The Biopod

Hello, my name is Casey Whitford. My family has always strived to live a back to the land type sustainable lifestyle, as we maintain and specialize in small gardening operations, aquaponics systems, livestock/poultry and composting as our chosen way of life. 

 We are located in North Florida on a small 5 acre mini farm we nicknamed 'The Ranch'.  Here at The Ranch we have a vineyard,(muscadine grapes) a blueberry patch, an organic garden, a fruit tree orchard, chickens and peafowl, an aquaponics system full of healthy fish and vegetables, as well as a pond with sun bass (hybrid stripers), catfish and bluegill . 

Between the poultry, the aquaponics system, and the fish pond, we found ourselves spending a lot of money on feed every month; feed made from modified and treated grain at that!  I knew there had to be a better, healthier, more economical way to feed our farm, and achieve an even more sustainable lifestyle, so I began doing some research on biological systems.  What I found was a system which I consider to be not only the ultimate compost system, but also an efficient producer of nutritious, high-quality feed:  a system designed to quickly break down all your household scraps in just days AND produce several valuble biproducts. 

While many compost bins can take 6-12 months to break down their contents, the BioPod can eliminate most of your food scraps in as little as 24-36 hours. Like composting and vermiculture, the BioPod uses beneficial organisms to digest and decompose your kitchen waste, while producing valuable finished products.
The BioPod can easily handle the daily food scraps produced by a large family - 5 to 10 lbs per day. It can even digest pet feces. For every 100 lbs of kitchen scraps you will get 5 lbs of friable compost, a few quarts of nutritious compost tea, and approx. 20 lbs of self-harvesting BioGrubs - which are the ultimate fish, herp, and bird feed.
The specific bioconversion process by which valuable proteins and fats are captured and recycled, rather than degraded, into usable biomass by a beneficial decomposer is referred to as ProtaCulture. The signature species utilized in our systems is the juvenile Black Soldier Fly, Hermetia illucens, which we lovingly call BioGrubs.

Not only do I have a self-renewing source of poultry and fish food, the fastest compost bin ever, and a great reduction in disease-carrying pest flies, I have a new source of extra income should I want to sell these BioGrubs to the local bait and tackle shops, as they are an EXCELLENT FISH BAIT!

That's right, most local bait and tackle shops will buy your BioGrubs, as well as local pet shops that sell Herp (Lizard) feed. The BioGrubs are self-harvesting, so you just collect them and keep them at room temperature for future use.
For Herps: BioGrubs are the only calcium-rich feeder that has naturally balanced calcium and phosphorus and can be safely fed as a staple. Delicious, nutritious, high protein feed!

As an extra bonus, the Black Soldier Flies (BSF) that use the BioPod for their life cycle are quite harmless; they are not pests like the all too common housefly, they do not bite, AND they have been proven to deter these other pesky flies by their pheremones, which are undetectable to all but other flies. I have found it to be a win, Win, WIN situation here at The Ranch!

A few words about
ALTERNATIVE FUELS, BIODIESEL and PROTEIN from BioGrubs:

Manure management continues to be a major concern for livestock producers and others concerned with environmental quality. Poorly handled manure results in odors, pest insects and degraded water quality. Biogas production (methane gas and other gases) is widely viewed as a better manure management practice that can recover considerable value.

However, University of Georgia entomologists have now developed a novel system to digest manure with the non pest, beneficial black soldier fly (BSF) and produce valuable by products. Manure is reduced to a humus like material with a 75-80 percent reduction in problematic nutrients while also producing BioGrubs containing 35 percent oil and 42 percent protein. If the BioGrub oil is processed into biodiesel, the energy in this biodiesel is about 67 percent of the energy that that could have been collected as biogas from the original manure fed to the BioGrubs. In addition to the biodeisel, a significant amount of protein and other valuable products remain after oil extraction. The total value from the soldier fly recovery is considerably more than the biogas value. Manure digestion with BioGrubs practically eliminates environmental problems and produces significant saleable products. The two BioGrub products here are valued at 87 percent more than the biogas from the same manure. Alternative fuel? Biodiesel from BioGrubs? All produced on your own farm? Yes, this is a very real solution, this is the future right now.

These larger bioconversion units were specifically designed to target the most problematic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW): restaurant food scraps. The commercial pods were engineered to nest on standard pallets, simplifying storage and transport. Racking of units will allow for scalable operations on multiple levels, to best utilize floor space. The compact, self-contained design allows for one person cleaning and relocation. Effluent fixtures are accessible from below, and compatible with US plumbing standards for centralized liquid management.
Like their residential counterpart, the ProtaPod efficiently re-captures the valuable lipids and proteins from the waste stream and converts them into useable biomass. The capacity of an active system is measured in waste processed per surface area over a given period of time. With food waste the figure is roughly 15 kg/m2/day (3 lbs/ft2/day). That equates to an impressive 9.5 kg of kitchen scraps per day, in a optimally active, half full commercial system. The bioconversion rate for mixed household food scraps is roughly 20%, with a larval dry matter content of approximately 40-42% protein and 34-35% fat. On a dry matter basis by weight, the bioconversion of food waste into larval biomass is roughly 24%.

We fully support the Company ESR International, and Econservation, who thankfully, with the dedication of a team of biologists, contributing over 8 years of research and development, that was tested on four continents,and is now ready for the farmers, gardeners,and everyone else that wants to help conserve our environment, and help reduce the waste that would otherwise END UP IN OUR LANDFILLS. The patented ProtoCulture systems are now finally available here in the USA.

The ProtoCulture System, replicating the natural habitat of the amazing Black Soldier Fly,(BSF), which is indigenous to all of the Americas, has the special patented 45 degree evacuation ramps, enabling them to self harvest without any human intervention, and with no moving parts or electricity involved, utilizing the natural life cycle of the BSF. Because of the fact that the BSF larvae have the most ROBUST DIGESTIVE SYSTEM of any creature on the planet, we can truly say that "the Biopod is the missing link for a sustainable lifestyle!"

Where do the Soldier Flies come from? Very good question!
The Black Soldier fly is native to all of the Americas, so they are already here, there, and everywhere in nature! The BioPod simply provides the ideal habitat for them to reproduce very rapidly, and provide us with these wonderful biproducts. They are very amazing beneficial insects, and have the potential to serve us in some very important ways. Virtually harmless to pets, humans and wildlife, this native arthropod does not spread disease, cannot bite or sting, and will not annoy you at backyard picnics!

A lot of folks have asked how the Biopod does in cold weather?
In cold weather the BioGrubs go dormant, that is, they will not die, they just slow down, and wait for it to warm back up so they can continue thier cycle.
Some people have experimented with putting the unit in a heated area, such as a greenhouse. Keep in mind, that the BSF mate in flight, so you must have ample room for this to take place.