As global populations rise, so too does demand for high-quality, environmentally friendly protein production.

What is a Protein Crisis?

A rapidly increasing global population (we hit 8 billion people on November 15, 2022) means a growth in middle-class consumers demanding a greater share of fish and livestock products in their diets. This is evident with the dramatic increase in the cost of fishmeal (a staple protein source in aquaculture and other feeds) from $1,000 per tonne in 2006 to over $2,000 per tonne in 2019.

To meet market demands and drivers of this global shortage, sustainable protein sources must be explored. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) claims that the high protein and high crude fat content in certain insects like BSFL provide “high value feedstuff” for both fish and livestock. BSFL meet the nutrition requirements for salmonid and poultry feed, and were approved in early 2017 by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as a 20% ingredient in feed pellets for salmonids and 100% ingredient in poultry feeds in Canada.

The Food Waste Dilemma

Food waste is an issue across the globe, and here in Canada over 50% of our available calories never make it to the consumer's plate. Food grown and produced in Canada but not consumed will end up in landfills, emitting methane, a toxic greenhouse gas.

As it expands, Oberland will divert a substantial portion of the pre-consumer organics waste burden within Atlantic Canada. An authorized waste receiver from Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Oberland has the capacity to divert and process up to 14,000 tonnes per year pre-consumer organics in a regenerative cycle. With additional CFIA approvals, we may be able to access an even greater volume of feed stock from source separated organics (SSOs). Halifax alone produces about 80,000 tonnes of SSOs per year.

Now is the time to act. To make a difference for future generations, human-kind has to come together and make significant changes today.

Oberland was founded on the desire to do better, to contribute towards leading traceable systemic change. Through our commitment to our life cycle analysis (LCA), B-Corp certification, and aligning ourselves with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), Oberland and our staff are committed to defining and setting a new standard in corporate and social leadership.

Life Cycle Analysis

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we work towards at Oberland. Our mission to become a zero-waste protein producer is borne of a desire to close the food loop. We want to make a local impact on the global protein shortage, and to address the food waste challenge in our region.

We have been working with EarthShift Global for over a year now to understand the total environmental footprint of our products. Our LCA empowers us be transparent about the carbon footprint of rearing the black soldier fly, and be transparent about the environmental benefits gained from insect farming.

B-Corp Certification

Certified B Corporations are businesses that balance purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. This is a community of leaders, driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good.

Oberland Agriscience proud to be a B Corp certified company.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Everything we strive for at Oberland is rooted in a responsibility to do better. To be a sustainable, low environmental impact force for change. By clearly aligning ourselves to three of the UN SDGs, Oberland strives for transparency and accountability on our environmental goals and metrics. Oberland is committed to sharing our sustainability metrics publicly, providing an ongoing measure of the environmental impact of feedstocks upcycled by Oberland.

Too much food is being lost or wasted everyday in every country. 13.3% of the world’s food is being lost after harvest and before reaching retail markets. This is a financial loss to food producers, and a loss of perfectly usable nutrition.
By utilising this food “waste” in our process, Oberland upcycles the nutrient value to a usable protein ingredient.
Our ocean, the world’s largest ecosystem, is endangered from overfishing, plastic/marine pollution, ocean warming, acidification, and eutrophication (an increase in underwater plant and algae growth).
Oberland’s regenerative protein production process is one solution to alleviate the heavy over-reliance on fish meal as a protein ingredient. In turn, this leads to a reduction in overfishing, giving stocks a time to replenish and more seafood availability for human diets.
10 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year. Almost 90% of global deforestation is agricultural expansion.
Intensive agriculture practices are depleting soil of its nutrients, making it less arable.
As a civilization we don’t need to clear forestland to gain more arable land. Oberland is committed to empowering regenerative agriculture practices and enabling soil health replenishment.