
The Rise of Edible Insect Farming - Osiris30
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-insects-as-food/
======
ravenstine
As someone who was eating insects long before cricket protein bars became in
vogue, I don't see entomophagy becoming anything more than a fad in the west,
especially America.

The taste of insects simply does not compare to meat and poultry. Granted,
this has a lot to do with cultural expectations, but that's exactly why I
don't think that people are going to gradually shift to consuming a very
different flavor.

Also, as someone who used to be heavily into protein, I don't buy the notion
that people need more protein than what they are currently getting. A human
body really doesn't need that much protein, and even body builders don't need
as much protein as they often consume. If someone is telling you that you need
to consume protein, it's probably because they're trying to sell you
something. Even more so if they are calling it a "super-food".

Maybe things will actually change. I dunno. The insects that I thought were
the most tasty(moth caterpillars) are the ones that people are least likely to
want to eat. People might be fine with dried crickets and meal worms, but I
challenge them to eat something more substantial.

Every "bug person" I used to follow on social media warns us of a looming food
crisis and that insects will save the world. I thought it no coincidence that
most of them either give paid lectures, sell books, or are associated with a
"bug startup".

~~~
jcfrei
> The taste of insects simply does not compare to meat and poultry.

Poultry, especially the meat of chicken and turkeys is close to tasteless. I
would argue the opposite, the average consumer doesn't really care for the
taste of the meat itself as long as the marinade is delicious.

~~~
notheguyouthink
Which makes me wonder, what would industrialized farming and eating of insects
do to the taste?

~~~
beauzero
They would taste like chicken.

------
always_good
The imminent insects-as-food transition has been "just around the corner" at
least since I was reading Popular Science magazine in middle school.

Always with the same scare-pretext of "whelp, we'll have no choice! get ready
to knock back some crickets whether you like it or not ;)". Then it plots out
how much meat Americans eat and shows how it's unsustainable.

It just doesn't follow logically to me.

What seems more likely is that we will ween off of the idea that we need meat
in every single meal. And once you also factor in the possibility of pricing
in externalities, meat will become – at least – a dinner treat.

Meat is already subsidized by animal neglect, sketchy tactics, and mass
pollution. I wouldn't mind if we were paying the honest price of meat at the
market today. We'd get this cultural change on the roll, and we'd probably
have something better already. And it won't be bugs.

~~~
foolfoolz
i think even more likely: we will find a way to make our consumption of meat
more sustainable

~~~
izzydata
Like all that "just around the corner" lab grown meat?

~~~
codefined
We seem to have seen a massive, measurable improvement in lab grown meat in
the past 2-3 years. Going down from hundreds of thousands of dollars to single
digit prices[0].

I don't know how the market is going to respond, but if we get a similar
decrease in price it should get a large market share, having no noticeable
negative attributes.

[0] [https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-
gets-m...](https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-gets-made-
will-be-more-complicated-in-2020) [1]
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-
gr...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-
available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html)

~~~
azernik
I'm looking for the source for that number; it seems to come from Mark Post
(head of a company in the space), and the closest I can find to an original
quote is him saying last year that "it's possible" to grow at $80/kilo (i.e.
single-digits per hamburger patty).

I would be very skeptical of that specific number while there are no market
transactions going on.

------
zackmorris
Many Native American tribes practiced land fishing, where long nets were
strung out and left for a day to catch grasshoppers and whatever else got
stuck in them. I'm having trouble finding links though:

[https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-eating-
bugs...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-eating-bugs-america)

[http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/amerindians.htm](http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/amerindians.htm)

[http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/insectsasfood/files/2012/09/Boo...](http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/insectsasfood/files/2012/09/Book_Chapter_2.pdf)
<\- warning PDF

"En'neh, or grasshoppers, are eaten by the Konkau. They catch them with nets,
or by driving them into pits, then roast them and reduce them to powder for
preservation."

You can live very well off the land (even in deserts) if you are willing to
eat insects, because their combined mass can be higher than the visible
wildlife. Ethically if I had to choose between hunting and butchering animals
or having more food than I could handle from passively-caught grasshoppers, I
might choose the latter!

------
smurphy
This idea is terrible. Chitin, the sugar in bug exoskeletons, activates the
innate human immune system. Switching out our proteins with bugs would surely
cause a rise in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin#Humans_and_other_mammal...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin#Humans_and_other_mammals)

~~~
logfromblammo
Non-human chitinases would simply be added as a processing step. This might be
as simple as canning the grubs in tomato sauce, or serving them with avocado.

People do eat mushrooms and shellfish, after all.

Larger insects can have their exoskeletons removed or partially removed, and
those can be turned into chitosan, just like the shells from peeled shrimp.

~~~
smurphy
The Wikipedia article mentions that chitin's degradation products are still
recognized. Do you think these chitinases would break the bonds enough to
bypass immune recognition?

~~~
logfromblammo
It was not clear to me whether the degradation products of human chitinase and
non-human chitinases are the same, which is why I explicitly specified non-
human chitinases.

It seems likely to me that people with latex-fruit allergies would also be
allergic to the breakdown products from non-human chitinases, whereas those
with shellfish and dust mite allergies would also be allergic to the breakdown
products from human chitinase. Either way, it is likely to be a food allergen.

------
leoreeves
To be honest, I'm holding out for clean meat, eating insects just seems
unnecessary to me, especially because of welfare considerations—insects
potentially have the capacity to feel pain and you have to kill a significant
amount of insects just to make a small amount of food.

"Considerable empirical evidence supports the assertion that insects feel pain
and are conscious of their sensations. In so far as their pain matters to
them, they have an interest in not being pained and their lives are worsened
by pain. Furthermore, as conscious beings, insects have future (even if
immediate) plans with regard to their own lives, and the death of insects
frustrates these plans. In that sentience appears to be an ethically sound,
scientifically viable basis for granting moral status and in consideration of
previous arguments which establish a reasonable expectation of consciousness
and pain in insects, I propose the following, minimum ethic: We ought to
refrain from actions which may be reasonably expected to kill or cause
nontrivial pain in insects when avoiding these actions has no, or only
trivial, costs to our own welfare." — Jeffery A. Lockwood

[http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl...](http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1712&context=bts)

------
bcatanzaro
I'm much more enthusiastic about plant-based foods than insects. The
impossible burger is pretty fantastic - there's no cultural barrier to
overcome, and I expect it's even better for the planet than crickets.

~~~
phil248
"there's no cultural barrier to overcome"

There is indeed a cultural barrier in the United States when it comes to
vegetarian diets. Many Americans avoid "fake meat" due to their cultural
beliefs.

~~~
RandallBrown
Yeah, but you won't find any Americans that avoid eating things made of
plants. You will definitely find Americans that avoid eating things made of
bugs.

~~~
phil248
Many Americans avoid eating things made out of plants. For example, tofu or
veggie burgers. Like I said, this is a cultural phenomenon, similar to but
less severe than the cultural proclivity to avoid eating insects.

Though many Americans don't seem to mind eating snails.

~~~
adrianN
I eat tofu quite often, but I don't eat fake meat. If I want meat, I buy meat.
I don't like the idea of plant protein being tortured until it resembles a
completely different product.

~~~
phil248
Funny use of words, avoiding figuratively "tortured" plant proteins and
instead opting for literally tortured animals.

------
1996
As a kid I hated eating insects. I still do - I don't understand how people
can.

However, my definition of insects includes crawfish, lobster, urchins etc.
They are fancy insects, but I do not see much difference between most seafood
and bugs, except the size maybe.

It is socially acceptable to eat seafood. It wasn't always like that. New
England had rules against feeding your employees lobster more than once a
week!

Give it time, a generation or two, and people will eat bugs. After all, it's
just food! What we used to say round my place: it it moves, kill it. If it's
dead, cook it, and eat it.

~~~
nkrisc
Most people don't think about it that way, but you're right. Insects and
crustaceans are all arthropods and similar in many ways.

Personally, I always imagined whoever the first person to eat a lobster was
must have been very hungry indeed.

~~~
1996
Biology rules :-)

------
patorjk
> Some people say it will be like sushi in 20 years. I am really optimistic
> that it may be a lot faster

This outlook does not seem realistic. 20 years ago I remember watching a news
segment on Australian TV about how eating bugs was the future. The people they
interviewed were mostly grossed out. I don't think much has changed. I think
it's more likely that you'll see people take up a more vegetarian diet if meat
starts to become scarce.

~~~
kpil
I think it might be more than just "culture". Bugs, maggots and worms are
associated with disease, decay, and death.

I doubt I've learned to jump when I see a spider, or gross out when I find
maggots in the garbage can,there's probably a large portion of instinct there.

I just about tolerate eating shrimp mainly because it tastes so darn good. If
it would taste so so, I'd pass.

The whole thing seem more related to lobbying so that large corporations can
sell even cheaper junk to us as food. I have no doubts that they would scoop
up and sell us processed waste directly from the sewer if they got away with
it.

~~~
lookACamel
The association is mostly due to urbanization and the effect that has had on
the human psyche.

------
contingencies
The author of the famous natural farming manifesto _The One-Straw Revolution_
[0], Masanobu Fukuoka[1], was a microbiologist assigned by the Japanese army
to evaluate the edibility of various insects encountered by the army as they
spread across Southeast Asia. He concluded that almost all of them were
edible.

I tried a cricket burger recently at the F&A Next[2] event at Wageningen,
Europe's pre-eminent agricultural university[1], which may have even been
sourced from the farm in this article. While the taste was OK, I literally
woke up early in the morning with stomach pain.

[0]
[http://www.appropedia.org/images/d/d3/Onestraw.pdf](http://www.appropedia.org/images/d/d3/Onestraw.pdf)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wageningen_University_and_Rese...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wageningen_University_and_Research)

~~~
baybal2
>woke up early in the morning with stomach pain.

Why?

~~~
contingencies
I believe it was the burger, since it was the only thing I ate all day that
could have caused such a reaction. Despite the experience I remain a big
supporter of vegetarian food and meat alternatives. It's still early days for
an industry that has to overturn deep cultural bias.

------
chriselles
A couple of folks I helped mentor at a Startup Weekend founded a company
called Anteater.

I’m not much of a believer in a western culture change that will see us eating
whole insects like we’re living in dystopian Soylent Green.

But I can see protein powder derived from insects being palatable for western
audiences.

But can it be produced profitably at scale?

I’ve eaten a bug on a stick streetfood in Cambodia, I’m not a fan.

~~~
toomanybeersies
I think Anteater is an interesting company. Unfortunately I never got round to
actually talking to them, despite working in the same building a few times.

It seems that their business model is to target high end restaurants and work
down from there. Their product is more of a garnish than an actual food.

They really need to work on their website too.

~~~
chriselles
Some good folks on the team. Two founders still in it.

They won slots on the last Edmund Hillary Fellowship cohort.

Profitable industrial scaling of insect protein and any other
nutrients/byproducts will be interesting to watch.

Particularly any insect bioengineered for food/chemical manufacturing.

But I suspect NZ will NOT be the place for genetic engineering of insects.

------
tomjen3
Somebody brought a bunch of salty crisp mealworms to work. It was a little
wierd first, but they basically taste like thin paper chips; not at all a bad
taste.

For those of you on diets, if I recall correctly they had pretty high fat,
pretty high protein (like 50ish %) and very low amounts of carbs). Might be
worth considering for health issue.

------
louprado
"the muddy pens where as many as 1,200 pigs once wallowed into a climate-
controlled cricket farm. It’s on pace to yield 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds)
of the edible protein this year"

Pigs reach slaughter weight at around 6 months of age at which point it yields
around 180lbs of hanging weight meat.

The article further claims a 18/63 ratio of land required per gram of protein
in favor of crickets.

Assuming they previously slaughtered 1000 pigs a year -> 180,000 lbs * 63/18 =
630,000lbs is their expected cricket protein capacity which is ~200X more than
their current output. Any ideas on why the numbers are so different ?

Edit: I just realized that a pig steak is mostly water and the cricket protein
is likely dehydrated. So it more like 50X not 200X.

------
buovjaga
In a study conducted by University of Turku, 70% of the Finnish respondents
were interested in edible insects and 50% said they would buy food made of
insects, if it were available [0].

Supermarkets in my area here in Helsinki have sold insect foods (breads, bars)
for several months already. I can't comment on the taste as I am a vegetarian
:)

[0]:
[http://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/fff/palvelut/kehitysprojektit/h...](http://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/fff/palvelut/kehitysprojektit/hyonteiset/Documents/Hy%C3%B6nteiset%20ruokaketjussa%20loppuraportti%20\(julkinen\).pdf)

------
lookACamel
If I had to bet between insects and plant-based meat substitutes like the
Impossible Burger, I'd bet on the latter. Insects are cool, but they just
doesn't make sense as a major food staple.

They don't really taste like much. Texture wise, adult insects have too much
chitin. They're not as easy to farm as you think (high death rates).

But the real problem is that they're basically snacks. Finger-food. Toppings.
A person who accepts entomology is not going to automatically stop eating
beef, pork, chicken and fish.

------
warrenski
I met a bunch of people here in Stellenbosch, South Africa at a startup called
Gourmet Grubb. Their first product is an ice-cream made from insect milk,
trademarked EntoMilk - no kidding! Fascinating stuff, check them out here:
[https://gourmetgrubb.com/](https://gourmetgrubb.com/)

------
FooBarWidget
Ignoring whether people want to eat it, is insect protein really worth it?
According to [https://entomologytoday.org/2015/04/15/crickets-are-not-a-
fr...](https://entomologytoday.org/2015/04/15/crickets-are-not-a-free-lunch-
protein-conversion-rates-may-be-overestimated/), it's about as efficient as
chicken. And for insects to produce high-quality protein they need high-
quality feed.

I had an insect burger lately, consisting of crickets and mealworms. It was a
large amount of critters but with a pathetic amount of protein for a
relatively large surface area. It didn't feel as fulfilling as a burger.
That's when it made me wonder whether it's really that efficient.

~~~
lookACamel
That's when it made me wonder whether it's really that efficient.

It's probably not. The reason why cultures around the world have historically
eaten insects is not because insects are easy to farm but because they are
easy to gather from a wild environment. Large scale insect farming as a
replacement for other sorts of large scale farming kind of misses the whole
point.

------
perpetualcrayon
Not knowledgeable in this area, but very curious. I know it would be extremely
expensive to be concerned with extracting "waste" systems of every insect we
consume as we do with other species. What does insect "waste" system consist
of that could help me be more inclined to test this food trend, the risks of
removing the waste systems obviously don't exist as they do with other
species?

------
bayesian_horse
My research into the area has shown me that even though insects are supposed
to use fewer resources, and are grown as animal feed, they are rather more
expensive than most meat sources.

Mainly because of labor costs. Also, counter to intuition, many insects take a
longer time to raise to "market size" than many conventional livestock.

------
carapace
I've been hearing recently about roach farming in China.
[https://qz.com/1257583/a-chinese-farm-is-
breeding-6-billion-...](https://qz.com/1257583/a-chinese-farm-is-
breeding-6-billion-cockroaches-a-year-to-make-medicine/)

------
KnightOfWords
I had some cricket-coated chicken at a bug farm in Pembrokeshire the other
day, it was tasty. As the crickets were ground into a powder it was very
inoffensive. I don't generally like food that can stare back, such as whole
fish, so cricket flour is good for me.

------
komali2
The book "Sourdough" by Robin Sloan touches on eating bugs a bit, as well as
some other fun futuristic food concepts. Also, it namedrops pretty much
everything that exists in the Bay Area, so that's kinda fun.

------
chrisbrandow
We all need some protein and even if we only displace some of that with
insects, it would reduce GW emissions. So I applaud the effort, though
honestly, it grossed me out.

------
bluena
In Cambodia there's a high standing restaurant with insects instead of
proteins. When cooked by a good chef, insects can be delicious and visually
pleasing!

~~~
freeflight
I could buy the delicious part, but I don't think there's anything that could
be done to insects to make them "visually pleasing" to me, at least as long as
they are still recognizable as insects.

------
calebgilbert
Mumbles something about Snowpiercer, shuffles away

------
twfarland
Yeah nah this isn't gonna catch on. Synthetic or simulated meats will mature
commercially first.

------
XalvinX
If they are just ground up anyways, I'm not sure I see why they would be
better than vegetable protein sources...in fact, wouldn't they almost
certainly be less efficient?

~~~
blacksqr
Yes, crickets require high-protein feed to grow at a viable rate. I don't
understand the logic of using the crickets instead of just using the feed.

Black soldier flies, on the other hand, feed on sewage and rotting waste,
things it would be really beneficial to get rid of. Using them as a protein
source makes sense to me, on an intellectual level at least.

~~~
lookACamel
Would you really want to eat something in the food chain only one step removed
from sewage and rotting waste?

~~~
blacksqr
Do you eat mushrooms?

~~~
XalvinX
I love mushrooms. And let's not forget some of the most expensive foods out
there: crabs and lobsters. Early pilgrims in New England refused to eat them
because the found them feasting on dead bodies (particularly human) a bit too
often... Not kidding. Catfish, carp, crayfish, and many other things live on
about the same level, despite being as delicious as Shiitake Mushrooms, which
I just ate tonight! :)

------
bluedino
Grind insects into a fine powder. Start adding them to things. We've magically
added protein to every food, it's more filling and 'better' for us. It's not
like anybody really knows what's in veggie burgers and things of that nature.

Here's my questions:

Is there some biological downside to mass-farming insects for food? Do they
release methane or some other gas that's harmful to our planet?

Cows turn grass or corn into meat which has things like iron, vitamin B, and
monosaturated fat in it. Do insects have these kind of advantages?

~~~
thinkcontext
Both of your questions are answered in the article.

