Gallardo wins $25K Sabin prize for cricket protein powder idea
“Many of the leading figures of social entrepreneurship have been affiliated with Yale,” Klein said. “It’s a more recent tradition … but it’s a tradition we are proud of.”
Many students hope not only to develop a business but also to do something for the greater good, said Stuart DeCew FES ’11 SOM ’11, program director of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, which runs the Sabin Sustainable Venture.
For Yesenia Gallardo FES ’15 and Kenny Cloft FES ’15, this difference can be made by changing people’s minds about eating insects. They won the Sabin Prize with their idea of making protein powder from crickets. Cricket protein provides a more complete source of nutrients than plants and requires significantly less energy to produce than other sources of meat, Gallardo said.
“Two billion people in the world are already eating [insects]. It’s good for us, it’s good for the environment. The sky’s the limit,” said Cloft.
Andrew Sabin, whose family foundation sponsors the prize and who was a judge at the event, said that the idea’s appeal was in entering a market where demand greatly exceeds supply. Going forward, the world needs alternative sources of proteins made in a nonpolluting way, and Poda Foods could fill that niche, he said.
