Insect Protein Providing ‘Inexperienced’ Livestock Feed Different as Market Demand Soars

Making a meal out of bugs ranks first for many people — since edible protein supplements from crawling grasshoppers, buzzing flies, and hopping crickets aren’t mainstream in Western cultures.

Still, some advocates of sustainable agriculture have found a way around this stigma by using insect protein in cattle feed.

Often marketed as a green alternative for products like soy, experts estimate that demand for insect protein in animal feed will reach 500,000 tons by 2030.

Some analysts expect the insect breeding industry to surpass the $3 billion mark by 2027. That’s a growth rate of 33 percent over the next five years alone.

A logo is pictured at the Nestle research center in Verschez-les-Blanc in Lausanne, Switzerland, August 20, 2020. (Denis Balibouse/REUTERS)

Because the demand for protein continues to increase in step with the world population. Analysis suggests that commercial food production will need to ramp up by 70 percent by 2050 to meet rising food demand.

Insect breeders have taken the spotlight. Large companies have already invested in research into using insect meal in animal feed. Some have already started putting it in pet food.

In 2020, Nestle announced that its Purina Beyond Nature protein pet food would contain insect meal as a key ingredient. Available for dogs and cats, the brand uses a mix of beetles, chicken and broad beans.

Purina uses black soldier fly larvae, which is a popular protein supplement for animal feed. It is also found in European cattle feed.

“You’re building a facility for black soldier flies or other insects where you can produce them year-round where soy only gets one crop a year,” Jeffery Tomberlin told The Epoch Times.

Tomberlin is an entomologist and director of the Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program at Texas A&M University. He investigates the potential of insect protein for human and animal consumption.

Providing Direct Benefits

“I think the black soldier fly is an example that has direct benefit. We can produce more per year at the given location than soya or anything else the line Grain. And we can recycle things pollutes the environment as a source of black soldier fly,” he said.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has been experimenting with insect protein as a substitute for soy in chicken feed since 2018.

During the Feed Protein Vision event that year, Nicola Robinson, former director of global sustainable sourcing at McDonald’s, said: “One of the main reasons we are looking for alternative proteins is our commitment to forests.”

Other well-known names entering the edible bug arena include Tyson Foods, Mars, and PepsiCo.

Sustainability in livestock farming is a hot topic everywhere. As a result, companies and investors are jumping on the insect protein bandwagon.

The main goal is to reduce the environmental impact of crops.

This leaves insect protein in some pretty big footsteps, as an estimated 80 percent of soy produced worldwide is fed to livestock.

am I superior?

“Insects are more sustainable than soy in many ways, not just in terms of CO2 emissions. They require less water, less farmland and less waste. They are also a climate resilient crop as it is grown indoors all year round,” Hargol FoodTech CEO Dror Tamir told The Epoch Times.

Tamir and his fellow insect breeders make food supplements from locusts. The company uses vertical farming to produce a locust supplement.

The nutrient-dense powder contains 72 percent complete protein and other essential nutrients like omega-3 and omega-6. It also has zinc, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins B and E.

Hargol FoodTech at the SIAL Paris event. (Courtesy of Hargol FoodTech)

“Especially for Hargol’s locusts, it’s even more humane than soybean cultivation. When growing soy, farmers must kill all animals around them: insects, birds, reptiles, lizards, and mammals. They do this with pesticides and traps, which are cruel and also contaminate the environment,” Tamir explained.

Tamir says his company’s method of growing insects uses no pesticides, fertilizers, hormones or antibiotics. As an added bonus, no secondary processing is required to extract protein from locusts like soy.

“Even harvesting is humane,” he said.

Along with locusts and black soldier flies, some of the most commonly used beetles in supplements include silkworms, mealworms, and crickets.

Insect farms have a low carbon footprint, which is a key selling point for climate change advocates. Analysis suggests that insect farming emits 75 percent less carbon and uses half the water than poultry farms alone.

Despite operational advantages and “green” appeal, insect protein and soy should not be rivals, according to Tomberlin.

“One thing I want to point out is that we shouldn’t look at the industry as competitors for soy, but how these industries can work together. … Together we can provide balanced nutrition for the livestock, poultry and aquaculture industries.”

Industry Challenges

As with all breakthrough ideas, there are hurdles to overcome in the real world. In order for insect farming to achieve its projected growth projections, several obstacles must be overcome.

These include cost efficiency and regulatory infrastructure.

“From our point of view, the biggest challenges are costs and safety aspects,” said Tamir. “The industry is still in a relatively early stage of development [a] We need to improve production efficiencies and reduce costs while competing in one of the most efficient commodity markets.”

Relative to traditional crops, soy is incredibly land and water efficient. It’s also the least expensive source of protein, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Tamir also says more research is needed on insect protein in terms of safety, digestibility and health benefits for each animal.

Tomberlin repeated this.

“I think that’s the biggest challenge [insect protein] is young. We’re trying to figure out how to produce it economically,” he said.

“If you look at the production of soy or other row crops, they can be produced much more cheaply than insect-based protein.”

Tomberlin agrees with Tamir’s thoughts and says the industry needs to develop infrastructure that allows for better production while addressing contamination prevention, quality control and digestive issues.

Some research has questioned the vaunted protein benefits of certain insects.

An employee at the L’Atelier a pates factory empties a basket with some insect meal (locusts or crickets) to make pasta (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images)

A study examining the protein content of crickets fed five different diets found that only those fed a grain-based diet – similar to that of chickens – produced comparable protein to poultry.

This calls into question the ecological benefit of feeding insects to animals — or consuming insects directly — when they require a diet similar to livestock to replicate the protein of regular meat.

One of the authors of the Cricket study, Mark Lundy, wrote: “I think the sustainability claims on this subject have been exaggerated given the current state of knowledge.”

But right now, the insect protein business is booming.

consequences

Autumn is a South America-based reporter who primarily covers Latin American issues for The Epoch Times.