A Duke University fellow, Philip Taylor, is experimenting with the black soldier fly as an alternative to fishmeal or soybeans to provide protein in livestock feed, reports Earth Island Journal, describing Taylor’s efforts to find the ideal artificial light to encourage flies to reproduce. “He focused on animal feed rather than edible insects because Americans’ love affair with meat is too strong (even though our consumption seems to have peaked and eased up), and animal agriculture has a huge impact on the environment,” says the Journal. Flies offer the advantage of needing little space for breeding and they could feed on discarded food. The experiment near Boulder, Colorado, ends with the flies being ground up for chicken feed. One hurdle for adoption of insects as livestock feed is the FDA approval of feed ingredients as safe for use. The Journal is a publication of Earth Island Institute, “a hub for grassroots campaigns” on the environment.