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Thousands of visitors converge on Xuyi County to gorge on spicy crustacea at the annual crayfish festival in Jiangsu, China. Though Chinese rice farmers have grown carp in their paddies for millennia, the native North American crayfish wasn’t introduced until the 1920s. It was considered an invasive pest. Researchers developed the Crayfish-Rice Integrated System of Production in the late 1990s, and farmers began reaping the benefits. The crayfish feed on the leftover straw, killing residual rice pests, and fertilize the paddy with their waste, while their presence reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The successful and sustainable production system, an example of multi-trophic agriculture, has grown into a $65 billion industry, making China the largest producer of crayfish on the planet, increasing the income of farmers, and providing a new supply of protein for the nation.

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Thousands of visitors converge on Xuyi County to gorge on spicy crustacea at the annual crayfish festival in Jiangsu, China. Though Chinese rice farmers have grown carp in their paddies for millennia, the native North American crayfish wasn’t introduced until the 1920s. It was considered an invasive pest. Researchers developed the Crayfish-Rice Integrated System of Production in the late 1990s, and farmers began reaping the benefits. The crayfish feed on the leftover straw, killing residual rice pests, and fertilize the paddy with their waste, while their presence reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The successful and sustainable production system, an example of multi-trophic agriculture, has grown into a $65 billion industry, making China the largest producer of crayfish on the planet, increasing the income of farmers, and providing a new supply of protein for the nation.

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