“Future food” – food that promises to be good for you and animals and the environment – has taken on the buzz that was once associated with Silicon Valley start-ups. Younger consumers are increasingly anxious to make ethical, sustainable choices – and tech industry venture capitalists are increasingly keen to invest in them, too. The Californian “alternative meat” company Beyond Meat, valued at around $9bn, has now launched its products in 445 British supermarkets.
Insect protein is not as “sexy” as the alternative meat companies, admits Leah Bessa of the South African start-up Gourmet Grubb, but she feels anyone interested in food security should be looking for multiple solutions. “I don’t think we should be expecting anyone food to solve things,” she says. “The problem with our agriculture system is that we don’t have enough diversity to cater for different climates and landscapes. What’s great about insects is that you can farm them anywhere, in any environment."
Dr. Sarah Beynon, an entomologist who runs the Bug Farm, a working insect farm and visitor attraction in Pembrokeshire, believes we will have to get used to a different idea of farming: hi-tech, robot-operated vertical facilities devoted to maximizing protein yield. As inhumane as that sounds, from the insect’s point of view, she stresses, it’s a good deal. “With insects, we can farm them intensively without compromising their welfare. They’re actually happier when they’re close to many other insects of the same species.” Insect lifecycles are also highly conducive to factory farming: at certain stages of their lives they produce heat and at other stages they need heat, so an indoor farm can be more efficient than an outdoor farm in a warmer climate.
Still, Beynon worries that using insects for livestock feed could end up serving to prop up a dysfunctional and wasteful food system. “It’s an important stepping stone, especially where it comes to replacing unsustainable fishmeal – but it’s not actually attacking the problem itself,” she says. The problem is our insane overconsumption of meat. “It’s slightly crazy to me to feed the by-products of plant-based farming to insects which are then fed into an animal-based farming system. The more extra steps you have in the food chain, the more energy, and food you’re wasting. It’s always more efficient and sustainable to take a step out.”
Read the complete article at www.theguardian.com.