Interesting bait has been developed. Musca, founded in Fukuoka City in 2016, has developed fish feed using houseflies, a type of fly. These are grown in factories, just like plant factories. Musca has developed a system to make feed and fertilizer using livestock feces from livestock farms and leftover waste from food factories. By using Musca’s houseflies, livestock feces can be turned into feed and fertilizer in about a week. Feed and fertilizer can be produced from 300g of housefly eggs for every ton of organic waste. Feed and fertilizer made from housefly eggs are supplied to livestock farmers and fish farmers. Livestock waste is generated in large quantities throughout the country. The amount amounts to 80 million tons every year. It is safe to say that there is an almost infinite supply of feed materials to be used in fish farms.
Japan’s forest area is 25 million hectares, with an annual growth rate of about 100 million m3. Of that, only 34 million m3 of timber is produced. The increase in forests far exceeds the amount used. However, Japan’s forestry industry is not making full use of it. Recently, an interesting feed development has been seen. A research group at Kyoto University is trying to create chicken feed by feeding thinned wood to termites. In January 2020, Professor Kenji Matsuura of Kyoto University collected a nest of giant termites in a forest in Kagoshima Prefecture and brought it back. Millions of giant termites, each about 1 cm long, are moving around among the leaves. About 45 grams of giant termites grow on 1 kilogram of thinned wood. These termites are comparable in nutritional value to soybean meal and fish meal, which are commonly used as chicken feed. These termites can be fed to chickens as is, or freeze-dried into powder and mixed with other feed.
Humans sometimes do “wasteful” things that are not necessary for survival in order to feel “pleasure.” For example, there is a waste called food miles. Food miles indicate how much weight of food has been transported and how many kilometers. This food miles are an indicator of wasteful use of water, fuel, etc. If you understand the concept of food miles, you will also have a deeper understanding of “local production for local consumption” and “self-sufficiency.” It is time to build a new system of “local production for local consumption” and “self-sufficiency” that suits modern Japan. Treasures such as insects and abundant forests lie dormant in each region of Japan. We would like to dig them up using the tool of wisdom.
