Posted on 09/18/2020 3:16:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For a final assignment to cap a five-year posting to China, I never would have chosen this.
But deep inside a cavernous setup of tight corridors and shelves, I'm standing in the dark, sweating profusely as the rain-like sound of millions of cockroaches eating fills the silence.
It's a peaceful ambience that would go well on one of those calming sleep apps.
Everything else about the situation would probably keep people awake.
Around me on walls, the ceiling and floors, cockroaches large and small scurry about, scattering whenever my cameraman Steve Wang points his camera light at them.
This is a roach nest on a massive scale: four industrial-size hangars packed with rows and an elaborate pipe system that pumps food waste collected from restaurants onto the shelves for the roaches to eat.
A dark hallway with cockroaches all over the walls The hangars are kept in perfect condition for cockroaches: dark, warm and filled with food waste.(ABC News: Steve Wang) The lights are off, the temperature is maintained in the high 20s and the humidity is stifling.
"We have 60 small rooms. There are 20 million cockroaches in each room. In total there are 1 billion cockroaches," farm manager Yin Diansong tells me.
"Every day they can eat 50 tonnes of kitchen waste."
Cockroach farms are common in China The project at Zhangqiubei, near the eastern city of Jinan, differs from most other cockroach farms in China.
While a massive facility in the south-west run by a company called 'Good Doctor' grinds up billions of roaches each year for use in Chinese medicine, this project mainly uses them for animal feed.
Two men holding a big pot in a chicken coop The chickens are about to eat a healthy, protein-rich meal of ground-up cockroach.(ABC News: Steve Wang) "If we can farm cockroaches on a large scale, we can provide protein that benefits the entire ecological cycle," says the head of the project, Li Yanrong.
"We can replace animal feeds filled with antibiotics and instead supply organic feed, which is good for the animals and the ground soil."
What started as an experiment to deal with food waste has blossomed into a commercial operation, although Mr Li admits it's still early days and unclear if it will be profitable in the long term.
But the sprawling fields around the cockroach farm already have pigs, ducks, chickens and goats that are feeding on the nutrient-rich cockroach mix.
A fish eating a cockroach The cockroaches are prevented from escaping the farm by a moat filled with fish.(ABC News: Steve Wang) A moat around each hanger is filled with rapacious fish hooked on the taste of cockroach.
They help to ensure the billion or so cockroaches inside don't break out and wreak havoc on the fields nearby.
Cockroaches are not just household pests Largely seen as a pest to be eradicated elsewhere, cockroaches are lucrative money-earners for an estimated 100 cockroach farmers across China.
Crushed cockroaches going by their scientific name Periplaneta Americana are listed as ingredients in various types of Chinese medicine and some medical cosmetics.
They are said to be mainly useful in helping heal scars, while some people eat or drink crushed cockroach medicines that, according to the manufacturers at least, can help reduce the size of tumours.
In some parts of China, the bugs are also eaten although it is very rare, and Mr Li tells me he personally does not cook them up, despite their nutrition.
A man in a polo shirt stands outside a factory building Li Yanrong says the cockroaches are a better, cheaper source of protein for farm animals.(ABC News: Steve Wang) That comes as a relief as he offers us lunch at the Zhangqiubei farm: pork, chicken and fish all raised on nutrient-rich cockroach feed.
Plus, as is customary for guests visiting Shandong, plenty of beer to wash it all down.
Mr Li is knowledgeable about Australia's agricultural conditions and is aware that food waste in Australia largely ends up in landfill.
More than 5 million tonnes each year, according to Australian Government figures.
He thinks the farming process of giving food waste to cockroaches to feed animals for human consumptions could potentially work overseas.
A cockroach running across a pipe The cockroaches could be used to reduce landfill by consuming all the rotting food scraps.(ABC News: Steve Wang) "The ecological cycle is so important, not just locally but worldwide," he says.
It may be a hard sell overcoming the general aversion to cockroaches elsewhere.
But it is a well-run operation that gives me food for thought.
In my last five years in China I'd seen many local ideas flourish abroad, from dockless share bikes to coronavirus containment measures adopted worldwide.
Perhaps cockroach farming could be next.
Next the chicoms will lab produce them the size of dogs....
Palmetto Bugs are notorious here in north central Florida. Some we swear are 101st Airborne. They are fearless.
Jesus Christ that was too close to the wire for me!
There’s something wrong with their math. 1 billion roaches divided by 2000 pounds in a ton divided by 50 tons a day is 10,000 pounds per day per roach. Even 50 tons a year is 27 pounds a day.
What do they do with the feces from a billion cockroaches every day? That’s gotta add up pretty quickly.
All have wings; most don’t use them. One got in our house threw the window one evening last summer. They are attracted to the light. I chased that thing all over the bedroom. I must have succeeded in my many attempts to kill it. I never saw it again.
For regular cockroaches, I keep an open bag of diatomaceous earth next to our kitchen waste basket. If a regular one gets in, I figure it would go there. It kills them by dessicating them. About once a year I’ll see one moving slowly across the floor. If it was healthy, it would scurry faster than a speeding bullet. Oklahoma also has those big ones outside. I dust the thresholds with borax to kill them and keep them out.
I’ve known a few journalists in my day - but only one who could do higher math. Thanks for clearing that up.
Can’t we just skip the Cockroaches and feed the restaurant stuff to the chickens directly? Let’s just skip the Cockroaches altogether.
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