Welcome back! I hope you are excited for the weekend. Before you say hello to Saturday you have to get through Friday and hopefully, today’s blog will make time fly a little faster. This week we are turning our eye to alternative foods, of the insect variety!
It is thought that the world's population will be reaching a shocking and claustrophobic feeling, 9 billion by 2050! This means more demand for housing, more demand on energy and most importantly an increased demand on the world’s food systems. This poses a few problems for the world's biodiversity due to the additional land, energy and water that will be needed to meet this increased food demand.
So where does that leave us? Well, there are a few alternatives floating around but the one that is catching my eye is one that was valued at $3.2 million US Dollars in 2021 and is set to reach $17.6 billion US Dollars (according to Statista), insect farming! Why insects? Well, they have a high nutritional value, they require minimal space and have a low environmental impact overall. The consumption of insects, or entomophagy could be the solution to a lot of the world's food production problems in future. In fact, there are many areas of the world where insects are commonly consumed, so we may be missing out on something great. So the aim for this post is to get you all a little more familiar with entomophagy.
Insects for human food:
The most commonly eaten insects are beetles, caterpillars, bees, ants, crickets, grasshoppers and locusts. For hundreds of years, regions of the world including Asia, South America and parts of Europe have consumed various species of insects. In fact, approximately, 2,000 insect species are consumed in 113 countries. For those of you planning on visiting Mexico, Laos or Cambodia you might want to keep an eye out for a delicate gourmet dish known as Escamoles, otherwise known as ant eggs.
As you can imagine one of the main reasons why insect cafes are not as popular as wine bars or coffee shops on the high streets of the UK or USA is because they look like the image above. Yep, not the most appetising-looking snack/meal. If you are wondering how typical insects weigh up against more conventional foods check out my partner in crimes video where he goes into the nutritional comparisons, well worth a watch! To provide a quick summary, it is generally agreed that the nutritional value of insects tends to be rich in proteins, fat and vitamins and actually weigh up relatively well to conventional protein sources… yummy!
Something to ponder with... a research paper proposed a possible way of getting people used to an insect-based diet by developing insect-based ingredients, rather than whole insect products.
Insects and livestock feed:
Currently, farmland occupies 30% of the global land area, 70% of this is used to produce feed for livestock animals. Insects with their high nutritional value and low space requirements make them an appealing alternative to standard feed which is around 70% of livestock-production expenses. Insect farming is thought to be a great environmentally-friendly alternative, especially as it requires significantly less water consumption because insects get their water from fruits and vegetables.
Well, this is all well and good in theory… but how does it measure up to actual animal feed. The most promising and well-studied potential insect sources for feed production came in the form of black soldier flies, larvae, yellow mealworms, silkworms, grasshoppers and even termites! When broiler chickens were fed diets enriched with housefly larvae in comparison to more conventional ones such as soybean meal, it was found that their growth performance and carcass quality were improved. In addition to an increase in growth performance and carcass quality, there was found to be a marginal increase in egg production. In fact, in the Philippines, consumers preferred the taste of pasture-grown chickens fed with grasshoppers to those fed on commercial feed.
According to a research paper, the global feed market heavily relies on Genetically Modified soybean as the main source of protein for livestock diets. This poses an issue for food security for countries in the EU and the UK. Due to a slightly unfavourable climate this crop doesn't prosper there, which makes the insect-based feed a good potential for farmers. Interestingly, insect protein is already used in the production of fish feed in the EU.
So we have reached the end of this week's blog! To summarise, in general, insects have the potential to be a great protein source for human and livestock consumption. Let's cut to the point, we are barrelling towards a massive biodiversity and ecological crisis which impart if caused by significant changes in land use, which is in part due to a growing demand for food. Insects could ease this pressure, however! Are you willing to have an insect-based diet? Is the real problem food distribution rather than production? Or is the real answer to let livestock eat what they are actually meant to eat, grass! rather than corn and so on? This is some real food for thought and we want to hear from you on what you have read and what you think.
Have a fab weekend!
Lndnscientistx Team
References and acknowledgements:
Farmland landscape: Photo by Tom Fisk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-of-river-in-middle-of-green-fields-1483880/
Honey bee image - Photo by David Hablützel: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-and-black-bee-in-macro-photography-1036269/
Insect food bowl: Image by <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/top-view-insects-sliced-lemons_5007046.htm#query=edible%20insects&position=2&from_view=keyword&track=robertav1_2_sidr">Freepik</a>
Cow - Photo by Matthias Zomer: https://www.pexels.com/photo/three-black-and-white-cows-422218/
Speckled Hen - Photo by The masked Guy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-black-hen-beside-chicken-chicks-754308/
Insect bowl - Image by <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/earthworms-bowl-chopsticks-close-up_5007087.htm#query=edible%20insects&position=3&from_view=keyword&track=robertav1_2_sidr">Freepik</a>
The future is crawling: Evaluating the potential of insects for food and feed security
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