Abstract
Global socioeconomic systems exacerbate disparities that leave a disturbing proportion of the human population malnourished, making conventional food sources such as animal livestock unsustainable at global scales. Edible insects have the potential to solve both malnourishment and the unsustainability of conventional livestock agriculture. The sustainability and accessibility of farmed, edible insects, however, depends on their feed source. Future expansion of farming rests on developing locally available and affordable insect feeds. This article presents a literature review of studies which evaluate the performance of edible crickets (Orthoptera) in response to alternative feed sources such as weeds and the byproducts of agricultural and food industries. For each insect species evaluated, we analyze measurements of feed and insect performance, feed composition, effects of diet on cricket growth and survivorship, as well as other sources of performance differences. The aim of this review is to assess the current state of alternative feed research for farmed crickets and to provide guidelines for future studies on alternative feeds.
Highlights
As of 2020, 690 million people, 8.9 percent of the world’s population, are hungry (FAO, 2020) and the world’s demand for animal protein is increasing at an alarming rate (Delgado et al, 2001; Steinfeld et al, 2006)
Diets which were supplemented in part with food waste had an average crude protein content of 23% dry matter (DM) and a 77% average final survival (Supplementary Tables 2, 3)
The following food waste diets resulted in the highest final survival (75% or greater) and greatest mean final weight for both A. domesticus and G. bimaculatus in order from greatest to least final survival: turnip rape, turnip rape, and turnip rape (Supplementary Table 3)
Summary
As of 2020, 690 million people, 8.9 percent of the world’s population, are hungry (FAO, 2020) and the world’s demand for animal protein is increasing at an alarming rate (Delgado et al, 2001; Steinfeld et al, 2006). The realization that systems producing conventional livestock provide a poor solution to the problems of malnourished communities harks back to a 1975 publication by Meyer-Rochow, who advocated the use of insects as food and feed and suggested FAO and WHO take up that idea (Meyer-Rochow, 1975). The dominant discourse of “food security” results in conventional technocratic solutions which rely on increasing conventional agricultural production and the short-term distribution of fortified foods (Patel, 2009; Sampson et al, 2021). These interventions by governments and NGOs present malnutrition in terms of access to nutritional, physical, and economic wellbeing, but avoid
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