[colbyh]

This sounds like pure marketing to me. Statements like "Cockroaches are also a raw material in traditional Chinese medicine, known to be able to promote detoxification" and "found that chickens fed with the powder were not only healthier but also grew stronger and faster than normal chickens" without citations sets off all sorts of alarm bells.

And I don't know a ton about this area in general but it seems like if you are separating the organic compounds from trash then compost centers would be the real alternative (rather than landfills)?

[jazzyjackson]

Don't know about the chinese medicine, but insects chewing organic matter can be better than compost if you don't have a lot of dry carbon (paper, twigs, leaves whathaveyou). If you just let lots of fruit rot, you get anaerobic decomposition, which is slow and releases lots of methane (greenhouse gas) not to mention smells like rotting fruit. Can't compost meat without some real disease issues either.

I've got a friend with Black Soldier Fly larvae eating his leftovers of all kinds. Raw meat, pineapple, it all gets turned to dirt. Insects are magic.

[viggity]

I would love it if newspapers/media outlets had to attach a bibliography or some form of citation. Unfortunately not only is it not common practice, I'm not sure that I've ever seen one. I only see citations in scientific papers.