Is Insect Farming Making a Difference?
Circling back to the topic of bugs and using insects as a protein source for human or livestock consumption, has been on my mind. If you do a google search of the topic the first pages of headlines read in extremes. Either the only way to save the planet is to eat bugs, or the whole thing is an overblown hoax. The reality is that insect farming is one of the many ideas in agriculture that might not revamp the food industry from top to bottom, but could hold a valuable place if we stop talking about it in blanket all or nothing, life or death terms.
Just like farming corn in Arizona is less feasible than farming corn in Illinois, farming insects in England might be less feasible than farming them in Thailand. But, just because it's tougher to grow corn in Arizona doesn’t mean we shouldn’t farm corn anymore anywhere. And, the same is true for insects.
Bug Benefits
If you read my last article or have done your own investigation then you know there are enough potential benefits that exploring insect farming isn’t a wasted effort. From a farm to market perspective, insect larvae grow by 5,000 times their weight in just 12 days. One female black fly can lay 600 to 1,000 eggs and the larvae are shown to have a 20% higher protein content than soy. Additionally, insect feed is largely made up of food that would otherwise become waste. Those factors alone are interesting enough to make us ask more questions.
That information appears to say it's possible to raise nutrient dense food and get it to consumers much faster than we could a steak, a chicken breast, a block of tofu, a bale of hay or a bag of animal feed. And, maybe even cheaper than those alternatives.
It’s the upfront numbers that led the United Nations to deem insect protein a sustainable food source. The feed to meat conversion, depending on the insect, can be more efficient than it is in other protein options and in theory, it wouldn’t require using more land to grow more food. If one fly can lay 1,000 eggs and do it by feeding on food waste, then it should be a viable renewable food source as well.
Insect Farming Obstacles
However, the other end of the production line has generated some sustainability obstacles. To begin with, it’s incredibly difficult to replicate an insect friendly environment outside of warm tropical locations because it requires an amount of energy that tends to cancel out initial benefits in efficiency and economics. Second, while it could be a solution to food waste, so far utilizing food waste for insect feed has run into logistical problems and made use of waste far less than expected. Lastly, the industry lacks a standardized approach to important questions bringing progress in certain areas to a stand still.
Is food waste only the food that is left in the field or are we pulling from the waste of consumers? Are insects safe or nutritious to consume if they died in the farm before they were meant to be harvested? Can we grow our own insect protein at home or are there protocols to follow for safely raising bugs as food? It’s these questions that have shut down insect farming businesses before they have made an impact on food supply chains.
Where Should We Farm Insects?
We are not going to solve the world’s food insecurity problems in 2025 with insect protein and it might never be the solution. But it could be a part of the solution. And, it may not fit efficiently into every economy, but it could bolster some economies. Insect farming is getting more streamlined especially as companies make use of AI tools, so perhaps the biggest question is where to farm insects. Where will this protein source make the most impact in terms of actual nutrition, jobs, and sustainability?
Africa is home to more than 800 insect farms that produce protein, fertilizer and livestock feed. In the 13 countries currently pursuing growth in this industry, the goals are both food and economic stability. So far, small scale farming has provided individual families with secondary incomes and been more profitable than other agricultural endeavors. In Africa organic waste is fairly accessible, consumers are willing to adopt insects into the existing agricultural systems, and it is creating jobs. The insects may never leave Africa and be shipped overseas to act as a secure food supply in Norway, but for now they are stabilizing economies in Africa.
In Asia insect farming is well ahead of Western nations. Long past the pilot stage, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia have led the way when it comes to scalable methods of insect farming. Here, the climate is conducive to insects and regulated facilities are not battling significantly different temperature, weather, and humidity elements. They have fewer breeding issues than other regions of the world and have so far developed scalable production models. Recent partnerships with the EU are promising and could allow for more focus on insect nutrition.
Are insects our only hope? No. As we can see from thousands of years of agricultural innovation, there are always more things to learn and new ways to adapt. Insects will probably play a part in the new, but they can’t be the only part. And, just because it might not be the most feasible solution in your neck of the woods doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be explored. Ag needs all the ideas.
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