Juan Carlos Amaya Escamilla
maria elizabeth soberon dominguez
Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla
Crishelen Kurezyn Díaz
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Gricha is an environmentally responsible Mexican company that seeks to take advantage of all the nutritional benefits of grasshoppers, presenting them as visually pleasing foods, such as cookies, and in this way combat two of the great problems that occur in Mexico: obesity and malnutrition. This product can help many people, in addition to contributing to the environment looking for options that do not represent a problem in the future such as cattle. A grasshopper farm represents less water, food, gases and above all, it is not necessary to cut trees.
At present, the grasshopper is well-known as a food in the Central and Southern part of Mexico. The most common way to consume it is as a snack; the insect is lightly toasted and only lemon and chili are added to eat it. It can also be found in bread and cookies.
Alba Rodríguez, Gricha's Chief Executive Officer, considers that the innovation of her business lies in promoting a healthy diet that includes grasshoppers as a fundamental part of the balance. “My idea is to generate new products with grasshoppers and other nutritional ingrediants. My goal is to make healthier foods with a very transparent brand” comments Ms. Rodriguez.
As if that were not enough, she seeks to "create products such as potatoes and chocolate powder based on grasshopper flour".
Ms. Rodriguez’s dream is to reach the goal of a green world in which people's nutrition is fully balanced. She seeks to contribute to this dream by "making snacks and desserts and full meals that in addition to being healthy, are friendly to the environment".
Alba Rodriguez is a 25-year-old woman born in Guadalajara; she studied nutrition at the Tecnológico de Monterrey University. In numerous interviews, she has mentioned that her biggest inspiration is her father. Alba says that "she has always felt motivated to contribute to society through sustainable projects, especially in social, health and environmental issues" . For this reason, her battle against inequality of social classes and poverty has given rise to this project.
Mexico has two major health problems directly related to poverty - obesity and malnutrition. The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) estimates that by 2050 we would have to increase production to feed 9 million people. What will happen to us and the following generations? "There is no more space to increase production" adds Alba. Nowadays, there is no clear answer of what we will do when we are too many people and there is not enough food to go around.
In college, Alba Rodriguez became interested in entomophaga, an insect-based diet that for many cultures form part of their daily diet. The entomophaga is little known even in great part of the world where it is considered a taboo, but it has been shown to help combat world problems such as hunger and care of the environment. Thanks to a class she took, Alba started to investigate the cultivation of worms and their benefits, which led her to wonder why the rest of the world eat doesn't eat insects even though there are so many benefits?
From that moment on, Alba's purpose has been "to obtain all the benefits of insects in a food product pleasing to the eye and to combine it with something that can be eaten daily and with which people are familiar". People often do not make decisions about what foods to consume guided by reason but rather by how the food looks.
In her own words, "eating insects is an option that contributes to all, on one hand, it democratizes the access of proteins to all socioeconomic status and on the other hand, it empowers small communities to produce their own food and improve their economy.”
In November 2015, she participated in an entrepreneur’s contest where she presented the idea of producing foods made from grasshoppers. The team where the young woman from Jalisco participated won the challenge and from that moment on Alba continued with the Gricha project. She said "it was an amazing and inspiring experience".
Today Mexico has a very high rate of malnutrition. In the case of children between the ages of five and fourteen, chronic malnutrition reaches 7.25% in urban populations and doubles in rural areas (data taken from the UNICEF website)
Data shown by ENSANUT (Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion) Indicates that one out every three adolescents between 12 and 19 years old is overweight or obese, which represent more than 4.1 million school kids who are living with this problem.
Alba comments that "eating insects has several health benefits". While animal meat can contain bacteria, parasites, hormones and medicines that enter directly into our system once they are consumed, insects contain between 60% and 70% protein, and in the case of grasshoppers, about 100 grams contains as much as 72% protein; its fats are compatible with the body which makes them easy to digest, and they also contain potassium and vitamin B.
There are about 13,000 species of grasshoppers worldwide. The majority of them tropical, but distributed throughout the whole planet. In Mexico, there are approximately 920 species of grasshoppers that have been part of the diet since pre-Hispanic times.
Today, the cookies of Gricha reach points of sale in Monterrey, Cancun and Mexico City but due to the increase in demand there are opportunities for taking the product overseas to countries which have shown interest such as Argentina, Peru, United States, Canada and Germany.
Alba's Company is in a favourable economic situation, growing and their products are selling at accessible prices for medium and upper class. Currently, "the company is looking to increase the volume of sales in order to become a scale model" comments Alba.
The businesswoman of Guadalajara had the opportunity a couple of months ago to participate in the program, Shark Tank Mexico, where she got three big financial partners and a contribution of $800,000 pesos ($40,000 USD) so her business could keep growing.
Alba affirms that "the consumption of insects helps to obtain other sources of protein rather than the traditional likes of pork, fish and chicken". This implies reducing the consumption of water and forest resources as well as greater access for people to a good diet without the need to pay high production costs.
Eating alternative sources of protein will help biodiversity, "if you take 1KG of meat as an example: it used 15 litres of water, 30 grams of CO2 emissions, 5 square meters of space are required". If that is multiplied by all the kilograms of meat that are consumed daily worldwide by families it is going to reach shocking figures. Alba thinks that "it is time to start to consuming other alternatives that are nutritional and help mother earth". For one pound of crickets the consumption of water is one gallon, which means having a farm of grasshoppers compared to other foods rich in protein requires very little resources.
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Alba Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer
