INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pretty standard, really, in Central, Hong Kong, where space is at a perpetual premium
The small tray sits in the middle of the room
Its top is open, the brightly colored bits of plastic drawing the eye from the moment you step through the door
Its contents pulsate with strange, random rhythms
Upon closer inspection, the browns are whites and blacks are alive, a small bed of mealworms wriggle atop one other, chowing down of the
remnants of oats left behind by the team.Above them, a neon yellow tray houses a trio of fully grown beetles and a couple dozen pupae
The former are constant on the move, butting up against one another and sometimes doing more with aims of continuing the life cycle
The Explorer finds Livin Farms broadening its horizons into the world of STEM education
Where past products were focused on scalable sustainability, the new Kickstarter project is firmly targeted at youngsters
She pulls one out and pops it in her mouth, handing it to me, hopefully
Not flavorless, exactly, but not particularly distinct
Mostly it just feels overwhelmingly morbid, showing down on on a little larva as its brothers continue to feast a few inches away
Protein source of the future, now, to quote The Mountain Goats
Livin Farms also produces a unflavored larva-based powder and a surprising tasty granola as a kind of proof concept for its sustainable
through the stigma of eating insects
Kids are encourage to harvest the larva to avoid overpopulation with a bit of dry roasting
The box serves as a relatively odor-free form of composting
Feeding the bugs simply entails tossing excess foodstuffs into the bin
The little buggers will tear through it, leaving a thin powder of waste in a tray below
The setup also features a heat plate to keep the worms warm and a fan to regulate humidity, assuring that settings are ideal for the beetles
Livin Farms is also opening up the controls to the system via Swift, in an attempt to bring a coding component to the system.The Explorer
went live on Kickstarter this week
Early bird pledges can pick up a the box of worms for ~$113.
