Decatur, Illinois: InnovaFeed breaks ground for an U.S. Pilot facility for Insect Protein and Plant-based innovative produce

01/2023: The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity congratulates Paris-based French InnovaFeed for its groundbreaking earlier this January for their U.S. production facility in Decatur, IL creating over the next years 280 local jobs, investing 250 million USD.  The pilot facility will open late 2023 / early 2024, one tool for fighting climate change.  The company plans to feed by 2050 over 10 b people through their environmentally friendly produce based on insect protein and plants.  InnovFeed plans for a final capacity of 60k tons of protein – and will become the world’s largest producer of insect protein.

“In the face of critical environmental issues, the global agriculture industry must do its part to adapt and meet humanity’s challenges,” said Clément Ray, InnovaFeed co-founder & CEO. “At InnovaFeed, we’re revolutionizing traditional practices by creating a new natural and efficient industrial model on a large scale for sustainably sourced food. Insect protein is the next alternative protein ready to be scaled, with massive market potential.”

InnovaFeed announced already in 2020 a strategic partnership with French ADM Group, a global leader in human and animal nutrition and the world’s premier agricultural origination and processing company. The Decatur site produces protein-rich feed, oils, and fertilizer through pioneering insect farming technology. The environmentally sustainable plant will be located near the ADM plant in order to facilitate what InnovaFeed calls an “industrial symbiosis model” that will result in zero waste. This is accomplished by purchasing waste energy from ADM, piping the waste to the InnovaFeed plant, and then using that waste product to farm the insect proteins.

© Photo: Innovafeed, France