Can anyone knowledgeable comment on if farming insects, like grasshoppers that are apparently very efficient in turning feed to protein, will become a viable alternative for salmon and tuna farms?
Insects are efficient, but not significantly more efficient than chicken.
Of the currently known methods for producing proteins, the one that has the potential to be significantly more efficient than raising chicken or insects is the culture of genetically-modified strains of the fungus Trichoderma, which produce either ovalbumin (the main protein of egg white) or beta-lactoglobulin (the main protein of whey).
These egg-white proteins or whey proteins are identical to those of chicken eggs or cow milk and they have an excellent amino acid profile.
They could easily satisfy all the protein needs of a human. Such proteins are water-soluble powders, looking the same as the whey protein concentrates that can be bought now.
Used alone, they would be bland, but they can be an essential ingredient for cooking various kinds of tasty food, from savory dishes based on various vegetables to sweet creams, e.g. with cocoa or vanilla.
I am currently using whey protein concentrate for cooking and I would like very much if a fungus-produced alternative would become available at a decent price. I prefer very much such a protein powder, which can be used to enhance both the taste and the nutritional value of any food, instead of fake meat.
Yes, this is being seriously investigated. It was already approved for commercial use by the EU in 2017. Specifically the industry is looking at places where there is both waste biomass and low-grade waste heat available nearby, and close proximity to fish farms, in order to produce fish feed from farmed insects.
AFAIK the black soldier fly (BSF) larvae and the yellow mealworm are the two species which are in focus. For BSF larvae I believe they have some extremely convenient biological urge to migrate once they have reached maximum size, so it's possible to set up systems where they "collect themselves" at the optimum size for processing into meal.
Insects aren't any more efficient than chickens though, especially American chicken. Some insects, for example, mealworms can be more efficient than chickens on certain diets, but I think the complications, i.e. that they're so small and thus harder to deal with mean that it's not going to be worth it.
But I don't want to characterise myself as knowledgeable on this topic, so this isn't the answer you and instead something which you can hope will provoke somebody to give you the real answer.
Yes there are large farmers in Norway that are using black soldier fly protein meal and its being produced in large scale in e.g. NL and France. But so far only a fraction of the feed has been replaced due to cost and availability of the meal. Consumers typically think insects are icky and would rather not have their food eating insects even if its their natural diet. There are also great progress on terrestrial epa and dha omega-3 in plant oils but its gmo so again people dont want it
adrian_b|1 year ago
Of the currently known methods for producing proteins, the one that has the potential to be significantly more efficient than raising chicken or insects is the culture of genetically-modified strains of the fungus Trichoderma, which produce either ovalbumin (the main protein of egg white) or beta-lactoglobulin (the main protein of whey).
These egg-white proteins or whey proteins are identical to those of chicken eggs or cow milk and they have an excellent amino acid profile.
They could easily satisfy all the protein needs of a human. Such proteins are water-soluble powders, looking the same as the whey protein concentrates that can be bought now.
Used alone, they would be bland, but they can be an essential ingredient for cooking various kinds of tasty food, from savory dishes based on various vegetables to sweet creams, e.g. with cocoa or vanilla.
I am currently using whey protein concentrate for cooking and I would like very much if a fungus-produced alternative would become available at a decent price. I prefer very much such a protein powder, which can be used to enhance both the taste and the nutritional value of any food, instead of fake meat.
semi-extrinsic|1 year ago
AFAIK the black soldier fly (BSF) larvae and the yellow mealworm are the two species which are in focus. For BSF larvae I believe they have some extremely convenient biological urge to migrate once they have reached maximum size, so it's possible to set up systems where they "collect themselves" at the optimum size for processing into meal.
impossiblefork|1 year ago
But I don't want to characterise myself as knowledgeable on this topic, so this isn't the answer you and instead something which you can hope will provoke somebody to give you the real answer.
Depurator|1 year ago
impossiblefork|1 year ago
I use DHA+EPA from algae (a Swedish company, Simris Alg), and that is non-GMO anyway.
eru|1 year ago
Btw, shrimp are fairly popular, and they aren't that different from insects.
netsharc|1 year ago
But yeah, I like my meat, and don't feel well about the idea of eating insects.