Insects as a New Protein Source
Project Background
Poverty in Uganda
Malnutrition is prevalent in Uganda as many families don't have easy access to livestock. A previous class researched mealworms as a food source for chickens and other livestock, but insects could also be used as a protein source directly for humans.
By 2050, the global population will be over 9 billion people. The world as it is exists now, with just over 7.7 billion people, is already in a dangerous state. It is undeniable that the world is warming up as it has already been heated about 1°C and temperatures are still on the rise. Adding 1.5 billion more people introduces more collective per capita CO2 emissions and poses the problem: how will we feed everyone?
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Globally about 9% of people live in extreme poverty, as defined as living on less than $1.90 a day. Sources of protein can be extremely expensive and are therefore not a part of many people's diets. Insects can be an easy introduction to their diets, whether eaten dried, in a flour, or in many other forms.
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Developed nations heavily rely on industries that pump toxins and carbon dioxide into our environment at alarming rates, and with more people these emissions are on an increasing path. Actions need to be taken to both decrease carbon dioxide emissions and decrease poverty rates. Insects should be seriously considered as a protein source for humans going forward. They can reproduce very quickly, contain a lot of protein and carbohydrates, take up less space to produce, require less food, and emit less greenhouse gases. With these benefits it is hard to ignore insects as a food source for not only livestocks, but people too.
World Population Growth
While annual growth rate is decreasing, the world population is still expected to grow to an alarming population of 9.2 billion in 2050.
Previous Work Done
Other countries have already begun experimenting and researching this project. For example, Thailand has already began making cricket farms with research into how much CO2 it has throughout the entire life cycle.
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The figure to the right shows estimates of how much CO2 is released per kg of different animals. This research comes from Afton Halloran at the University of Copenhagen.
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We will use these cricket estimates in our analysis, but extend the analysis to consider how much land will be needed to produce a certain amount of protein and how this compares to cattle.
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One thing that is clear from this previous research: beef is not a sustainable industry. There is less of a global reliance on lamb, which also has high GHG emissions, so the focus is to compare insects to beef.
