Fishmeal and fish oil are ingredients in pig and poultry feed, but the largest demand comes from aquaculture.Researchers and NGOs have questioned the sustainability of the fishmeal and fish oil industry, which deplete stocks of staple food fish for humans and marine predators alike, among its other impacts.Animal feed manufacturers around the world are now looking for alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil.Among the most promising alternatives are insects and bacteria, and production is beginning to take off. LIMURU, Kenya — In the lush, rolling highlands of Limuru in central Kenya lies a farm like few others. From the outside, it could be growing anything in its rows upon rows of greenhouses. Inside, however, netted cages and stacks of black plastic crates tell a different story: InsectiPro farms flies. Talash Huijbers, InsectiPro’s plucky 24-year-old founder, proudly shows off her brood: millions of black soldier flies (BSF, Hermetia illucens) gently buzzing in their cages (they’re poor fliers), and billions of their larvae fattening up in trays. The larvae are fed a diet of food waste from markets and the food and drink industry. When I visit, it’s mango season and mounds of rotting fruit await processing into larvae food. Huijbers, who is half-Kenyan and half-Dutch, got the idea to set up a BSF farm after her family looked into starting a fish farm and noticed how expensive fishmeal, a key ingredient of animal feed, was. In Kenya, the main species used for fishmeal production is omena (Rastrineobola argentea), a small, silvery fish from Lake Victoria. It’s also a local staple. Competing demands from the food and feed markets have led to significant overfishing, and feed manufacturers are keen to find an alternative. Huijbers had heard that insect protein was all the rage in Europe, so she decided to suss out demand before launching the business. She set up a meeting with Fugo Feeds, the largest feed manufacturer in East Africa, to gauge their interest in BSF. “And they were like, ‘when can we buy 500 tons?’” she said. Fast forward 18 months and Huijbers is now selling 4 tons of dried BSF larvae a week. InsectiPro is already undercutting omenaand the company is working to reduce its energy costs so it can compete with international fishmeal prices. “That would be the sweet spot,” Huijbers said. Like Fugo, feed manufacturers around the world are looking for alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO), and insects, along with bacteria, are emerging as promising contenders.