EU regulations on eating insects to save the planet, food safety, feed management, dioxin residues, animal welfare
Crisis is opportunity, and it can even hold new business opportunities.
The greenhouse effect and climate change threaten agriculture, which depends on the whims of the weather. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted in its 2006 report "Livestock's Long Shadow" that, calculated as carbon dioxide, 18% of the world's greenhouse gases come from livestock farming, and livestock manure produces large amounts of nitrous oxide. The mouth-watering meat and milk have become killers of the Earth.
The large-farm model of intensive rearing has become a target of criticism, and people have begun looking for protein substitutes. Beyond traditional legumes, insects such as crickets and mealworms have become eco-friendly and nutritious new stars of cuisine, while the black soldier fly combines waste cleanup and use as feed with the potential of a "circular economy."
Low emissions, low energy use and rich in protein, insects can even turn manure into gold
The crisis of livestock farming has become the livelihood of insect farming, and operators have scented business opportunities.
Among EU countries, Belgium was the first to launch radish, tomato spread and chocolate spread containing mealworms in 2013; neighboring Netherlands also put crickets into dishes, even serving an insect feast at diplomatic banquets.
Apart from bees, insects play only a small role in the European diet. To break down the prejudice against eating insects, promoters echoed the trend of sustainable development and raised the banner of environmental protection, and the FAO's 2013 report "Edible Insects" became the best endorsement.
"Edible Insects" pointed out that because cold-blooded animals need less heat, insects are highly efficient at converting "feed into meat." Producing one kilogram of edible live crickets requires only 1.7 kilograms of feed; by comparison, one kilogram of chicken requires 2.5 kilograms, pork requires 5 kilograms, and beef requires 10 kilograms of feed.
The greenhouse gases emitted by mealworms, crickets and grasshoppers are only about one percent of those from traditional poultry and livestock; in addition, mealworms are drought-tolerant and use less water during rearing. Some insects, such as the black soldier fly, can live on animal and human excrement and kitchen waste, and after eating the waste they can also serve as livestock feed, like a seamless "circular economy."
Insects that are low-emission, low-energy, rich in protein and can even turn "manure into gold" are practically dietary saviors; it is just that Europeans did not know their value in the past. But to get Europeans to eat insects, what must be overcome is not only the perception of "disgust" but also the establishment of a management framework to control public health, food safety and environmental risks.
More than 20 years after Shepard's research was published, the "circular economy" of adding value to pig manure with black soldier flies clearly has not been realized. A flood in 2016 burst at least 14 "pink lagoons," triggering an environmental crisis and also threatening residents' health.
Industrialized intensive farming "turns quantitative change into qualitative change": animal manure on family farms is precious fertilizer, but the excrement from large pig farms is toxic. Although the potential of insects is viewed favorably, the EU, Belgium and Italy all prohibit livestock and insects raised on excrement from entering the human food chain.
Under the good name of environmental protection and the moral temptation of relieving hunger, if the interests of multiple parties are not calmly and objectively assessed and a legal and enforcement framework is not established, the turning point and business opportunity of insect farming also hold hidden crises.