Viraj Sikand
Viraj
Sikand

Concentration 

Environmental Studies

Award Year 

2017
Kulisha
Austin, TX

Kulisha works with food and beverage companies to convert their organic waste into a sustainable, insect-based protein for animal feeds. We will first partner with breweries, implementing retrofitted shipping containers on their premises where they can pump in their organic waste to feed our insects. The insects are then harvested and sold as a high- protein input for animal feeds.

This solution addresses two key problems. First, it reduces the amount of organic waste going to landfill. Second, it provides a sustainable alternative to fishmeal for use in animal feeds. With over 90% of our ocean ecosystems overfished, there is an urgent need to find an alternative to fishmeal.

Near where I grew up in Kenya is a small coastal village called Msambweni. It is a beautiful place. Recently, however, large scale commercial fishing vessels have been frequenting the area, dragging their weighted nets along the reef causing immense environmental and social damage. These vessels are looking for tiny fish like anchovies, which can then be ground up into a fishmeal to be fed to farmed chickens and fish. I have personally seen first hand the damage done by the demand for fishmeal for animal feeds, and that is why I co-founded Kulisha. I want to provide a sustainable alternative to fishmeal and reduce pressure of our ocean ecosystems.

Teammate: Maya Faulstich-Hon