Developments in gene-editing could mean more insects in our food and fuel supplies: 'The potential for insects in the food supply chain is immense'
Insect farming is gaining traction around the world as a potential source of food for humans, farm animals, and pets, as well as a potential source of biofuel. Several companies are even engaged in gene-editing certain types of insects to improve their protein quality and speed up their development.
"The potential for insects in the food supply chain is immense," said entomologist Virginia Emery, founder and CEO of one such company, the UK-based Beta Hatch.
Beta Bugs, based out of the Roslin Innovation Centre near Edinburgh, focuses on selecting insect strains with the best traits for breeding. The company produces mealworms for use in aquaculture, farm animal nutrition, and pet food — the larva are rich in nutrients, meaning they work well as both food and plant fertilizer.
Mealworms also have some incredible, almost-logic-defying digestive capabilities, which could expand their potential uses even further. "The only known way to biodegrade Styrofoam is in the gut of a mealworm," Emery said.
Along with a company called Better Origin, which farms black soldier flies that can be used as biofuel, Beta Bugs and several other commercial insect producers recently co-founded a group called Insect Bioconversion Association to lobby the UK government for more regulatory approval for their products.
Insects could even make their way into more human food supplies in the near future — in 2021, the European Food Safety Authority approved yellow mealworms for human consumption, classifying them as a "novel food" with no risk to human health.
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Although that may sound strange to some, 2.5 billion people (around a third of all humans) across the globe already consume insects as part of their regular diets.
Compared to the high environmental toll of the meat industry, insect farming has a relatively tiny environmental impact — more insects in our diets means less planet-overheating and water-tainting pollution.
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