Cricket Flour and Larva Burgers: You Might Be Surprised by Where You Find Insect Protein!
Insects grow quickly, they eat waste, they don’t take up a lot of room and they contain a lot of vitamins and protein.? And don’t forget, they have a great shelf life!?
According to entomologists, there are at least 1,600 edible insects.? Beetles, larva, caterpillars, grasshoppers and crickets are found in markets and on tables around the world, but until the last decade there hasn’t been serious talk about insect-based food options.
A growing population, food security, soil health, methane emissions, and the general health of the environment have prompted a larger conversation around insects as a primary food source. Investors poured over $76 million into insect-based food companies in 2022 and another $14 million last year.?
Where is the greatest demand for this food option and who might reap the most benefits?
Environmental Benefits of Insect Based Food
A big benefit of insect-based food is a reduced burden on land used to raise corn. On average, 30% of the U.S. corn crops is used for ethanol, 30% is exported, 30% is fed to livestock, and only 10% is consumed by humans. If insects become a viable option for human or livestock consumption, then these percentages could shift, resulting in less land being used for crops.
Insects could be a sustainable option that meets nutritional needs and also has minimal impact on the environment. From what we understand now, insect food production would be simpler than producing other protein like soy isolate and beef, potentially decreasing the use of fossil fuels in food production.
Another angle to consider is that insects don’t create a whole lot of waste. Instead, they can eliminate waste. And they don’t drain resources either as they use significantly less water, feed and land than livestock.
Am I Going to See Bugs in My Food?
Though you can find insects in lots of markets around the world, the US and many European countries have been slow to get excited about the idea. It’s estimated that only a quarter of the American and European populations are open to the idea. Why opt for a beetle burger when you can eat one made of beef??
Some restaurants have tried to make insects trendy by serving grasshopper tacos or guacamole seasoned with ground up ants. But, for the most part, attempts to create demand have fallen short. For one thing, people tend to choose what tastes the best and bug infused brownies or burgers haven’t matched the familiar flavors people expect.
For another, Western diets are not experiencing a nutritional void that insect-based foods would fill. We can get recommended amounts of protein from meat options and plant options, all of which are available at the nearest grocery store. For the trend to truly take off, demand really needs to be created to show people a void or need that could be accommodated by insect based food products.
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Even if demand was created and more people opted to incorporate insect protein, it’s likely that that would look like one meal a day at the most, or at best, a daily protein infused snack. It might take more than that to make a significant impact on farmland, crop use, and fish farms.
Can Livestock Eat Insect Based Products?
The livestock industry uses efficiency as its filter for a lot of decisions. Traditionally, corn and soybeans have been the best options for feeding livestock. Less of this feed is needed for livestock to put weight on compared to other options. Less feed means lower costs and fewer days to market, creating a lower environmental footprint.?
So far there isn’t enough data to say insects are the better option, which will slow producer adoption. Some studies have shown that cattle are very equipped to process insect supplements. In fact, the insect protein supplements had the same effect as other protein additives in boosting the hay consumption of cattle.
If insect-based livestock feed research proves that it is a viable option for the millions of cattle fed in the United States every day, the next question will be, how much does it cost? Could it be possible to find an option that is good for the environment and cost effective for farmers and ranchers?
Overall, it appears that people are even more open to livestock eating insects than they are to eating them themselves.
Petfood- the Perfect Place for Insect Protein?
Perhaps the best option is to use insect protein in pet food. Dogs and cats eat the same thing at every meal so a significant portion of their protein could come from insects. Unlike livestock animals, family pets don’t have any weight gain goals that have to be achieved in a specific amount of time. Using insect protein in this industry would also meet a growing demand for more nutritious pet food options, and possibly not experience purchase price objections from consumers.
It will take 5-10 years to establish methods and infrastructure solid enough to launch insect based protein companies on a scale large enough to support feeding millions of cows. For now we observe other countries with successful farming operations like China, Thailand, Kenya and Uganda.
With millions of dollars funding research on the insect option, we are likely to see the topic pop up in sustainability, food security and supply chain stability conversations over the next few years.
Agricultural Loans Program Manager
8 个月Great topic, Michelle. I've had the opportunity to eat crickets and I have to say that I enjoyed them. Even just the greatly reduced water requirements per pound of insect protein make it an exciting space. It's encouraging to investments being made, although they are still a fraction of other alternative proteins, like investments in ultra-processed meat replacements that came in at $6.8B in 2021. Maybe we need a marketing coalition that works on making insect protein desirable in our culture. It's the long game.
Mechanicsburg, PA native now Retired
8 个月I find your comments about insects eat waste, interestingly off center. Insects don't just eat waste, they also eat what humans would like to eat. A hord of lucusts can strip 100s, maybe 1,000, of acres in a matter of days, leaving nothing but withered stalks of plants! So, if the insects that the insect farmers are raiising get out of their pens, or whatever they are raised in, the devastation to the traditional farmers will be huge! I just wish you hadn't mentioned about the methane problem, because the people pushing this as a problem created by cows, are not really talking science, only fear! Methane happens to be a natural gas that is released by swamps and thawing tundra. The only problem with it, is that no one is trying to collect is for us to use to create electricity, heat, and for cooking. The reason the fear mongers of climate change sort of forget, is that they forced us to stop drying up and filling swamps to be used for other purposes. The climate people said that we were killing valuable animals of the ecosystem, like alligators, etc, so we reversed our swamp removal processes and started to create swamps, spelled "wet lands" to make up for our distruction. They have helped create the methane problem today!
Farming for Health ~ One Day, One Person, One Acre at a Time!
8 个月I will be grateful for each and every day that I don’t have to eat any of these.
Director Food Safety and Contamination Prevention, at Crisis24
8 个月There has been a prevailing opinion that humans, unlike many animals, do not produce much if any Chitinase, the enzyme necessary to digest components of the insect exoskeleton. If humans are not able to efficiently digest Chitin, nutrient availability might be less than optimal. That said, perhaps the grinding of dried insects negates the need to digest Chitin. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48508096 We need to be careful not to assume consuming insects is completely safe. For over 50 years our diets, and thus our cells, were "contaminated" with transfats under assumptions such as "margarine is healthier than butter". Now we are also realizing that microplastics of nanoparticle size are in many of our cells as are PFAS chemicals in our water, food and our cells. We need to fully understand the nutritional and health benefits and or risks of introducing insect derived food ingredients into our diet.