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Insects are not a solution despite already being used today. Strawberry flavored ice-cream anyone? Yeah that's beetles. And some peptides from insects are us

Insects are not a solution despite already being used today. Strawberry flavored ice-cream anyone? Yeah that's beetles. And some peptides from insects are used in modern medicine. But willingly switch from energy dense meats to insects? Not until there are no other options and even then the insect option will be short lived when we that far into trouble. Insects may be in a distant dystopian future where governments/people paralyze themselves into inaction and don't act to improve water storage and delivery. Even then it would be a short term solution because when the water is gone, the people are gone shortly thereafter. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Even if one believes insects would save the environment there would have to be peer reviewed studies done to show the environmental differences when we are talking about the scale of insect farms required to feed a nation or world. A few insect farms are not going to have the same impact as replacing all meat farms with the size and quantity of insect farms to meet the caloric and amino-acid replacement requirements. That is something else that would need many studies of course. Vitamin, mineral, collagen and other proteins, specific EAA/BCAA amino-acid profiles, and quantity of insects required to meet those replacement needs. Not all proteins are equal in protein and fat content. Fat is required to release bile from the gallbladder. This means finding the right balance of insects to get enough fat for bile release to break down proteins. Fat is highly variable in different species of insects. Insects would be introducing new bacterium into the human gut biome. Scientists are barely beginning to understand the gut-brain axis what what bacterium have what downstream effects. Some cultures already consume supplemental insects but their gut biome have evolved over a long period to handle this. There would also need to be studies on the impact to the endocrine and immune systems. Some people may have allergic and auto-immune reactions to specific bugs. There may be changes to hormone levels, positive or negative. Will the food packaging list the specific insects and quantity of each insect? From the hygienic point of view it should be pointed out that some insects may produce or contain toxic bioactive compounds. Each insect would need a toxicity profile and/or those toxins would need to be isolated and removed from the final product. Then there is the risk of cross contamination of insect farms and vegetable crop farms. Putting certain insects near crops in large amounts are a high risk to those farm owners. There would need to be regulations to prevent insect swarms escaping and destroying crops in their migratory path. Insects must not be introduced into a state that primarily contains farms with the foods those insects would consume.

usrbinbash 5y ago
> there would have to be peer reviewed studies There are. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-017-0452-8 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-017-0452-8 The science is pretty much clear on the topic; Insects beat "classic" meat production methods in every efficiency metric. 1kg of insect protein requires: 1.7kg of feed and 5l of water 1kg of beef protein requires: 20-25kg of feed and 15500l of water Most of the food used as animal feed has to be grown on arable land. A lot of it (soy, corn, ...) is actually edible for humans. Insects on the other hand, can consume what essentially amounts to waste-products such as spent grain from breweries. > Not all proteins are equal in protein and fat content. Fat is required to release bile from the gallbladder. Insects protein consists of the same 20 proteinogenic amino-acids as those of other animals. And there are more than enough sources of fat available, even if one completely abandons meat. > Putting certain insects near crops in large amounts are a high risk to those farm owners. The insects used in meat production are not crop-pests. And I would be alot more worried about naturally ocurring pests, which benefit from the huge mono-cultured plants we use to produce animal feed.
- LinuxBender 5y ago
  Fair enough. Those are good numbers on the water. Have any studies been done to determine if insects would add new allergens or toxins that humans are not ready to metabolize? There are existing groups that eat insects but I think they would have to be excluded from the studies as their gut biome will have adapted over a longer period of time. Have there been a large group of volunteers to live off insects? Maybe a college town? What I am most curious about is what if any labeling will have to occur on packages to detail what specific insects were being utilized. Fat content does vary from 5% to 45% on different species of insects so I think that does actually matter. And different insects have different toxins just like plants so there will be people allergic to a more or less degree to specific insects.
  - usrbinbash 5y ago
    >here are existing groups that eat insects but I think they would have to be excluded from the studies as their gut biome will have adapted over a longer period of time. The "gut biome" is not a genetically fixed factor. It is a collection of acquired microorganisms and changes as we change what we eat, how much, how physically active we are, what substances the organism comes in contact with. etc. And yes, there is scientific literature on the subject, lots of it: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=insects+human+food+safety&hl=de&as_sdt=0,5 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=insects+human+... > Fat content does vary from 5% to 45% on different species of insects so I think that does actually matter Fat content also varies wildly in classical meat, and in plants, so what about it? Just as with all other food sources, someone living on an insect-based diet must take care to balance required nutritients.

usrbinbash 5y ago

> there would have to be peer reviewed studies There are. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-017-0452-8 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-017-0452-8 The science is pretty much clear on the topic; Insects beat "classic" meat production methods in every efficiency metric. 1kg of insect protein requires: 1.7kg of feed and 5l of water 1kg of beef protein requires: 20-25kg of feed and 15500l of water Most of the food used as animal feed has to be grown on arable land. A lot of it (soy, corn, ...) is actually edible for humans. Insects on the other hand, can consume what essentially amounts to waste-products such as spent grain from breweries. > Not all proteins are equal in protein and fat content. Fat is required to release bile from the gallbladder. Insects protein consists of the same 20 proteinogenic amino-acids as those of other animals. And there are more than enough sources of fat available, even if one completely abandons meat. > Putting certain insects near crops in large amounts are a high risk to those farm owners. The insects used in meat production are not crop-pests. And I would be alot more worried about naturally ocurring pests, which benefit from the huge mono-cultured plants we use to produce animal feed.

LinuxBender 5y ago
Fair enough. Those are good numbers on the water. Have any studies been done to determine if insects would add new allergens or toxins that humans are not ready to metabolize? There are existing groups that eat insects but I think they would have to be excluded from the studies as their gut biome will have adapted over a longer period of time. Have there been a large group of volunteers to live off insects? Maybe a college town? What I am most curious about is what if any labeling will have to occur on packages to detail what specific insects were being utilized. Fat content does vary from 5% to 45% on different species of insects so I think that does actually matter. And different insects have different toxins just like plants so there will be people allergic to a more or less degree to specific insects.
- usrbinbash 5y ago
  >here are existing groups that eat insects but I think they would have to be excluded from the studies as their gut biome will have adapted over a longer period of time. The "gut biome" is not a genetically fixed factor. It is a collection of acquired microorganisms and changes as we change what we eat, how much, how physically active we are, what substances the organism comes in contact with. etc. And yes, there is scientific literature on the subject, lots of it: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=insects+human+food+safety&hl=de&as_sdt=0,5 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=insects+human+... > Fat content does vary from 5% to 45% on different species of insects so I think that does actually matter Fat content also varies wildly in classical meat, and in plants, so what about it? Just as with all other food sources, someone living on an insect-based diet must take care to balance required nutritients.