be designed through integration of the results from this project, is an on-site solution to convert organic by- products into valuable feed ingredients and fertilizer. These ranches are being designed as conversions of underutilized spaces (warehouses and poultry barns), to bring jobs to rural and HUBZone areas. We work closely with farmers, our main customers, to establish the performance and economic value of our products. Insects provide nutrition and make animals healthier. Our frass (insect manure), is an organic fertilizer that stimulates healthy soils, and has no nitrates (no runoff). The proposed work will allow us to establish insects as the world?s most sustainable animal feed ingredient, and to disrupt the $400B animal feed market. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to cost effectively scale insect production for agricultural markets. Of the millions of insect species that exist, only a handful have been successfully reared under controlled conditions and even fewer have been mass produced. And yet insects have the potential to fill essential roles in agricultural supply chains by biodegrading wastes, removing or recycling toxins, and providing nutrition for animals. In order to meet the scale, quality and cost requirements for agricultural markets, significant R&D must solve some core challenges in insect mass production. We propose to integrate biological and engineering approaches to develop novel oviposition substrates, identify and mitigate causes of mortality, design automated and flexible diet handling systems, optimize rearing trays (the basic unit of production), and maximize yields with automated water and diet delivery. The proposed work will cut over 80% of our costs, produce several patents, and inform the design of a scalable insect ranching facility. As a natural part of animal diets, insects are a predictable protein-rich alternative feed ingredient, with year-round controlled production. In Phase 1 of this project, we established an insect breeding program, explored novel inorganic diets, and identified the core production challenges for scaling insects-as-feed. For this NSF SBIR Phase 2 project, we develop solutions that will reduce the cost of production and control the cost of future facilities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.