Innovation

We had the opportunity to talk to Alejandro de la Brena, Co-Founder and CEO of Griyum. Armed with knowledge in bio-tech, two Co-Founders and an insurmountable amount of perseverance, Alex is helping shape the future of food.

Griyum is a Mexican food start-up that aims to the end nutritional poverty around the world. The way they do it is by developing cricket-farming technology to then produce sustainable protein that can be easily introduced in massive consumption channels. This is a key component where processed foods are falling short time after time.

Inspiration

Let's face the facts, resources in this planet are not getting more abundant nor richer, it's quite the contrary. In today's world, it is not enough for people attain access to food. They need to have access to nutrient-dense food, and Griyum believes that cricket is a solution for this problem.

"In Griyum... we jump everyday to end nutritional poverty."

Overall impact

Crickets will re-shape the cost and reach of nutrition. In addition to harnessing a greater protein component per serving, they also offer less fat than other protein sources. Moreover, crickets contain dietetic fiber, this characteristic is completely absent in traditional protein sources like beef, poultry or pork.

The resources needed for cricket farming are proportionally insignificant compared to our traditional practices. Producing a unit of cricket protein requires 4% of the land and .05% of the water required to produce the same unit of beef protein. That's 2000 times less water than beef needs! In addition to saving land and water, crickets leave behind 1/100th of the carbon footprint that beef does. This means that eating cricket could become a powerful contributor to climate change.

Business benefit

Griyum currently sells cricket powder which can be used in several recipes. The company is continues to look for channels for massive consumption, particularly around the sector of processed foods. Griyum only has a handful of direct employees, but they have trained and built a supplier grid from vulnerable communities who are in need of a local economical engine. Their technology is easy to use for people of all ages and socio-economic level.

"...our suppliers are people who [can't perform strenuous physical activity] like elder women, that have [spare] time now to do something productive, they find a new meaning..."

Social and environmental benefit

Directly, Griyum tackles the problems of hunger and climate change. The nutritional benefits of consuming cricket powder are evident. A serving of cricket provides more protein and less fat than beef. On top of that, crickets provide dietetic fiber, which is absent in beef.

Griyum provides economical opportunities for vulnerable communities. Through training and financial guidance, the company enables communities to become part of the Griyum supplier grid. This is scalable because farming crickets is relatively cheap, simple and requires less resources than other protein source farming. Lastly, Griyum ends up buying the product at a fair price as part of their socially responsable practices.

Interview

Alejandro de la Brena, CEO & Co-Founder

Watch video on YouTube