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Breed insects to improve human food security: UN report
Farms processing insects for animal feed might soon become global reality as demand grows for sustainable feed sources
The best way to feed the 9 billion people expected to be alive by 2050 could be to rear billions of common houseflies on a diet of human faeces and abattoir blood and grind them up to use as animal feed, a UN report published on Monday suggests. Doing so would reduce the pressure on the Earth’s forests and seas as food sources.
The case for houseflies – or other insects like crickets, beetles, bees, wasps, caterpillars, grasshoppers, termites and ants – becoming a major industrial food source is being taken seriously by governments, says the report, because they grow exceptionally fast and thrive on the waste of many industrial processes. The authors envisage fully automated insect works being set up close to breweries or food factories that produce high volumes of farm waste. Each could breed hundreds of tonnes of insects a year that would be fed to other animals.
“The prospect of farms processing insects for feed might soon become a global reality due to a growing demand for sustainable feed sources,” say the authors who have been working with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the potential for insects improving human food security.
“The bioconversion process takes low-cost waste materials and generates a valuable commodity. Depending on the species, a single female fly can lay up to 1,000 eggs over a seven-day period, which then hatch into larvae. Potential big users would need vast quantities of the product – some pet food businesses alone could use over 1,000 tonnes per month,” the report adds.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20…ecurity-un
Source: http://yeoldefalseflag.com/thread-breed-insects-to-improve-human-food-security-un-report
