The duty invites you once again to the back roads of university life. A proposal that is both scholarly and intimate, to be picked up all summer long like a postcard. Today, a foray into sustainable animal production.
By 2025, more than 1.8 billion people will live in regions suffering from absolute water scarcity, worsening the already critical situation of the 805 million people who have been struggling with chronic hunger since 2014. Agri-food systems, responsible for nearly 30% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions and using up to 70% of the world’s fresh water, are at the heart of the problem. Faced with these growing challenges, insects are positioning themselves as an unexpected solution in our diet!
Insect farming requires little water and space compared to traditional farming. Producing one kilogram of insects requires about six liters of water, compared to 2,300, 3,500 and 22,000 liters of water for chicken, pork and beef, respectively. In addition, insect farming emits ten to one hundred times less greenhouse gases than traditional livestock farming, and it does not produce methane.
Eating insects may seem like a new trend, but it is actually already practiced by more than two billion people in 130 countries, and over 1,900 species are consumed. Their use in human and animal food has many benefits, including food bioconversion, as insects such as the black soldier fly, mealworm and cricket can help recycle food waste and products unfit for human consumption.
Examples include brewer’s spent grain, spoiled fruit and vegetables, or any other by-product not used in food processing. In doing so, they are reusing these products by providing a new source of protein and nutrients of a quality comparable to those of poultry and livestock.
For example, 100 grams of fish, pork and beef each provide 26, 25 and 32 grams of protein, respectively, while grasshoppers, mealworms and crickets provide 30, 20 and 18 grams of protein, respectively, all by recovering food waste. Due to their significant contribution to sustainable development, the insect market is estimated to reach a value of $8 billion by 2030. In Quebec, they are mainly found in the form of animal feed or flour, but many enthusiasts also consume dried whole crickets or mealworm larvae, which can be seasoned to the consumer’s taste.
While commercial insect farming may seem new to those who don’t commonly find them in grocery stores, beekeeping is a long-established example of insect production through honey, a familiar commodity in our homes. Bees’ contributions are not limited to honey production, however, as they also play a central role in plant pollination. Their impact therefore extends from ecosystem health to agri-food productivity. Pollination services also provide an important source of income for beekeepers.
However, commercial honeybee production is not without its challenges, with diseases and pesticides being the main causes of colony collapse, so constant vigilance is required to maintain colony health. To minimise the impacts of disease, diagnostic methods are essential to rapidly identify pathogens. Some of these methods are relatively simple, such as for the parasitic mite Varroa destructorwhich can be observed with the naked eye on the bodies of infected bees. Other pathogens, such as the fungus responsible for nosemosis, are much smaller and require more preparation work, as well as counting under a microscope.
Insects intended for human consumption, such as the mealworm or the cricket, are a great opportunity for dietary diversification; they are also appreciated for their taste, their nutritional qualities and their low environmental impact. However, their breeding faces the same kind of challenges as bees, including infectious diseases, which have led to the closure of many cricket breeding facilities. In short, just like other animals, insects can also get sick!
To counteract such inconveniences, it is essential to continue to develop diagnostic tools capable of rapidly detecting stress and diseases in insects. The basic tools available in humans and other animal production, such as blood sampling and detection of infectious agents, must be adapted to the size and anatomy of insects, which differ greatly from those of other animals. These tools are currently little or not available to breeders, but researchers are working hard to develop them, such as the use of glucometers and the examination of hemolymph smears (the blood of insects) to monitor their health.
The development of such technological tools not only ensures the welfare of insects, but also limits potential financial losses for farmers. In addition, the recycling of food waste also requires the responsible management of contaminants in insect-derived products, which is also facilitated by the improvement of available resources and detection tools.
In conclusion, the adoption of insects in our diet has important benefits in terms of environmental sustainability and food security, given their low water consumption, their contribution to pollination or their nutritional contribution. This type of farming will benefit from the innovative approaches that are underway in the development of tools and resources to guarantee their health, sustainable use and a promising future.