Bugs were supposed to be the future of food.
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Bugs were supposed to be the future of food. Now, the insect farming industry is collapsing.
“We have to get used to the idea of eating insects.”
This proclamation came from, of all people, an insect researcher. Dutch entomologist Marcel Dicke pitched eating bugs in his 2010 TED talk as critical to sustainably feeding a growing human population, because insects have a much smaller carbon footprint than beef, pork, and chicken.
Spoiler alert: We did not get used to the idea of eating insects.
In 2020, insect companies farmed an estimated one trillion bugs, and the most commonly farmed species today are black soldier fly larvae, mealworms, and crickets.
While some people might tell researchers they’re open to adding bugs to their diet, these smallest of animals remain a novelty food in the US and Europe, as opposed to a commodity capable of displacing wings or burgers.
“The human food market, basically, has not materialized,” Dustin Crummett, a philosopher and executive director of The Insect Institute — a nonprofit that researches the environmental and animal welfare implications of large-scale insect agriculture — told me. “Only a tiny fraction of farmed insects are used for human food.”
Bugs were supposed to be the future of food. Now, the insect farming industry is collapsing.
How the frenzy over farming insects for food went bust.
Vox (www.vox.com)
-
Bugs were supposed to be the future of food. Now, the insect farming industry is collapsing.
“We have to get used to the idea of eating insects.”
This proclamation came from, of all people, an insect researcher. Dutch entomologist Marcel Dicke pitched eating bugs in his 2010 TED talk as critical to sustainably feeding a growing human population, because insects have a much smaller carbon footprint than beef, pork, and chicken.
Spoiler alert: We did not get used to the idea of eating insects.
In 2020, insect companies farmed an estimated one trillion bugs, and the most commonly farmed species today are black soldier fly larvae, mealworms, and crickets.
While some people might tell researchers they’re open to adding bugs to their diet, these smallest of animals remain a novelty food in the US and Europe, as opposed to a commodity capable of displacing wings or burgers.
“The human food market, basically, has not materialized,” Dustin Crummett, a philosopher and executive director of The Insect Institute — a nonprofit that researches the environmental and animal welfare implications of large-scale insect agriculture — told me. “Only a tiny fraction of farmed insects are used for human food.”
Bugs were supposed to be the future of food. Now, the insect farming industry is collapsing.
How the frenzy over farming insects for food went bust.
Vox (www.vox.com)
-
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