# Why aren't insects used more in livestock farming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657 "2017-03-07T22:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/1 "2017-03-07T22:40:45Z")
Probably a really easy question to answer, but it stuck me recently when I was having a discussion of the use of wild fish stocks in some livestock farming…why don’t we use more insects instead of soy or fish stocks? Is there an economic or other reason? Personally, I’m not fond of eating insects myself, but I wouldn’t have an issue with using them to feed to livestock. It SEEMS (me not being a farmer or rancher in any way, shape or form) that it would be easier to grow and harvest large quantities of certain types of insects that could be used to feed the protein needed for livestock and do so on a lot of stuff that’s basically refuse, instead of depleting the oceans or growing a lot of crops to feed the livestock. Maybe I’m missing something, though. Anyone know why this isn’t done more? (and I know that we shouldn’t eat as much meat as we do, and that it would be better for the planet and for ourselves if we lowered that amount substantially…that’s not the question I’m asking though :)) ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/2 "2017-03-07T22:44:58Z")
Fish meal is a byproduct of the fishing industry. They’re repurposing a waste product. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/3 "2017-03-07T23:15:52Z")
What kind of insects do you think could be grown in massive quantities to feed livestock? And what would you feed the insects, if you’re not growing crops to feed them? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/4 "2017-03-07T23:24:20Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > What kind of insects do you think could be grown in massive quantities to feed livestock? And what would you feed the insects, if you’re not growing crops to feed them? Well, I was being lazy and hoping some 'doper would come along and do the work for me. However, since that doesn’t seem to be happening I gritted my teeth and looked it up. 😛 In [this](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/feature-why-insects-could-be-ideal-animal-feed) article the say they can use waste products to feed the insects that can then be used to feed the livestock. > [@](#): > > THE BEST WAY TO TURN INSECTS into food is simply to eat them—and in many countries people already do. More than 2 billion people occasionally cook caterpillars, boil beetles, or marinate maggots as part of their traditional diet. In Southern Africa, 9.5 billion mopane caterpillars—named for their favorite tree—are harvested every year for human consumption, and in Uganda, a kilogram of grasshoppers is more expensive than a kilogram of beef. > [@](#): > > Environmentally speaking, it’s a great choice, says Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands who co-authored an insect cookbook. Insects produce body mass at an astonishing rate, in part because as coldblooded animals they don’t need to expend energy on regulating their body temperature. Crickets need only 1.7 kilograms of feed to gain a kilogram of body weight; a typical U.S. chicken consumes 2.5 kilograms, pigs 5 kilograms, and cattle 10 kilograms. Another advantage: Most insects can be eaten whole. Only about half of a chicken or a pig is edible; for a cow the fraction is even less. As a result, raising a kilogram of insect protein produces less CO2 than rearing pigs or cattle, Van Huis says, and takes up only one-tenth the land. > > Edible species, of which there are some 2000, are high in protein and rich in micronutrients such as iron and vitamins, several studies have found. A 2012 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), co-authored by Van Huis, noted “the huge potential that insects offer for enhancing food security.” > [@](#): > > But beyond the safety unknowns, putting insects on the menu faces a bigger obstacle, Van Huis says: “Most people are simply disgusted by the idea of eating insects.” Feeding insects to livestock may have a lower environmental payoff but could be easier to sell to the public, and it makes the safety concerns less acute. (And, who knows, insect enthusiasts say, once farm animals start eating insects, humans might begin to find the idea less repulsive.) > > Studies suggest that many animals do just fine on insects—which after all are a natural staple for creatures from chicken to trout. A 2014 review by FAO scientists of feeding trials conducted on catfish, tilapia, rainbow trout, and several other fish species, as well as crustaceans, chickens, and pigs, concluded that insect meal could replace between 25% and 100% of soymeal or fishmeal in the animals’ diets with no adverse effects. Most insect meals were deficient in calcium and the amino acids methionine and lysine, but those can be added cheaply. The authors noted that the aroma and texture of fish did not change when they were fed on black soldier fly larvae. I guess this is the actual answer to the OP: > [@](#): > > REGULATORS IN EUROPE and the United States, however, still have concerns. In the United States, using insects as feed is allowed in some states but not others. EnviroFlight, a company based in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is rearing black soldier fly maggots and selling them as food for pets and zoo animals. The company is working with the Food and Drug Administration to prove it’s also safe to feed its larvae to animals eaten by humans. Feeding trials, mainly of fish, are underway, and nationwide approval could come as early as September 2016, predicts EnviroFlight’s founder and director Glen Courtright. “That would open the flood gates.” > > Europe is warier, in part because of the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease, in the 1980s and 1990s. BSE is caused by misfolded brain proteins. It spread among cows because they were fed proteins extracted from the remains of other cows, and a few hundred people who ate infected beef caught a fatal human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In response, the European Union banned the feeding of almost any type of animal protein to farmed animals. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/5 "2017-03-08T01:02:39Z")
> [@XT](#): > > EnviroFlight, a company based in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is rearing black soldier fly maggots and selling them as food for pets and zoo animals. The company is working with the Food and Drug Administration to prove it’s also safe to feed its larvae to animals eaten by humans. Well golly, now I have another reason to visit Yellow Springs, Ohio. Maybe I’ll go June 10th for the Yellow Springs Street Fair, which promises fun, food and frolic for the whole family. In addition to such great vendors as Wicked Stitch of the West, the New Richmond Alpaca Farm and Urban Baby Bonnets, I can look forward to the ENviroFlight Maggot Booth, offering Original, Extra Crunchy and Marinated. Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/6 "2017-03-08T01:05:04Z")
I think there’s resistance from the marketplace. People don’t like the idea of eating insects and that includes doing it at second hand. We associate insects with disease and contamination and there’s a feeling that meat from insect-fed animals is somehow tainted. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/7 "2017-03-08T01:11:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think there’s resistance from the marketplace. People don’t like the idea of eating insects and that includes doing it at second hand. We associate insects with disease and contamination and there’s a feeling that meat from insect-fed animals is soymehow tainted. But if you sell organic free-range chicken, that’s what you’re selling. Them yummy chickies loves them some bugs! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/8 "2017-03-08T02:36:07Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > But if you sell organic free-range chicken, that’s what you’re selling. Them yummy chickies loves them some bugs! I’m not going to pretend these feelings are rational. But they exist for a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/9 "2017-03-08T03:02:18Z")
The TWiT podcast network show _[The New Screen Savers](https://twit.tv/shows/new-screen-savers/episodes/94?autostart=false)_ had a guest this week from [a company called Tiny Farms](http://www.tiny-farms.com/) talking about their crickets that they sell as a snack food. They appear at 1 hour, 13 minutes into the program on the first link. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/10 "2017-03-08T03:09:56Z")
How well does this scale? I’m sure it’s easy for relatively isolated tribes and farmers to source enough insects or their own uses, but what about at a factory farming scale? Do you build a huge net over a field of greens for them to eat? How do you harvest them? Is this the kind of thing that would need to be done in a greenhouse or some other structure, making it more expensive? It’s sort of like creating biofuel from algae. It works great in a lab or otherwise small scale, but when you need growing pools the size of lakes with controlled temperatures and the ability to capture gasses and such, then it gets much more difficult. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/11 "2017-03-08T03:32:36Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > But if you sell organic free-range chicken, that’s what you’re selling. Them yummy chickies loves them some bugs! But they’re free-range bugs. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/12 "2017-03-08T04:19:19Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > How well does this scale? I’m sure it’s easy for relatively isolated tribes and farmers to source enough insects or their own uses, but what about at a factory farming scale? Do you build a huge net over a field of greens for them to eat? How do you harvest them? Is this the kind of thing that would need to be done in a greenhouse or some other structure, making it more expensive? It’s sort of like creating biofuel from algae. It works great in a lab or otherwise small scale, but when you need growing pools the size of lakes with controlled temperatures and the ability to capture gasses and such, then it gets much more difficult. Watch the video I linked. They are raising these crickets inside. They’ve open sourced their method, so you can [download the documentation](https://github.com/TinyFarms/OpenBugFarm) and duplicate their techniques. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/13 "2017-03-08T05:54:23Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > Fish meal is a byproduct of the fishing industry. They’re repurposing a waste product. Some fishmeal is from fishing waste but a great deal is caught and processed purposely into oil and fishmeal. There are large industrial fleets operating out of Chile and Peru feeding the worldwide protein markets. Production of 730,000 metric tons in Peru alone. > **[Fishmeal production expected to jump in Peru](https://www.feednavigator.com/Article/2017/03/07/Fishmeal-production-expected-to-jump-in-Peru)** > > Fishmeal production along with corn and soybean meal imports are on the upturn in Peru based on feed demand, says USDA. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/14 "2017-03-08T17:48:02Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Some fishmeal is from fishing waste but a great deal is caught and processed purposely into oil and fishmeal. There are large industrial fleets operating out of Chile and Peru feeding the worldwide protein markets. > > Production of 730,000 metric tons in Peru alone. > > [Fishmeal production expected to jump in Peru](http://www.feednavigator.com/Markets/Fishmeal-production-expected-to-jump-in-Peru) Thanks for the link **Dallas** I would have never thought prices would rise to the point that meal was more valuable than the actual anchovies. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/15 "2017-03-08T17:54:11Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > What kind of insects do you think could be grown in massive quantities to feed livestock? And what would you feed the insects, if you’re not growing crops to feed them? Crickets or locusts could be raised on any kind of non-edible plant matter - such as stalks and shucks from corn - then the insects fed to chickens - it’s not necessarily very efficient, but if it concentrates nutrition from a waste product that chickens wouldn’t eat, it could be worthwhile. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-insects-used-more-in-livestock-farming/781657/16 "2017-03-08T17:57:06Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > But if you sell organic free-range chicken, that’s what you’re selling. Them yummy chickies loves them some bugs! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in my experience, chickens that have eaten a lot of insects, as opposed to processed pellet food, taste better - and definitely their eggs do. In particular (and I know this from eating insects) some of the rich, buttery flavour of the insects seems to make it through into the eggs and tissues of the fowl. You are what you eat.