Date:
2018/06/12
Time:
14:30
Room:
K308 Cabinet
Towards a sustainable insect food production system
(Oral)
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SEE PEER REVIEW
Insect production has been suggested as a food production system that could be more sustainable than many conventional livestock systems. Insects are a promising source of nutrients for humans containing high amounts of good quality protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. A sustainable insect industry could have large impacts on land use, ecology and conservation. However, much around insects as a food source are unknown and only a small number of species have been used as livestock. Plenty of new information and understanding is needed if we are to develop food production systems and mass rearing of insects. The promise and also challenge of this food system is to develop it in a sustainable manner that permeates all parts of the production chain. This means that choice of species, rearing facilities, and resource use in terms of feed and energy are core components that needs to be evaluated within a sustainable framework. We suggest important key factors within these components that can guide the way for the future development of insect as minilivestock. These include that insect species chosen should be native so they do not contribute to the increasing invasion problem facing both natural and production systems. The species should have a potential to utilise plant products that cannot be used for humans as food. The animals thereby do not compete with humans for food resources, as is the case of many current food systems. Promising insect taxa are leaf chewers, which include species from the families’ orthoptera, coleoptera and phasmatodea. An evaluation of sustainable resource and energy use indicate that western countries relying heavily on fossil fuel will have harder to reach goals in these areas of the food system.