Fancy a job with a real buzz? Try insect farming!
MANY consider them to be pests, but we may soon be farming insects – to prevent food shortages in the future.
The creepy-crawlies produce 100 times more protein per year from the same amount of space needed to rear chicken or cattle.
A new ‘how-to’ guide on the benefits of becoming an insect farmer has just been published by Zero Waste Scotland.
The government-backed organisation says that breeding the creatures could be a sustainable, new way to produce more food using fewer resources.
It could also reduce waste and carbon emissions as the bugs would be raised on food waste and then used as animal feed.
William Clark, bioeconomy specialist at Zero Waste Scotland, wrote the guidance. He said: ‘Insect farming is a valuable, circular economy way for us to use food waste to produce more protein using less resources.
‘You can set up an insect farm in a few shipping containers. You don’t need the acres of fields traditional farming requires to feed more typical livestock.
‘They can produce about 100 times more protein per year from the same amount of space than you would get by farming chicken or cattle. Scotland’s food waste could support dozens of insect farms and jobs.’
He added: ‘Farming insects might sound unappetising but it could play a significant role in solving Scotland’s food waste problem.’
EU regulations allow farming of seven species, including field crickets and black soldier flies.
Reared on preconsumer supermarket food waste, the insects are then consumed by farmed fish or used to make pet food. The Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre estimates insect protein for fish farming alone is worth more than £25 million a year.
Regulations were updated in 2018 to allow insects to be farmed for human consumption, and they are expected to be extended for pig and poultry use too.
There are currently no farms in Scotland – but interest in the sector is growing. Thomas Farrugia, who set up insect breeding business Beta Bugs with support from Zero Waste Scotland, said: ‘‘Chicken farming started with farmers wanting to diversify. They cleared space for a single chicken shed which worked well.
‘Over time. they put up more and eventually became chicken farmers. The same could happen with black soldier flies.’