Earth Day 2025

Earth day is a global event which aims to highlight the importance of protecting the environment, first set up in 1970. This year’s theme is our power, our planet. Focus on the power of clean energy.  

Hear from our members Fairman Knight & Sons a family owned, sustainable farming business in Lincolnshire and their use of bioconversion to power their business.  

Can you tell us a bit about Fairman Knight and Sons?  

Fairman Knight is a Sustainable Lincolnshire based family business. We operate a circular economy business model. We were set up to deal with 2 major issues: Food Waste and Feed Security. We upcycle permitted food waste from Lincolnshire by bio converting it using Black Soldier Fly Larve, creating low emissions useable co-products such as Insect protein for sustainable pet feed and aquaculture and soon, non-ruminant animal feed.  

Also, we produce a peat equivalent frass fertiliser, abundant with chitins that rehabilitates soil in horticulture and on farmland. We also produce lipid rich Bio Oils to be used in Animal Feed with antimicrobial peptides that act to support gut microbiome health. Our process works harmoniously with existing farming practices and supports them as they work towards net zero target for agriculture. 

How does Fairman knight and Sons promote clean energy within the business 

We see clean energy as being an important part of our business model. We co-locate to Anaerobic digestion for power and heat generation. We also make use of solar where possible and we look forward to working with even more innovative energy generation systems such as rood mounted wind turbines and hydrogen cells – by making use of any Ammonia we produce – removing Hydrogen molecules and making them a source of energy for the onsite cells. Without clean energy we would not be able to become part energy independent. 

What products do Fairman knight and sons make and what are their uses?  

Ok – so our main product is high quality insect protein, with a very high crude protein content as well as a plethora of amino acids and good fatty acids and lipids. This is not just a soya substitute but also a new multi-faceted protein source.  

Currently our protein goes to sustainable pet food producers, and we try and supply as many as possible in our own Lincolnshire market. We also hope that UK Government continues to commit to allowing this protein source as a part inclusion in non-ruminant animal feeds such as Pig and Poultry – where Lincolnshire would have significant demand. The protein exists in various forms such as frozen or as a dried meal or a paste. We can remove the fat from or leave it as a naturally occurring component. When we produce the dried meal, we also produce Bio Oil. This has a naturally high content of antimicrobial peptides and lipids. In Animal feed – this helps sustain good gut health and could be seen as an alternative to antibiotics. Since Black Soldier Fly is one of only 4 novel insect foods allowed into the human food chain in the UK we are also looking to supply to Oil as a health product, given how much goodness it contains. 

 The waste from our farming process is composted and sanitized and sold bagged ready for retail as a high chitin content fertiliser. We see this as a 90% less emissions version of peat.  

Our brand is called Mouche Bouche ! 

 As time goes on, we will look at commercial scale production of chitins – a natural polysaccharide that can be used in waste water treatment and medical bandaging.

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