When Good Business is Good for the Environment

Last week we announced the addition of 66 new products to Glowlit Feed, including grains, crude protein, fat, and feed additives. Since then, users have been reaching out to us expressing excitement at the opportunity to conduct a comprehensive analysis of their feed costs. Well, we’re excited too, but not for the reason you might expect. Of those 66 new products, 42 represent the trash to treasure that can help our linear food system move to a more circular one. We’re talking about by-products: animal by-products, plant by-products and food industry waste.



The global population is expected to reach 10 billion people by 2050. That’s almost one-third more people on planet Earth than today. With this population growth come enormous increases in the demand for protein. Currently, a staggering half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, with the vast majority of that agricultural land used for rearing livestock. Together with the environmental consequences of industry - greenhouse gas emissions, issues of water supply - you can begin to understand how we have a major problem on the horizon. Veganism and innovations in alternative proteins have arisen as a response to this global crisis, but we believe that the most impactful solutions lie in transitioning our food system to better utilize its own resources.



The 42 by-products now listed on Glowlit are a step in the right direction. Greater price transparency of these materials is critical in order to transition to a more circular economy, because this transition requires the ability to measure cost versus benefit to industry. Already, in many parts of the world the need to increase feed conversion ratios has driven markets in search of these new protein sources. Elsewhere, we are now seeing public-private partnerships aimed at demonstrating that cost and performance of bio-based products are competitive with those of their fossil-based alternatives.



At Glowlit, we get really excited about imperfect markets lacking in transparency. They represent an opportunity to further our mission and shed a bit of light on the industry. By-products, in particular, are an exciting addition because they sit at the intersection of what is good for business and what is good for the planet. Check out our new list of products in our search tab, and let us know what you think. Want to see something else added to the list? Contact us and let us know.