The demand for meat is growing. Rapid population growth and development of third world countries are some of the factors behind the increased demand. The meat production industry is looking for ways to speed up production. Do you know how long it takes for a chicken to grow to its optimal size? 35 days!
Livestock on large scale farms is fed in a way that boosts their body mass as much, and as quickly, as possible. The amount of protein that an animal has to ingest is carefully calculated and monitored. The feed used is whatever achieves this goal in the cheapest way. Cows are being fed grain, soy, fish meal, and similar products that are very fattening, but are also completely removed from their natural nutrition. Can you imagine a cow eating fish? That certainly isn’t a natural diet.
Let’s compare industrial animal and insect production. (Why insects?) As we know it would be impossible to grass feed insects, but the feed that is given to insects is actually their natural food source. Take mealworms, for example: they love flour (that is where their name comes from, as they like to settle in mills). That means wheat is one of their natural food sources. They perform best when eating wheat, and it is a completely natural component of their nutrition. Secondly, no growth enhancing additives are used in insect production. In livestock farms antibiotics, antiparasites, and hormones (in the US) are used. These substances have a massive impact on quality of meat. You are what you eat. The same is true for cows, pigs, chickens…
Not only is this meat bad for you when you eat it, industrialized meat production is dangerous even before the animals are killed. Let me tell you why: Pigs are very similar to humans. So much, in fact, that they are used as human substitutes in medicine. Pig heart valves can already be transplanted into humans, and soon we will be able to transplant pig kidneys as well. This is a good thing. But our similarity also brings problems. Because we are so similar, there are many diseases that can infect pigs as well as humans. In a factory farming environment, where the animals are sick and clustered together, disease can easily break out. In a worst case scenario a virus could mutate and infect humans. That may seem like a longshot, but with farming environments as bad as they are, the chances of a virus spreading from animals to humans are actually quite large. Although insects are farmed in a similar way, they are taxonomically so very different from humans that such a scenario is impossible. That makes producing insects on a large scale much, much safer.
I’m not saying that all meat production is bad. There are farms, like Polyface Farms, that actually raise livestock in a natural, animal friendly way — outside, in the sun, eating what these animals should eat, instead of grain, soy or other feed that factory farming operations use to feed their livestock out of convenience for the farmer, not the animal. Unfortunately, however, such farms are few and far between and remain a privilege that only few can afford.
Insect farming on a large scale has no limits. It is healthy, sustainable and safe.
