Thank you to the chair and thank you to the committee for this opportunity to address you today.
I am part of what's a relatively new agriculture industry here in Canada, and that's the insect farming industry. Oberland Agriscience was incorporated in 2017, and we're just breaking ground on our first large-scale facility here in Halifax. Across Canada there are about 25 insect farms of varying scales.
As to what we do, most of us take in organic waste and organic residues. We use that to make feed for our insects, which then go to help the food system in three main ways to boost its resiliency. One, we help in the reduction of food waste by the upcycling of that food waste into nutritious feed for our insects. We also produce a high-quality protein product, which then goes into agriculture, aquaculture and the pet food industry. Finally, we produce a product that usually comes out the back end of the insect. That is a very good fertilizer, or very good soil amendment. The talk this morning has been about soil health, and that is an area where the insect industry can really help.
I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a recovering academic, as I like to say. I have a Ph.D. in microbiology, and now I've transitioned into the entrepreneur space. It's been really interesting to bring the research background that I have into this field right now.
At Oberland Agriscience we're striving to be a zero-waste facility. Everything that comes into our facility has a saleable home. Our new facility will be powered by 100% renewable energy, which actually allows us to produce protein at among the lowest CO2 equivalence per kilogram of protein at production.
This is an exciting and interesting industry across the world, but really so in Canada. Canada has some of the largest insect farms in the world right now, particularly out on the west coast. One farm in Calgary, Enterra, is one of the largest in the world. There are several others—Quebec in particular has several large ones—that we are all pushing to scale. We are trying to meet the rising demand for protein and these agricultural products.
I look forward to all the questions that may be posed to me. Thank you again for this opportunity.