Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Chinese farmer unleashes 300 million hungry cockroaches to eat food waste

Source Website: http://www.asiaone.com/china/chinese-farmer-unleashes-300-million-hungry-cockroaches-eat-food-waste
By The Star/Asia News Network, Asiaone, 30 April 2018


China generates at least 60 million tonnes of kitchen waste annually and most of it is processed through fermentation, an expensive, inefficient system that pollutes the environment.
PHOTO: China generates at least 60 million tonnes of kitchen waste annually and most of it is processed through fermentation, an expensive, inefficient system that pollutes the environment. Cockroaches offered an alternative, non-polluting way of disposing of food waste.
PHOTO: AFP
Picture posted by The Star/Asia News Network, Asiaone on 30 April 2018
http://www.thestar.com.my/~/media/online/2018/04/29/11/34/coakroaches.ashx/?w=620&h=413&crop=1&hash=E514B7F13A30019E19145CDBF31F6B0F69704BA5
http://www.asiaone.com/china/chinese-farmer-unleashes-300-million-hungry-cockroaches-eat-food-waste


BEIJING - Mr Li Yanrong's farm in Zhangqiu district in Jinan, in China's Henan province, houses 300 million American cockroaches that together munch through about 15 tonnes of food waste a day, or about a quarter of the district's kitchen scraps.

"These cockroaches are not afraid of anything soft, hard, sour, sweet, bitter, or spicy," Mr Li said.

China generates at least 60 million tonnes of kitchen waste annually and most of it is processed through fermentation, an expensive, inefficient system that pollutes the environment.

Mr Li said cockroaches offered an alternative, non-polluting way of disposing of food waste.

He said he already had about 300 tonnes of cockroaches and planned to expand that total to about 4,000 tonnes to be able to process 200 tonnes of food waste from Zhangqiu and neighbouring cities per day.

The American cockroach is one of the world's bigger varieties, with a body around 4 centimetres long and a life cycle of around 700 days. It is often used as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine to heal wounds and repair tissue.

Cockroach farms have expanded across China in recent years, in large part to cater to medicinal demand.

The world's biggest is in Xichang, southwestern Sichuan province, where six billion adult cockroaches are bred a year for the pharmaceutical industry.

Nearly 28,000 full-sized cockroaches per square foot were produced there annually, the Sichuan government said in a report submitted to Beijing early this year.


There are over 4,000 species of cockroaches in the world.
PHOTO: There are over 4,000 species of cockroaches in the world. Of these, the one that has the greatest potential of becoming persistent and troublesome is the German cockroach, which prefers indoor locations. Oriental and American cockroaches occasionally pose problems in moist, humid areas. Once cockroaches become established they are prolific breeders capable of producing several thousand offspring in a year.
Picture from Cockroach Manual by the Univ. Nebraska.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdzRiPYhrJN_Hr6nzb_h36Z2efCZ9dDPjPa1IcOtGI5MQdV-PKhNPzc0E2K66bBZsoFEr5zkQl7CylJS0BP__BiEGk42FkHCZ721bsb_gtpe8cOB3h7csvtIufraCboj0FPaN1bHGPDkM/s1600/roach.jpg
http://www.uky.edu/Classes/ENT/574/insects/homes/Cockroach/roach.jpg
http://www.uky.edu/Classes/ENT/574/insects/homes/Cockroach/roach.htm

By The Star/Asia News Network, Asiaone, 30 April 2018



Reference
[1] The Star/Asia News Network, Asiaone, Chinese farmer unleashes 300 million hungry cockroaches to eat food waste, posted on 30 April 2018, http://www.asiaone.com/china/chinese-farmer-unleashes-300-million-hungry-cockroaches-eat-food-waste
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