In the midst of a massive locust plague in Kenya, a start-up is working with locals to harvest and mill insects into protein-rich animal feed and organic fertilizer for farms. A start-up in Kenya found a different way to turning the terrible locust plague in the country to an advantage. The Bug Picture hopes to transform the pests into profits and bring “hope to the hopeless” whose crops and livelihoods are being destroyed by the insects. The insects are crushed and dried, then milled and processed into powder, which is used in animal feed or an organic fertilizer. The company is working with communities in central Kenya to harvest and mill insects to produce animal feed and organic fertilizer. “We are trying to create hope in a hopeless situation, and help these communities alter their perspective to see these insects as a seasonal crop that can be harvested and sold for money,” said Laura Stanford, founder of The Bug Picture to Reuters. Stanford said she was inspired by a project in Pakistan, overseen by the state-run Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. “They destroy all the crops when they get into the farms. Sometimes they are so many, you cannot tell them apart, which are crops and which are locusts,” said farmer Joseph Mejia. The Bug Picture pays Mejia and his neighbors 50 Kenyan shillings ($0.4566) per kilogram of the insects. On February 1-18, the project secured the harvest of 1.3 tons of locusts, according to the founder of the company.