In the late 1990s, when I was studying for my PhD, I read an article touting the “next big thing” in the food sector. To be honest, the next highlight didn’t seem very appetizing. Apparently, within the next 10 years, we’ll all be eating Beetleburgers.

Entomophagy, the eating of insects, is common in many parts of the world. Considering the ethical issues of livestock farming, the article boldly proclaimed that insect farms are the future of food.

Insects raised without welfare issues are excellent at converting foodstuffs that are unavailable to us into proteins that we can use. Additionally, they require far less space than livestock and produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than cows.

But despite some obvious benefits, a quarter of a century later, customers in developed countries still aren’t eating flies or baking with beetles. The reason is obvious. More than 1,000 species of insects are eaten around the world, most commonly in the tropics, but Western societies generally do not eat “bugs.”

Like the bushtucker trial I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Eating insects is a repulsive idea to many people.

Articles extolling the virtues of eating insects continue to appear frequently in the media. And while the headlines often feature shock values, authors are increasingly focusing on the ethical and climate-friendly aspects of insect farming.

If you look beyond the headline ‘Grasshoppers for Beginners’, you’ll quickly see that insects are already well-positioned to play a more important role in our food chain. Instead of eating fried grasshoppers with a side salad of mealworms, we’re developing better ways than ever to use insects as food for our favorite animals.

Insects could be a protein-rich game changer

The star of this insect animal feed revolution is the black soldier fly (Hermesia Illuscens). Adults are only about 16 mm (about 0.5 inches) long and resemble small, independent wasps. But soldier flies don’t have stingers and don’t sting, so this mimicry is just an evolutionary ploy.

A widely distributed species, the key to the black soldier fly’s importance is its larvae. This is because black soldier fly larvae are “non-selective” feeders. This is a polite way of saying that you will eat almost anything.

They thrive on all kinds of food, from manure to animal and vegetable food waste. This property makes it excellent for waste disposal. For this alone, the flight of black soldiers is beneficial to us, but only before we turn them into animal feed.

The waste treatment process is called “ento remediation” and uses large chambers called bioconverters that house large numbers of black soldier fly larvae. These larvae consume food and other organic waste, producing soil-like organic residue that can be used as a rich fertilizer.

Inside the bioconverter, the larvae grow rapidly, and more than 50 percent of the weight they gain is protein. Once they reach the pupal stage (the stage of metamorphosis into an adult), they reach their nutritional peak. At this point, it has already helped convert the waste into fertilizer, which can be harvested and used as animal feed.

Insect animal feed can replace traditional animal feed, which often relies on soybean meal. Soybeans have a high environmental cost due to the land and water required to grow them and the resources required for transportation.

Although much of the research on animal feed production has focused on feeding livestock such as pigs and chickens, the black soldier fly is also attracting attention as a food source for farmed fish. Currently, the majority of feed for farmed fish often consists of fishmeal. Fishmeal is also used as livestock feed and is made by drying and crushing fish.

While this makes good use of fish parts we don’t eat and bycatch that can’t be returned to the ocean, fishmeal production can promote overfishing and the decline of fragile marine ecosystems.

Replacing fishmeal with sustainably farmed insects could revolutionize this important aspect of marine conservation.

From pet food to human food

However, black fruit flies are not the only species raised as animal feed. Some species of locusts breed very well and are relatively easy to maintain.

Insects are small and do not require much space, so it is possible to keep them under strictly controlled conditions to optimize their growth and reproduction. Those who keep reptiles are probably familiar with house crickets (Aketa Domestic). These light brown crickets are widely grown as pet food, but their potential as a source of protein for livestock is also attracting attention.

These insects may also eventually become a more direct part of our diet. The Italian Cricket Farm in Turin, Italy, is investigating the possibility of processing crickets into a protein-rich “insect flour” that can be incorporated into our food products. Currently awaiting European food safety approval, it is precisely this type of processing that could become a culturally acceptable way for insects to enter our diets.

In fact, crickets are quite delicious even when eaten without being processed into flour. A few years ago I ran an insect-eating workshop at the Cheltenham Science Festival. At that time, a local chef prepared a series of dishes for people to try. Beer-battered fried brown crickets sandwiched between sage leaves were a snack that people tried at first out of curiosity, but were so delicious they returned within seconds.

Cricket farms in Italy produce around 200,000 crickets a year, which can be scaled up relatively easily. The production efficiency of crickets is amazing. Every 1 kg (2.2 lb) of crickets requires only 1.7 kg (3.7 lb) of feed to produce. Compare this to the 10 kg (22 lb) of feed required to produce 1 kg of beef and the benefits are clear.

Additionally, the final product is incredibly nutritious, containing twice the protein of beef, as well as a variety of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and other nutrients.

Changing tastes and ethics

As with any new idea in food production, potential disadvantages must be carefully considered.

It is clear that what an animal eats can influence the quality of the meat that is subsequently produced. Research on this is ongoing, but data so far suggests that while insect diets can affect the fatty acid content of meat, these changes have no negative impact in terms of taste and are not noticeable. It has been shown that this is not the case.

Another important issue to ponder is the ethics of raising insects. Ethical concerns about animal use are complex and change in response to changes in society and our scientific understanding.

Over the past few decades, we have seen much higher welfare standards introduced into livestock farming than were thought necessary in the past, but many would argue that there is still a long way to go.

These welfare advances have focused primarily on mammals, secondarily on poultry, and to a lesser extent on fish. However, insects are not mentioned at all in ethical discussions about animal use.

In fact, we tend to think that insects cannot feel pain or suffering. However, this view is beginning to change.

We are beginning to learn more about the internal world of insects, and are discovering that they may be able to feel what we perceive as pain. Although this is an emerging field of research, the conclusion is that we may need to rethink the way we think about insects in many cases.

Having said that, I think it is actually very unlikely that we will change our views until insects are given the same welfare measures as “traditional” farm animals. The biggest advantage of using insects for food, either directly or through animal feed, is that they are environmentally friendly.

Dredging oceans for fishmeal and growing soybeans for protein feed are environmentally harmful, associated with high carbon costs and habitat loss or degradation.

On the other hand, raising insects has the potential to significantly reduce environmental impact. They occupy less space, use fewer resources to produce more protein, can utilize waste produced by humans, and do not rely on habitat development or displacement.

Crane fly cakes and locust bread may not be on your plate anytime soon, but insect-raised pork, chicken and beef certainly will be. Maybe that article from 25 years ago was onto something after all. Insects may really be the future of food.

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