Can Insects Provide Sustainable Fishfeed? Alessandro Romano, Founder, Ittinsect

Innovative Fish Feeds: Reducing Aquaculture's Environmental Footprint

In this episode of the Happy Planet podcast, I speak to Alessandra Romano, the entrepreneur behind Ittinsect.

Allessandro discusses his novel aquaculture feed supplements derived from insect proteins, which aim to accelerate fish growth with lower environmental impacts. 

The conversation explores the inefficiencies in traditional fish feeds, the environmental benefits of insect-based alternatives, and the economic realities of transitioning to sustainable aquaculture practices. 

Alessandros also shares his personal journey and insights into Italy’s role in aquaculture innovation.

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Series Overview
00:35 Meet Alessandra Romano Alessandros: Innovator in Aquaculture
01:24 The Problem with Traditional Fish Feed
02:11 Innovative Solutions: Insect-Based Fish Feed
06:48 Consumer Perception and Market Testing
10:48 Alessandra's Journey and Passion for the Ocean
17:13 Business Model and Market Expansion
22:22 Challenges and Opportunities in the Aquaculture Industry
30:47 Environmental Impact and Future of Aquaculture
37:53 Closing Remarks and Future Outlook
39:55 Conclusion and Podcast Wrap-Up

Tune in at happyplanetpodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts, including:

Apple: https://lnkd.in/e2Y5xnta
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dnQXTnut

And thank you to our Sponors!

Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Bold Ocean Ventures have partnered to create a mission-driven venture capital fund, supporting the growth of innovative, sustainable ocean-related businesses.

Startup Marin Skincare has rocketed thanks to products made with Maine-lobster-derived glycoprotein that work on eczema and dry skin. Former guest on our show and co-Founder Patrick Breeding is offering listeners a 20% discount on their skincare products. Type HAPPYPLANET into the coupon code field!

Spark No. 9 ensures that companies - and startups - have successful product launches by testing their products online. Remove the guesswork before you launch!

Promotional and program partners include OCEANOVATION Investable Oceans and our good friends at Bright Tide.

Support the Show.

Transcript

Happy Planet - Ittinsect V1 - 15 Aug 2024 - louder

[00:00:00] Abigail: Welcome back to the podcast where we celebrate innovation for a happy planet. I am your host, Abigail Carroll. As I mentioned in the last podcast, in this series of three, we will meet the winning entrepreneurs from Sustainable Ocean Alliance's Ocean Pitch Challenge that takes place in Paris, France every year.

[00:00:23] Abigail: I'm lucky to be on the pre-selection committee for this competition where we whittle down over 200 companies from around the world to 10 finalists from which these three winners are finally picked. Today's guest, Alessandra Romano harkens from Rome, Italy. He won second place in the Ocean Pitch Challenge with a company called it Insect, which is innovating novel aquaculture feed supplements.

[00:00:47] Abigail: Often derived from insect proteins, his product is accelerating fish growth with lower environmental impacts. We will hear how a sailing trip inspired Alessandro to become interested in aquaculture, how Italy is pushing innovation, and how this startup hopes to partner with fish farmers around the world.

[00:01:05] Abigail: Let's hear it from Alessandro.

[00:01:10] Abigail: Welcome to the podcast, Alessandro. Thank you, Abigail. Thank you very much. Well, it's great to have you here. You are innovating in the aquaculture business, but you're not starting a fish farm. Tell me what you're doing. 

[00:01:23] Alessandro Romano: We're not starting a fish farm. We're supporting fish farmers in trying to reduce their environmental footprint and especially reducing their impact on the ocean.

[00:01:34] Alessandro Romano: So Eat Insect was born to reduce human impact on the ocean. We know that aquaculture is Uh, a very clean business. The protein that is produced in aquaculture is the cleanest animal protein out there. They produce the least CO2 emissions out there. It's better than chicken. It's better than pork. But there is a bottleneck there.

[00:01:59] Alessandro Romano: And the bottleneck is in the feeds, because to produce aquaculture feeds, we need to catch a lot of fish from the ocean and grind it and squeeze it and, and make it become fish feeds. So eating insects solves this problem because we have developed a protein that is very similar to the fish protein so that We can use that one instead of, of wild caught fish to make sustainable aquaculture feeds.

[00:02:27] Abigail: Wow. Okay. So let's back up for a moment. Why are we typically making fish feed out of fish? 

[00:02:36] Alessandro Romano: Because we farm carnivore fish. Most of the farm fish, that we like to eat. Take salmon as an example, which is the most eaten fish, let's say, in the developed countries. It's, it's a carnivore fish, it's a predator. So the best feed that we can make for salmon is, is a fish based diet.

[00:02:59] Alessandro Romano: And, yeah, but, but, you know, it's very hard to feed, uh, wild fish to salmon. So we have to catch it and then we turn it into feed. And then it's, it's dry. We can stock it. And then eventually we can give it to the salmon. 

[00:03:13] Abigail: It sounds very inefficient to do that. 

[00:03:16] Alessandro Romano: Well, inefficient, but most importantly, fishing is the only human activity we still do that takes something from the environment without giving anything back.

[00:03:28] Alessandro Romano: We just take fish. On board. We don't give anything back. We farm, we farm our livestock, we farm our fish, we farm our vegetables or plant based proteins, etc. The only thing that we keep taking is fish from the ocean. So it's very important to create an alternative to that. 

[00:03:46] Abigail: Yeah, because basically we're trying, aquaculture is trying to solve the problem of fishing.

[00:03:53] Abigail: But if we have to fish to make the aquaculture, then we're in the wrong loop here. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:03:59] Alessandro Romano: indeed, aquaculture has been doing a very good job of reducing the amount of fish meal that they need to farm one kilo of fish, for example, but it's been very hard or almost impossible to completely replace it without any side effects.

[00:04:16] Abigail: So you mentioned one kilo. And just before we get into exactly what you're doing, there is this metric in fish farming, which is about proteins in fish. to create proteins. And this is kind of how they measure the efficiency of the aquaculture. Is that correct? 

[00:04:36] Alessandro Romano: Efficient to fish out ratio. Yes. And we are close to a one to one ratio, meaning that we need one kilo of fish from the ocean.

[00:04:47] Alessandro Romano: to farm one kilo of salmon, right? So, right. My question is, why don't we eat directly the fish from the ocean? And in fact, salmon is great. We all love salmon. We don't want to give up on salmon. We don't need to give up on salmon. So the only thing we need to do. is to break this chain between fishing and the salmon industry, fish farming industry in general.

[00:05:14] Alessandro Romano: And we can do it by using novel proteins that can replace fully the need of fish meal obtained from wild fish. 

[00:05:23] Abigail: And this is where you step in. 

[00:05:25] Alessandro Romano: I have exciting news, because three days ago we were granted our first patent. We were patent pending for a couple of years, so it's the first time that I publicly say it.

[00:05:38] Alessandro Romano: We finally got granted our patent which describes the feeds that are made using our ingredient and a part of the process of how we obtain our ingredient. So we start from very simple matrices, from very simple components. So we take byproducts from agriculture, those that have little value and little nutritional efficiency.

[00:06:02] Alessandro Romano: We also take insect meal. It all started from buying insect meal and now we are evolving into using multiple raw materials. And we put everything through a biotech process, which is part enzymatic, part microbiologic. And what comes out of this process is what we call a beyond fish meal. So it's a fish meal alternative that looks very similar in terms of micronutrients as the, the, the original fish meal would look like.

[00:06:39] Alessandro Romano: So we then use this ingredient to make complete aquaculture feeds and fish farmers are happy, very happy. 

[00:06:47] Abigail: That's super exciting. So tell me this, you know, when the average salmon consumer hears that their salmon has been fed on, on insects, you have a, you have a pretty good response to that. 

[00:06:59] Alessandro Romano: Insects, insects are a good source of protein.

[00:07:02] Alessandro Romano: Insects have a few. technical limitations that they're working to solve. But in the meantime, our processes that are applied to insects. So obviously we are not insect farmers. We only do the processing of the insects as, as one of, as one of the raw materials that we use. So we, we really support evolution of insect meal into a very, very high protein meal.

[00:07:30] Alessandro Romano: Something like people that go to the gym would take. It's the equivalent to that, but for the fish, so very efficient protein, very easy to absorb, very digestible, makes the fish grow healthy, reduces mortality, reduces gut inflammation. It's got a lot of very, uh, positive effects. And this happens thanks to the processes that we apply to, to the, to the raw materials like insects and agricultural byproducts.

[00:08:01] Abigail: But in nature. Fish eat insects, right? 

[00:08:05] Alessandro Romano: Some fish do. The fish that the fish that are born in freshwater eat insects, for example, trout and salmon, uh, insects are a considerable part of their diet when they are, when the fish are, are in juvenile stage, then they go, and for example, salmon goes off to the ocean.

[00:08:22] Alessandro Romano: So they will have much to do with, with, with insects anymore, but it keep eating crustaceans, for example, which are, which are, which are We, we, which are cousins to insects, right? So there is a very close link, especially when, when the fish is young between fish and insect. And I give you a, I give you a very easy example.

[00:08:44] Alessandro Romano: When we go fishing for salmon or for trout, we go fly fishing, right? Because salmon loves to eat blood, right? So, so, so we, so we know that if a salmon has eaten a fly, it's a happy salmon and it's a salmon that has. been eating a healthy diet, much like when you buy a steak and you know that steak comes from cattle that is grass fed, which is their natural diet.

[00:09:12] Alessandro Romano: When a salmon eats a fly throughout its life cycle, it means that it's been fed things that a salmon would eat in nature. 

[00:09:21] Abigail: So we are what we eat. Right? So what they're eating has an impact on the flavor. How do you take that into account when you are creating this fish meal? 

[00:09:34] Alessandro Romano: We just listen to our, to our customers, to the, to the end consumers, right?

[00:09:38] Alessandro Romano: So we create an ingredient. We know that when you, when you feed, when you feed something to a fish, the fish will start tasting like the lipid. So like the fat part of what you would feed the fish. So we're really focused on the protein part and the protein doesn't really affect the flavor of the fish.

[00:10:02] Alessandro Romano: Once it gets to our plate, we, we did some, some testing. We tested with. with the largest Italian supermarket chain. And what came out of it is that because our feet are extremely well balanced, the fish has a really good texture in its fillet. It tastes very good. It's, it's very nice to eat and consumers love it and they don't need to taste the difference, but if they had to taste the difference, they would find an improvement in the In the flavor of all the fish.

[00:10:38] Abigail: Well, that's that's that's an amazing accomplishment. So how did how did you get involved in this fishmeal challenge? 

[00:10:48] Alessandro Romano: It all came from my passion for the ocean that I developed very young, thanks to my family, family, mainly. And my whole career was really, was really, was really characterized by by choices that brought me closer and closer to the ocean.

[00:11:07] Alessandro Romano: So I was, I was sailing almost professionally since I was, since I was very young. Uh, I then, when I, when I had to go to uni, I chose maritime engineering. So I was basically designing ships throughout my university studies. And then I went into the finance part of shipping. So I was, uh, I was working in, in the trading, in the, in the trading side of shipping.

[00:11:33] Alessandro Romano: It was very, very interesting, but that got me, and that's the first time actually that I heard the word fishmeal and I started getting curious, what is fishmeal? And I didn't find out until at least three years after, because when I, when I decided to drop my job, because shipping was having a big impact on the environment because of pollution, because of, uh, because of underwater noise and a lot of different factors.

[00:12:03] Alessandro Romano: I, uh, I, I wanted, so from, from having a normal life in an office, I was working in Switzerland at the time, so I was, I was absolutely having a, a, a comfortable life away from the ocean, but working, let's say in contact with the ocean Yeah. For the, of the business. So I decided to drop everything because I wanted to reconnect physically to the ocean and, and see.

[00:12:32] Alessandro Romano: and see what, what the ocean really was about if I lived in close contact with it. So with a friend of mine, we bought a very small, very small catamaran, but without a cabin, without an engine, only a small thing that you can push on the beach and that you can, that he has, has three sails. And then, and then off we went and we did a 1000 mile journey, which lasted 40 days.

[00:12:58] Alessandro Romano: And throughout, throughout this 40 days, we could only sleep on the beach and eat the fish that we could catch without a spare gun. And it was, first of all, it was the best holiday of my life, but what really, but, but, but what really got me, uh, shocked was how little fish is left in the ocean. And we were, We were seeing, we, we, we saw 1, 000 miles of coastline and we saw how, how, how much, how much the ocean was suffering, especially in the coastal areas.

[00:13:37] Alessandro Romano: And then at the same time, we were seeing very, very heavy, uh, high seas fishing. We, we saw large, uh. trawlers, they were catching tons and tons of sardines, et cetera. So I started, I started studying the, the effect of fishing and I started studying where the fish that is caught from the ocean goes. And that's where I found out that a quarter of global fishing goes into animal feeds.

[00:14:08] Alessandro Romano: So that's, yeah, that's, that's 20 million tons of fish. 

[00:14:14] Abigail: Some of that is bycatch, right? 

[00:14:18] Alessandro Romano: Part of it is bycatch. That's, that's a whole different story. Uh, 

[00:14:22] Abigail: yeah, 

[00:14:22] Alessandro Romano: I know. It's really hard to understand what is bycatch, what is declare, what is unreported, what is the right size. This, but this is, I'm not an expert in that.

[00:14:34] Alessandro Romano: I decided to go mostly into, into targeted species. So the low trophic species, you know, sardines and mackerel and, um, and anchovies and herrings, all those fish that are, that are caught only for the purpose of becoming a fish meal. And yeah. And instead of becoming an activist and trying to spare heads and the trawlers with a, with a, with a, with a, with another ship, I, I just, I decided that I would, I would do this through to, through, through sustainable alternatives, through offering to the market.

[00:15:16] Alessandro Romano: Something that made more economic sense and more environmental sense to use instead of the fish meal. 

[00:15:24] Abigail: So what is the, what are the economics of buying it's insects fish meal versus a classic, you know, fish meal? 

[00:15:33] Alessandro Romano: Yes. So, So, so what we saw in, in, in 2023, uh, 2023 was our first year in market and we did, we distributed complete feeds in Italy and Southern Europe, which include our ingredient.

[00:15:47] Alessandro Romano: And we, we were to, to see that despite for us producing what we produce is a bit more expensive. So our feed ends up being a little bit more expensive, but we had. extremely good, solid data on, on the improvement of the ratio between, between how much it costs. So rather than the ratio, we had, we had a great and solid improvement.

[00:16:19] Alessandro Romano: on the price that a fish farmer has to pay overall to grow one kilo of fish. So they, they pay a little bit more for their feed, but they have less mortality. They have better fish growth. They have less disease. They have a higher product value at the end. Of the, of the, of the cycle, because they will sell their fillet for more expensive because it's sustainable because, uh, because it's, it's been, uh, because it's a niche product and, and because, uh, and because people are asking for it.

[00:17:04] Abigail: That's good. That's great. That's great. So, um, so, okay. So you just started selling this last year. And, and have you had to raise money? How, what's your business model? 

[00:17:18] Alessandro Romano: Yes. Our business model is, is obviously to, to, to make money out of selling feeds in Southern Europe at the moment and feed ingredients in Northern Europe.

[00:17:30] Alessandro Romano: Obviously as a startup, we need to boost our growth. through, through, through financing that is not only coming out of our revenue. So we, we're, we are, we're very proud to have top of the class blue economy investors like Catapult Ocean and Unico Capital. We have, we have big, we have a big Italian investor, which is a CDP Venture Capital, as well as the Zest Group, which have been supporting us since very early.

[00:18:04] Alessandro Romano: And we not only got. equity investments, but we also raised grants. We, we had, we had really good support from the Italian government with a big grant and from the, in the Rome region, we're based in Rome. So the Rome region supported us. And also because our product is now growing, we can afford to take some bank loans.

[00:18:25] Alessandro Romano: And, and that is, That is helping us, that is helping us produce more and sell more and grow faster. 

[00:18:33] Abigail: That's amazing. So you, you mentioned that you've got, you know, 2023, you started who, what types of farms are buying your product now? Are these more sort of small niche farms? Are you getting into some of the bigger farms?

[00:18:45] Abigail: And is there a lot of farming in, in Italy? Is this a, is this a big segment? I don't think of it as a segment in Italy. 

[00:18:53] Alessandro Romano: We started in Italy, not only because we're based in Italy, but also because Italy is a strategic market for aquaculture. Italy is the largest producer of trout in the EU. It's the largest exporter of caviar in the world.

[00:19:09] Alessandro Romano: And it's also one of the top five producers of sea bream and sea bass in the EU. So it's, it's a really, it's a really good market to be in. Obviously. Now I said this very, this very big vanity metrics, but as a whole is not a very huge market in any countries apart from, apart from Norway. In Europe, so obviously we are moving naturally towards Norway to, to, to give our support somehow we like to, we like to feel like we are supporting the growth of the salmon industry in Norway by giving the opportunity to use an ingredient that can replace fish meal.

[00:19:57] Abigail: So that's really interesting that you are selling a full product in the southern aquaculture market, but you're selling this very specific input in the, in the, in the Scandinavian market. Why, why is that, if I can ask? 

[00:20:14] Alessandro Romano: It's a matter of scale. We have the ability of making complete feeds in Southern Europe.

[00:20:19] Alessandro Romano: There is, the market is more fragmented. We also like to speak directly to fish farmers here. We like to, because it's our early market. It's so we, we like to get direct feedback from them. We like to grow together with them. Whilst, whilst in Norway, the market is a lot more consolidated. Volumes are very, very high.

[00:20:38] Alessandro Romano: They are very, are very big. A salmon farm alone can make. as much fish as basically all the trout farmers in Italy put together. Right. So the scale is very different and we are trying to, we're trying to give our contribution, but it's very hard for us in the short term or even the medium term to take a considerable slice of the feed industry in Norway.

[00:21:08] Alessandro Romano: And we, we, we, we don't want to, we really want to focus On our ingredient, on where we are strong, where we have the IP, where our biotech processes are, that's on the ingredient. Feed is only made to serve directly the fish farmers, but it's not our core. We'll 

[00:21:27] Abigail: be right back after a word from our sponsors.

[00:21:30] Abigail: I'd like to thank Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Bold Ocean Ventures for their support of Happy Planet podcast. G. M. R. I. and Bold Ocean Ventures have partnered to create a mission driven venture capital fund supporting the growth of innovative, sustainable, ocean related businesses. Listeners may remember Patrick Breeding, who was on our show last year to talk about Marin Skin Care and its key role.

[00:21:53] Abigail: Clinically proven formula that uses glycoproteins for main lobsters to treat eczema and dry damaged skin. This company has since become wildly successful with this lobster lotion and Patrick is inviting listeners to a 20 percent discount on their products by using the coupon code happy planet on their website marinskincare.

[00:22:15] Abigail: com I use this product myself and I highly recommend it.

[00:22:22] Abigail: So tell me this, you've got a pretty broad view on fish farming in Europe. In, in the United States, it's going from offshore to on land. What, what are the trends that you see in Europe? I mean, in Italy, are these all offshore pens or are they pulling them on shore? What, what is the world look like 

[00:22:43] Alessandro Romano: over there?

[00:22:43] Alessandro Romano: So in Italy, we have about 50, 50 shore and, and offshore. Now, there is a distinction to make the, the, the onshore facilities that we have here are very traditional facilities. They're not, they're not recirculating aquaculture systems. They're they're not, they're not high tech, high tech farming systems. We are seeing more and more high tech recirculating aquaculture systems with, with all kinds of controls and monitoring systems in Northern Europe and, but, but this is something that At the moment, we are, we are, we're, we're not yet serving.

[00:23:25] Alessandro Romano: We didn't have the, we didn't have the chance to start serving, serving that market, but we are looking into it quite, quite heavily. 

[00:23:34] Abigail: So are you, do you have concerns? I mean, are they raising concerns for you about. Sort of the, the leakage of the food, I think there's, I'm sure there's a tech word for that about, you know, the food getting out of the pen and feeding other fish.

[00:23:47] Abigail: Is this a problem or, you know, how do you, how do you deal with that and pushback you might be getting from that? 

[00:23:54] Alessandro Romano: So if, if you talk about the impact that our feed can have once it's delivered to the fish, then we are in a very good position because Most of the most of the negative effect that is made by a fish farm that is that is at sea is Is basically the droppings or the fish of the fish that are full of nutrients and therefore they can cause They can cause damage to the quality of the water Inside and outside the bed So, our work in this field is really making our feed as digestible as possible, because the more the fish can absorb nutrients, the least nutrients will be dispersed into the waters.

[00:24:53] Alessandro Romano: And, uh, fascinating, and, and, and this is, and this is where we have, uh, a very, a very interesting, uh, value, value proposition. And And we, and we are working to, to become more and more digestible and to help and to help fish farmers reduce their environmental impact, not only towards the high seas and fishing and, and, and the, and the, and the fishing activity, but also.

[00:25:22] Alessandro Romano: On their local area. 

[00:25:24] Abigail: That's fascinating. So part of your job and your, your science has been to test the excrement of the fish to see how, how, what, you know, how much of the proteins are lost through digestion. 

[00:25:38] Alessandro Romano: My dad once told me, don't become a marine biologist because you think you will go. And play with the dolphins for all your life, but actually you're going to end up measuring fish crap.

[00:25:53] Alessandro Romano: And so, and so I, so this is, this is why I became a, uh, a maritime engineer in the end. And now I'm an entrepreneur and I'm back to measuring fish crap. So, so it was my destiny eventually. 

[00:26:10] Abigail: That's hilarious. Is your dad, what business is your father in other than fortune telling? 

[00:26:16] Alessandro Romano: He's, he's in a totally different business, but he wanted to be a marine biologist himself and his father didn't let him.

[00:26:23] Abigail: Oh man, that's funny. Okay. So we talked about money. You raised money. Are you raising more money? That's funny. 

[00:26:29] Alessandro Romano: We are raising money. We are, we are raising because we, we beat our own expectations. We, we were supposed to rate to raise money later than, than, than today, but we are, we are already raising because we're growing fast.

[00:26:45] Alessandro Romano: We have a technically very sound product, so it's only a matter of growth and to grow well, we need a lot of money. So yes, we're raising, yeah, our, our current investors. So the ones that joined the last round, they are already on board, most of them to, to, to support us in this round as well. We have seen very keen interest from, from other investors in the blue economy.

[00:27:13] Alessandro Romano: And so, so we are, we're very happy and excited to go on and, and close the next fundraising round. 

[00:27:21] Abigail: That's great. So you're my first guest from, from Italy. I'm really, I'm really excited. We're trying to, I think that's the 14th country in 50 episodes. So it's not terrible. 

[00:27:33] Alessandro Romano: People, people usually think of Italy as a holiday place rather than a business place.

[00:27:38] Alessandro Romano: So I'm, I'm, I'm happy to represent the business side of Italy. 

[00:27:42] Abigail: Is Italy really a favorable environment for startups right now? 

[00:27:48] Alessandro Romano: There are a lot of positive. points about having a startup in Italy. There is good, uh, financial support. There, there is an ecosystem that is nice to be in. We are, we are a bit spread out because each town has its own few startups.

[00:28:08] Alessandro Romano: So it's. Yeah, there are some, some organizations that make sure that all the startups meet every once in a while. So it's good. It's inspiring. We have in Italy, a little bit of a lack of experience on, on, on startup on startups in innovation, especially outside of the digital world. So we are, we are a hardware startup.

[00:28:33] Alessandro Romano: We are a biotech startup and sometimes it's, it's hard to get our message go through about time to market is longer, development of a product is longer, exit period is longer. And, and many Italian investors are not educated to support hardware and especially biotech startups. They, most of them support digital and financial startups.

[00:29:04] Alessandro Romano: I'll say that.

[00:29:07] Abigail: And it's, it's funny in France, they, they have a live there many, many years and they asked that traditionally has really meant something very specific, which is a high growth tech company that is software and, and everything else is a small business. And I, I feel like now everything's become a startup.

[00:29:30] Abigail: And so we have certain expectations of these startups that don't really make sense because they're not, you know, they're, they're not. Tech companies, they're not software companies. Scaling is hard. Scaling involves people and, and moving things and, and, and they're great businesses, but we shouldn't forget that there's a difference in the growth cycle between a small business that grows quickly.

[00:29:56] Abigail: becomes a big business and a high flying software company. 

[00:30:00] Alessandro Romano: So my definition of a startup is, is, is a company that has a high tech content, a large tech content and a large growth potential. So there is digital tech, which is the one that we normally call just tech, but biotech, clean tech, and all those, they are technologies.

[00:30:24] Alessandro Romano: There is intellectual property around that. There is, there is research around that. And, and so, and so we are a hundred percent startups. We become, we become an SME once we stop growing or once we stop developing, or once we stop developing IP. 

[00:30:42] Abigail: You will be absorbed by the time that happens. Okay. What do you think the seafood industry is gonna look like in 10 years?

[00:30:52] Alessandro Romano: I don't know, but what I hope is that we will start questioning where are fish coming from? What, what's the value chain and what's the food chain behind that fish fishing? Should be focused mostly on low traffic species. You know, eating tuna is like eating a bear or a wolf, right? Tuna is a carnivore fish on top of the food chain.

[00:31:27] Alessandro Romano: Alright, so, we, we need to eat, if we like to eat meat, you know, we eat, we eat cattle, we eat chicken, we eat pork. These are mostly herbivore, they eat, they have a plant based diet. So we should go and find fish that have plant based diet. So, sardines, anchovies, all those that are, that are up the bottom of the food chain.

[00:31:54] Alessandro Romano: We are predators just like tuna are predators and, and, and, and we should, we should put ourselves on the same, on the same step, on the same stage as tuna, not as being predators of tuna. And that's very important because there is a lot, there is a lot more small fish than there is big fish. So, so I hope that our diet becomes.

[00:32:18] Alessandro Romano: Much more conscious of, of the, of the step of the, of the food chain that what we eat is on. And that's, and that's referred to fishing. For aquaculture, I expect that aquaculture can produce fish. Fish is super important for omega 3s. We need to keep them to omega 3s. Fish, as I said at the beginning, is the cleanest protein source in terms of CO2 emissions.

[00:32:48] Alessandro Romano: And I'm talking about obviously animal protein. So we should keep eating salmon and trout and sea bream and sea bass, as long as there was no direct connection between dead salmon and any ocean fishing. 

[00:33:06] Abigail: So you're on a mission to make aquaculture more environmentally friendly and more efficient. And so you're in the thick of it.

[00:33:17] Abigail: Are you, how are you feeling about the state of the world right now? And, and do you think we're headed in the right direction and can we beat some of these, you know, climate change or, or ocean changes that are, that are really looking pretty ominous right now? 

[00:33:32] Alessandro Romano: I, I am more and more confident that there is no silver bullet.

[00:33:40] Alessandro Romano: Uh, I, I think that We have the tendency to think that there is the large company that owns everything, that solves everything, and eventually owns everything. So it's, it's, it's, It's not, it's not like that. I think it's not only, it's not only, uh, Bezos and Musk and Zuckerberg. It's, I think that, especially for cleantech, small local solutions Specific solutions that are global, but that are solving very small, very specific problems.

[00:34:26] Alessandro Romano: These are all needed and not necessarily all of them will become the unicorns, but together they will solve. Major, major issues. So, so it's really, it's really collaboration. Many people are already talking about collaboration. Collaboration is key. I totally agree with that, but it's totally, it's very, very important that investors, that customers, that corporates don't only look for the future unicorn, but, but, but it's important that they look into investing in the right ecosystem in startups.

[00:35:08] Alessandro Romano: that can work together towards making a better ocean ecosystem. And I talk about the ocean ecosystem because if we have an healthy oceans, we solved 70 percent of the problems of the world. Oceans, oceans absorb 30 percent of the world's carbon. Oceans produce 60 percent of the world's oxygen. You know, the, the Amazon forest is producing less than 10%.

[00:35:36] Alessandro Romano: Of, of the, of the world's oxygen, the oceans are producing 60%, right? Meaning that out of, out of 10 breaths, we're breathing in ocean oxygen six times. So it's really important that oceans are healthy because if we break the food chains of the oxygen of the, of the ocean, if we break the, the, the, the capacity of the ocean to produce oxygen, there is, there is no Amazon forest that will save us.

[00:36:07] Alessandro Romano: So it's really, really important that we, that we support the health of the ocean. And we're very conscious of it. Oceans are the, the ocean is the temperature regulator for the planet. If, if, if the poles are. are not at minus 300 degrees and the equator is not at plus 300 degrees. I'm talking Celsius. It's because the ocean is exchanging temperature between the poles and the equator.

[00:36:39] Alessandro Romano: If the ocean becomes too hot or too polluted or, or, or, or, or the chemistry of the ocean changes, then there will be no more heat exchange. And then And then we will have huge, huge problems in terms of in terms of temperature that we won't be able to live in this planet only if the ocean stops working as a, as a healthy system.

[00:37:02] Abigail: Um, so do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs today? 

[00:37:06] Alessandro Romano: My advice is to to all entrepreneurs. is to solve a real problem. It might be a small problem, but solve a real problem. We can't eat software. We can't breathe software. Software is not going to lower world's temperatures. So let's focus on problems that really help us, the whole ecosystem, all the animal world, all the plant, all the plant's world, all the living things.

[00:37:42] Alessandro Romano: We need to help. All of those, and ourselves, by solving problems. in the physical world rather than in the digital world. 

[00:37:53] Abigail: So you, you came in second place on the ocean pitch challenge from sustainable ocean alliance. So tell me about that experience and what do you get from it? 

[00:38:03] Alessandro Romano: We came second, but we were celebrated as a winner and, and this was very heartwarming for us.

[00:38:13] Alessandro Romano: We, we received this beautiful prize. We were on an international stage. where many stakeholders, very engaged, very active, we're listening to us for real. Many of them emailed me after or called me after, and they wanted to create real relationships that really want to support us. So it's not only putting us on stage, but SOA really gives us the opportunity.

[00:38:44] Alessandro Romano: To connect with the people that saw us in one evening online and to bring forward these relationships. into real potential deals, investments, potential revenue, and potential for collaborations. As I said, it's as important to connect with investors and clients as it is to connect to other entrepreneurs and be a team that is, we're all playing on the same side to, uh, to, to give something good to the ocean.

[00:39:17] Abigail: So you're, you're modest about a second place because I'm on the pre selection committee for a Sustainable Ocean Alliance, where we whittle it down to 10 finalists. And there are well over 200 companies, if I, if I recall. Um, so it's a, it's a very big pool. And those 200 companies are also preselected. So it's a pretty big deal to come in second place and congratulations.

[00:39:41] Alessandro Romano: Thank you. Thank you very much. It really represents how hard we're working and how well we communicate it because there is work to do, but there's also some communication to do about it. 

[00:39:55] Abigail: Thank you, Alessandra, for coming on today. This has been really interesting, and I'm so excited because it sounds like you guys are just having a ton of success, and it sounds well earned.

[00:40:06] Alessandro Romano: Thank you very much, Javier, for having me. It's been, it's been a pleasure.

[00:40:13] Abigail: As we've heard before on this podcast, aquaculture often gets a bum rap, but thanks to innovations like Itinsect, the sector is becoming more efficient with fewer ecological impacts. Sorry for the pun. But it sounds like we may soon be able to have our fish and eat it too. To learn more about Alessandra and its insect, check out our show notes.

[00:40:34] Abigail: Thank you once again for listening. Please follow Happy Planet wherever you tune in and, and leave us a rating and review. It really does help new listeners discover the show. Happy Planet was reported and hosted by me, Abigail Carroll. I'm also the executive producer composer, George Brandel Egg. Created our theme music.

[00:40:53] Abigail: Learn more about my work and get in touch by visiting happy planet podcast.com.