Thread by @bopinion

The European Union’s landmark decision to approve insects for human consumption was a victory for maggots and people everywhere.

It paves the way for an alternative protein source that should play a critical role in feeding a hotter, more populous world trib.al/2RC6aSi

For most consumers, the EU decision won’t translate to bugs in your burgers and mealworms in your macaroni.

Insects will play a far more integral role in human food systems going forward.

But they won’t likely be a direct form of protein trib.al/nsR7RQ7

🐛 Insects are becoming an increasingly valuable indirect food source — a feedstock for poultry, farmed fish, pork and beef which are currently fattened on environmentally costly soy and corn feeds trib.al/nsR7RQ7

Humans have been consuming edible insects — from crickets and grasshoppers to fire ants and termites — since before the dawn of civilization.

About 80% of the world’s population throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, continues to eat bugs today trib.al/nsR7RQ7

In 2020, global investments in insect protein nearly doubled to about $475 million.

The animal feed industry is vastly bigger and relies heavily on water and carbon-intensive farming of grains trib.al/nsR7RQ7

Insect-based animal feeds could be this industry’s best shot at building climate resilience, while also helping to manage a food waste crisis.

The environmental benefits of insect proteins both for human and animal consumption are astounding
trib.al/nsR7RQ7

Black soldier fly larvae hold promise: These bugs serve as high-quality chicken and fish feed and require 1,000 times less land per unit of protein produced compared to soy production, between 50 and 100 times less water, and zero agrochemical inputs trib.al/nsR7RQ7

Insect proteins remain a tiny fraction of the total animal-feed market.

It can shift our food-system paradigm toward sustainability, and this incipient industry has huge economic and environmental potential trib.al/nsR7RQ7