Small insects, big change
Arthrofood works with vulnerable communities in Colombia, processing crickets to make flour as a sustainable food source. Compared to beef, crickets provide 3.5 times more protein, while generating 85 times less greenhouse gases and using 11 thousand litres less water. Our business empowers local communities by sharing the knowledge of how to make the cricket flour, offering jobs as well as providing a source of food.
The global population is growing and we expect to be more than 9 billion people by 2050. This rapid growth comes with an increase in protein-rich diets. Livestock is the main generator of greenhouse gases and deforestation, so we need to look to other sources of protein to meet this demand. Colombia is in a post-conflict state with thousands of displaced people with an average of 53% suffering from food insecurity and 43% with anemia.
Our goal is to get populations to include cricket flour in their normal daily diet in order to fill the gap of malnutrition and anemia in these communities. Aside from the environmental benefits, our method is low cost and can be replicated in any part of South America or other developing countries.
