Introduction: Calling all the Crazy Ones

Hi, I'm Jakub Dzamba. Everyone calls me Kubo. I teach architecture at Humber Polytechnic, and I run an urban cricket farm.

The mission of my farm is to explore insect agriculture. The idea isn't just about farming insects. It's also about exploring other often unnoticed lifeforms in service of creating a closed loop system. Think about it, tiny aquatic lifeforms, terrestiral lifeforms and insects terraformed the world four billion years ago into a habitable planet. They've also brought our planet back after every major extinction event. These tiny organisms have co-existed, and evolved, together that entire time. Therefor, it would make sense that there are profound and powerful symbiotic activities hidden in there. My hypothesis is that insect agriculture can reduce our foodprint to less than one thousandth of it's current size. That will massively improve food security, reduce our exposure to climate change and create a more sustainable form of agriculture that can support a lot more people! I realize that's a big claim, so I'll sustantiat it a little further in the next few posts.

One example of the sysbiosis I mentioned above may be most easily detected when applying crickets frass (cricket poop and shells) to grass. In our early trials the results were so clear that it looked like the grass that received frass was spray painted green. It grew faster, thicker, and had improved resistance to drought, insects and frost. It also broke the lawnmower used to mow it. Can you guess which square of grass received frass?

Current acadmic publishings on this subject don't really explain the observations we made. Therefor, we think we're onto something undiscovered. My theory is that the cricket shells (called chitin) break down in the soil and promote the growth of healthy microbiome that consists of helpful bacteria and fungi. This microbiome almost serves like an extension of the plant's roots. Serving as kind of a cloud (in the soil) of helpful organisms uptaking and processing nutrients far beyond the reach of the plant's roots before passing the outputs of their processes onto the plant.

This project will carry out applying frass ccross at least seven locations: two at Humber Polytechnic, one at the Humber Aroboretum and four at the University of Guelph Turfgrass Institute. First, I'll apply two test patches myself in order to verify that my methods work. Then I'll work to connect with Humber students to assist in applying frass to the other locations, as well as to explore multidisciplinary opportunities. For example, because frass is fully organic, perhaps it could qualify for carbon credits, or perhaps there are unique business opportunities here, or perhaps frass could serve to boost the feasibility of campus gardens and productive landscapes.

This project is for all students. It doesn't matter what you are studying. The subject is highly interdisciplinary and it's very new. That means there really are no experts yet. If you're interested join us. Crazy ideas are welcome. We are calling all the crazy ones!