When Lori Moshman wants to quickly describe what they’ve been doing at the Chonex facility in rural Baldwin County, she calls it running a fly farm. If you find yourself swatting them away from time to time, you may wonder why in the world anyone would want to breed more flies, but theirs are performing a very valuable service. It might sound like a long shot, but she and her co-workers believe these small, shiny insects can play a significant role in helping to feed the world.
In the Elsanore community east of Robertsdale, the 34-year-old Moshman is an entomologist who has devoted many hours working with the black soldier fly and chicken manure. The objective is producing effective fertilizer products that can enhance and improve agricultural production in ways that are more natural and healthier for crops and soil. She’s in charge of the breeding program for fly larvae, which happen to have a voracious appetite for the tons of chicken droppings that Chonex conveniently obtains from the Cal-Maine Foods egg production facility that lies just to the east over the rolling pastureland.
The object of so much attention is longer, darker and more slender than an ordinary housefly, and not as familiar…