Entomo-Agriculture · Veracruz High Mountains
Soil-building insects
Regenerative agriculture doesn’t start with the plant; it starts with the soil. And at Micratena, that soil is built by an insect.
Conventional agriculture feeds the plant with synthetic chemicals while leaving the soil increasingly depleted—and, in the process, harms the insects that keep it alive. We are turning that around: we use an insect to regenerate the soil instead of chemicals that exhaust it.
The starting point
Depleted soil, wasted residue
In this region, much of the agriculture relies on synthetic fertilizers that nourish the plant but not the soil. Over the years, the land loses its organic matter and life. At the same time, mountains of organic residue—crop remnants and waste—end up dumped or burned. These two problems, when viewed together, are actually a single solution waiting to happen.
Our tool
The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)
Black soldier fly larvae are one of nature’s most efficient recycling machines: they devour organic residue and transform it in a matter of days. At Micratena, we breed them on a domestic scale as a pilot phase, feeding them with kitchen waste—vegetable scraps, spoiled food, and even used coffee grounds. Two products come out of this process:
The larvae
Protein for farm animals: chickens, tilapia, and backyard livestock. They convert organic waste into feed.
The frass
The remaining solid manure. We are still refining it—right now it comes out more like a paste than a fine powder—so we haven’t applied it to the soil just yet.
Our first insights
What the leachate taught us
In the beginning, we didn’t grind the organic matter; we threw it whole into a plastic bin, which caused a lot of leachate—the liquid released by organic waste as it decomposes—to drain out. Far from throwing it away, we tested it. An agronomist measured it with a Hanna potentiometer and recorded an electrical conductivity of 22 mS/cm: a sign that the liquid is highly loaded with nutrients. Its pH was at 7, so he adjusted it to around 6—slightly acidic—using mountain microbes to make those nutrients available to the plants.
Field Observation · Domestic Pilot
I applied that leachate to two avocado trees and a fig tree, and they responded by putting out new leaves. It is all on a domestic scale, at home—we haven’t moved past the pilot phase yet, but every test teaches us something: even what seemed like a byproduct turned out to be useful.
The full circle
Healthy soil, more insects
An insect converts kitchen waste into food and soil, and healthy soil sustains more life—including more insects. The cycle closes in on itself.
This is where regenerative agriculture meets our conservation mission. A living soil, free of broad-spectrum chemicals, provides a habitat for subsoil fauna and serves as the foundation for the entire chain that sustains pollinators and natural pest enemies. Regenerating the soil is not just about producing better; it’s about giving back space to the insects we’ve lost.
In our territory
Who it's for, and what's next
For now, this project exists on a domestic scale, but the destination is clear. The first to benefit are local livestock producers: poultry farmers, tilapia farmers—which we also have in Chocamán—and anyone with backyard animals who can replace part of their commercial feed with protein made from local waste. And as we refine the frass, the same process will bring life back to the soil of our crops.
The next step to move beyond the pilot phase is successfully hatching larvae from the eggs we collect from our wild fly cage. Securing that missing link will allow us to produce frass consistently and grow from a domestic scale to a small-scale operation.
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