Weird, cool, still tastes awesome. Will this completely change your daily snack?

(Interviewed January 2020)

This time I interviewed Mr CJ sio, who seeks to change the world with his creative snack. It's more environmentally friendly and rich in nutrients!

What is Life Origin?

Life Origin is a social enterprise focusing on generating a positive impact on the environment. Their main goal is to "Create a more sustainable protein to feed the world." 

It was founded by Mr CJ sio in 2018 August, it runs with a team of 5.

This is Mr CJ sio!

What is the sustainable protein made from?

The sustainable protein is Black Soldier Fly larvae!  The larvae are bred at a breeding house and then either sold live, dried or frozen.

So far, the snack is only sold to the pets department, as treats for cats, dogs, birds, insects and reptiles.

LifeOrigin's resident reptile!

The larva residue is sold as fertiliser. In this way, they are truly environmentally friendly as they have zero waste.

I visited their larva breeding house and got to see the inside view!

Dr Larva: how the product is made

step 1: Fermented soy and coconut powder, mixed with okara and copra is the food for the larvae

step 2: FLy eggs hatch in containers laid with the food. 

step 3: They grow very quickly, so they are ready for harvest at around 12 days.

step 4: After harvest, the larvae are divided to be frozen, dried or live. They are packaged and sold. The live larvae can be sold as well, however, some will stay at the breeding house so that they can mate.

step 5: repeat. 350 kgs of larvae can be cultivated in 1 go!

(Dr Larva is the name of the product.)

Warning: please close your eyes and scroll down if you do not want to see the image of insect larva

What do dried Larvae taste like?

Midori: It tastes like salted peanuts, it tastes nice if you don't look at it and imagine the larva as an insect. 

Overall: Surprisingly Good!

What is your daily routine?

Meetings in the morning, finish the paperwork in the morning and do packaging in the afternoon, feeding is once a day. Every Sunday is a break.

What kind of person were you when you were a child?

I was a very active child and I got into a lot of troubles in Elementary school. However, in Secondary school, he was sent to a very strict private Chinese school because I was very playful! I joined 3 extra curriculums, the art society, choir & 24 Chinese drum team. 

I was chosen to study Sciences but I still loved drawing so I took Design and Marketing at University.

In Malaysia, you usually take a massive test at the end of Secondary school. The results you get will determine whether you study Sciences (e.g. Engineering) or something else.

I think that the Arts Society and the Drum team were the best curricula I ever took: I loved drawing and I pursued design in University, so the knowledge has helped me a lot. I received training in drawing and advertising, it helped me advertise and make designs now too. (All the logos now, even the LifeOrigin logo were made by him!) l loved drawing since when I was 3 or 4, so I am still training to draw and design!

Also, the Drum team in Secondary school helped with building teamwork, we had lots of hard training but got a lot of experience in team-building. As corny as this sounds, team building is an amazing skill to have, right now, we have 5 people in our company: 2 part-time workers and 3 full-time workers, the part-time lady is in the marketing division, she works from home. The other is a business developer. 3 full-time people work on admission and breeding. Team-building skill is implemented here.

There is a video below of Mr CJ Sio's Team in the Chinese 24 season drum competition from 2001.

I feel very lucky that my parents let me choose what I wanted to do. Because I took up Sciences I should have gone to the fields of  Engineering etc, but my parents allowed me to study advertising and design.

What did you do after graduating from University?

After graduation, I became an in-house designer for two companies, and worked with one of the start-up companies for 10 years! I was one of the pioneering members of the company. I was head of marketing in the company so travelled all around Southeast Asia. After that, I worked in Cambodia for 1 and a half year until 2017 as head of marketing (head of public affairs) for a bank. 

What was the hardest challenge when you started LifeOrigin?

The challenge was to understand what I'm doing, it was a big jump from industry to industry, the industry was completely new to me, I used to work in the department of Design and Advertising. It took nearly a year to understand the process of breeding and biology, searching through the internet and improvising.

LifeOrigin has won many awards

After 10 years of effort LifeOrigin was recognised as an award-winning marketing team by SOBA - Best in Marketing * Platinum Award

At the start, there were small farms of soldier fly breeders, and I bought 100g of the pupae from them and started this business.

What are you trying now?

The challenge is to develop new products, get people to know more about the product. The bug is a very big change and is very new to the pet market. It will be a challenge to go to the human snacks market and advertising to get people to try this, as larvae look pretty off-putting to some people.

Do you have a motto? 

"Never give up: even though you fail, it is still a valuable experience that makes you special"

To children: learn whatever you can, not just on academics but learn to be a team player, you can work with people and a lot of social skills can be established in junior to high school. Organising and building communities are very good skills to have in life.

If you want to start a business, you need 
1.Patience
2.Perseverance
3. Creativity
Normally, people who don't follow the rules excel as entrepreneurs, they get good ideas and think outside the box. You need to play around and test the limits.

More info about LifeOrigin and Dr Larva

Click here for LifeOrigin Homepage
Click here to buy the Dr Larva Wholesome Feed
LifeOrigin Facebook page

(The human products are still not for sale, I only got to taste some of the testers. Sorry.)