Insect farming
Silkworms, the caterpillars of the domestic silkmoth, are kept to produce silk, an elastic fiber made when they are in the process of creating a cocoon.
It has a long larval period of about half a year with the optimum temperature and low moisture terminates.
However, the presence of honeybees can negatively affect abundance and diversity of wild bees, with consequences for pollination of crops.
Made into a red dye known as carmine, cochineal are incorporated into many products, including cosmetics, food, paint, and fabric.
Crickets are commonly farmed for non-human animal food, as they provide much nutrition to the many species of reptiles, fish, birds and other mammals that consume them.
These caterpillars are used widely across the world for food, fish bait, animal testing and plastic degradation.
Waxworms are popular in many parts of the world, due to their ability to live in low temperatures and their simplicity in production.
The cockroaches are reared on food such as potato and pumpkin peeling waste from restaurants, then scooped or vacuumed from their nests, killed in boiling water and dried in the sun.
For instance, fly larvae can replace fish meal due to the similar amino acid composition.
[7] Wild birds and free-range poultry can consume insects in the adult, larval and pupal forms naturally.
[4] Insects bred in captivity offer a low space-intensive,[12] highly feed-efficient,[4] relatively pollution-free,[13] high-protein source of food for both humans and non-human animals.
[4] Insects offer an economical solution to increasingly pressing food security and environmental issues concerning the production and distribution of protein to feed a growing world population.
According to Time, "Black soldier flies and Argentinian cockroaches are among the most efficient insect species, with food conversion ratios of between 1.4 and 2.7 to one, which means that even they eat more food than they produce", implying that "it’s far better to use croplands to feed people directly than to feed farmed insects.
Insect farming is minimally space-intensive compared to other conventional livestock, and can even take place in populated urban centers.
[21] Another question is whether these noxious stimuli can lead to a subjective experience of pain, notably when processed inside a brain.
Professor Bob Fischer also argued that "If there are welfare concerns, you’ve got to intervene at the planning stages, when those facilities are being designed and constructed".
[21] Relevant environmental factors include "temperature, moisture levels, lighting, how crowded the insects are, and what they eat.
"[21] With the concern for pain tolerance in animal health and welfare, processing the insects can be mainly concluded as: harvesting and cleaning, inactivation, heating and drying, depending on the final product and rearing methods.
[24][7] Insects at different life stages can be collected by sieving followed by water cleaning when it is necessary to remove biomass or excretion.
Longer drying time results from a low evaporation rate due to the chitin layer, which can prevent the insect from dehydrating during their lifetime.
[28] However, the power to promote the scale-up of insect production becomes difficult when few participate in this market to change the rules.
In Europe, safety documents for certain insects and accompanying products are required by the European Union (EFSA) and NVWA.
