Press Archive

10 years ago, many companies, including Chapul, were introducing insects to human markets (and creating quite a buzz!) Today, the focus has shifted toward less picky (and higher premium!) markets like pet food, poultry, and aqua feed - and it’s only the beginning.

Bloomberg’s team took the time to speak with us about this shift.

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“Food for animals is fueling demand for insect protein, which could jump 4,900% from 2021 to half a million metric tons by the end of the decade…”

Here's the link to the No-Till Growers Network podcast featuring a conversation with Mimi Casteel and our very own Pat!

"Pat Crowley is founder and CEO of Chapul Farms — building and scaling modular insect farms. His diverse career path has had a singular focus of ensuring the food and water availability to future generations with previous positions as a climate modeler, hydrologist and agronomist in public and private sectors, and has more than 15 years working in the field of sustainable food and agriculture. Pat, how are you doing today?"

"The North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission has awarded nearly $774,000 to 11 projects. Projects include $172,000 to PermanentFarms to support a large-scale beef finishing facility; $100,000 for Perennial Climate to expand organic carbon research and $32,5000 for Chapul Farms to support development of an industrial insect farm facility."

"(ND Ag Connection) – North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring announced 11 grant awards totaling $773,757.30 through the state’s Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC) program. The grants aim to accelerate research and development of new and expanded uses for North Dakota’s agricultural products."

"Chapul Farms LLC was awarded $32,500 to support development of an industrial insect farm facility."

"With state grants and Mark Cuban of “Shark Tank” as an investor, Oregon-based Chapul Farms is on schedule to break ground in the spring on its first facility to create high-protein animal feed from insects. "

The 2023 recipient of the first award for the Kelly McDonald Business Leader of the Year is Pat Crowley, Chapul Farms.  Pat Crowley is a dedicated and humble entrepreneur with a focus on sustainability and regenerative processes through development of the Chapul Innovation Center.  Raising $2.5M in investment capital and more under way to support customized insect agriculture to 1) manage food and ag waste, 2) produce high value protein, and 3) produce soil health fertilizer in a full life cycle process utilizing black soldier fly larvae.  He has doubled his team ( current 12 employees), given back to the community and volunteers on the Board of Directors for Tainable Regenerative Agriculture Labratories, a 501c3 dedicated to demonstrating soil health practices that can be implemented at a commercial scale.  Current plans include construction of the largest US insect farm in 2024. (TEDTalk) 

The sustainable investment sector’s tepid interest in ethanol production rarely shows up in the news. But when big capital players back real projects that involve ethanol plants and the products biorefineries make—and when it’s about something as strange as insect farming—headlines are made. 

Texas-based Nexus PMG, Oregon-based Chapul Farms plan to bring black soldier fly larvae farm to a North Dakota plant

Chapul Farms announced winner of the 2024 OEN Growth Stage award. 

For too long they’ve been a fly on the wall, but insects offer a new frontier in the sector. Given insects’ natural role as food for a number of farmed livestock species, it is worth reconsidering their role in the food waste movement. Furthermore, turning food scraps into animal feed is an affordable and preventative measure that minimizes the environmental impacts of this waste while providing livestock with safe, nutritious, and value-added fodder. The panel discussion will address the emergence and scale of these recycling measures and determine what is needed for the growth and adoption of these solutions.

“And finally we’ve worked on specialty projects such as our work with Chapul Farms using black soldier fly larvae [to convert waste into protein-rich animal feed and frass for fertilizer]."

Tune in!

Diverting organics from landfills is the #1 actionable item to address climate change, but we “lack scalable technologies” to address the problem (Project Drawdown, 2022). In the US alone there is over 83 million tons of food waste per year. Several state and federal mandates call for vast reductions, yet the scalable technologies have not been implemented. 

"Armed with cash from a Kickstarter campaign and a fervent belief that edible insects were the next big thing for human and planetary health, Pat Crowley introduced many Americans to the concept of eating bugs back in 2012 with the launch of cricket-fueled Chapul bars."

Check out the discussion Reddit.

"That said, organic waste is one of the most pernicious forms of waste around us. Food waste is the largest single input to landfilling in the U.S. That’s both a significant challenge and a substantial climate tech opportunity. Today we’ll cover another company that wants to take advantage of organic waste and commercialize a waste-to-value processing technology. It’s just a ‘technology’ that has been around forever. Let’s acquaint ourselves with Chapul Farms and the black soldier fly. "

"Crowley and his team want to restore biodiversity to agriculture, soil, and planet earth for a more resilient, sustainable, resilient, and secure food system. The believe diverting organics from landfills is most actionable item to address climate change. The problem is the current system lacks the infrastructure and scalable technologies to make this shift. The solution? Black solider fly larvae.  '

Frass—the excrement and exoskeletons of black soldier flies—are breathing carbon and life back into the world’s turmoiled soil.

Black soldier flies convert food waste into feed for pets, aquaculture, and livestock. But as agribusiness giants partner with European companies, concerns about high energy use hover over the fast-developing insect production industry.