Spring 2024

Current agricultural practices have the capacity to feed the world’s population. However, transporting food to people who need it constrains these efforts. Food production is often centralized outside of dense urban populations, furthering separating people from food. Edible insect cultivation poses a sustainable alternative that addresses each facet of food sovereignty: access to enough, nutritious, and culturally significant food. With over 2,000 species of known edible insects around the world, this small livestock (i.e., mini-livestock) offers myriad benefits, including high protein content, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, all while requiring relatively few inputs. This research investigates the viability of small-scale insect cultivation for human consumption. In the US, insects are a rare niche or specialty food item, receiving early market and regulatory attention. Given its current nascency, we focus on the US market to examine its business capacity for market opportunities for this sustainable food source. Mini-livestock offer opportunities for maximizing space efficiency, feed requirements, water availability, protein conversion ratios, and consumer access since it can be done in urban settings. We examine the business market for edible insects through ecological frameworks of resilience and adaptive theory. Over 2 million people worldwide already feature insects in their diets, suggesting viability on a macro scale to address global food insecurity and the need for shifts in conventional agricultural systems to respond to climate change. We contribute transdisciplinary theoretical framing to offer insights on how businesses can leverage resources and constraints in modern contexts to address food sovereignty.

• The FAO estimates a need for a 70-100% increase in food production to support the increasing population
  Stamer, A. (2015). Insect proteins—a new source for animal feed: The use of insect larvae to recycle food waste in high‐quality protein for livestock and aquaculture feeds is held back largely owing to regulatory hurdles. EMBO reports, 16(6), 676-680

• Up to 98% of insect protein is readily digestible by humans and insects have favorable levels of protein compared to beef and pork
  Bessa, L. W., Pieterse, E., Sigge, G., & Hoffman, L. C. (2020). Insects as human food; from farm to fork. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 100(14), 5017-5022

• Insects provide opportunities to help address challenges of sustainable consumption
  Collins, C. M., Vaskou, P., & Kountouris, Y. (2019). Insect food products in the western world: assessing the potential of a new ‘green’market. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 112(6), 518-528

• The global edible insects market is estimated to be worth $16.39 billion by 2032
  https://www.meticulousresearch.com/pressrelease/184/edible-insects-market-2032

• Edible insects represent a growing industry in USA but still receives relatively little attention in research
  Cadinu, L. A., Barra, P., Torre, F., Delogu, F., & Madau, F. A. (2020). Insect rearing: Potential, challenges, and circularity. Sustainability, 12(11), 4567

• The United States has considerable regulations on insects for animal feed but remains lacking in regulations for human consumption through the Food and Drug Administration
  Hunts, H. J., Dunkel, F. V., Thienes, M. J., & Carnegie, N. B. (2020). Gatekeepers in the food industry: acceptability of edible insects. Journal of insects as food and feed, 6(3), 231-243

• Much of the literature surrounding insects involves identifying consumer behavior (e.g., awareness, education, willingness to adopt, how to alter perceptions)
  Yanagawa, Y. (2023). How can businesses reframe insects as food?: A case study of a restaurant in Berlin (Master's thesis, University of Twente)

• Given the finite resources and capacity of this biosphere, we are reaching a point of collapse
  Lawrence, K. S., & Abrutyn, S. B. (2015). The degradation of nature and the growth of environmental concern: Toward a theory of the capture and limits of ecological value. Human Ecology Review, 21(1), 87-108

• Adaptability and transformability are necessary for an equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system 
  Tendall, D. M., Joerin, J., Kopainsky, B., Edwards, P., Shreck, A., Le, Q. B., ... & Six, J. (2015). Food system resilience: Defining the concept. Global Food Security, 6, 17-23

• Collective and collaborative action is needed to make our food systems more sustainable
  Grinnell-Wright, V., Wilson, J., & Downing, P. (2013). Review of evi dence on consumer food-related behaviours that impact on sus tainability: Final Report. A report for Best Foot Forward

• Insects offer opportunities for small-scale, decentralized, nutritious food sovereignty to address food insecurity in urban spaces
  Barragán-Fonseca, K. Y., Barragán-Fonseca, K. B., Verschoor, G., van Loon, J. J., & Dicke, M. (2020). Insects for peace. Current opinion in insect science, 40, 85-93

• Food once unfamiliar or shunned have found their way into modern Western cuisine (e.g., lobster, sushi, kale, quinoa, olive oil, tomatoes)
  Butner, J., & Shockley, M. (2019). Eating insects Athens conference 2018 and the North American coalition for insect agriculture. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 112(6), 500-504