There's an rule in the EU that says you can't feed the insects pork and then let those insects go on to be fed to pigs (same for beef and chicken). This is intended to prevent the transmission of diseases like Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (like "mad cow disease"). As I understand it, this rule isn't because we have shown it's dangerous to do the pig -> insect -> pig chain but rather because we haven't shown that it's safe. Arnold van Huis and his team at Wageningen University are putting quite some energy researching the safety and lobbying the EU to change the rules based on the findings. At one of the talks those folks they said it's basically a black box of trying to get what kind of science the regulators will consider acceptable.<p>As you might guess, making sure the food waste you feed the insects doesn't have _any_ animal proteins in it is quite logistically challenging and so afaik nobody is doing that at a large scale.<p>I did quite a bit of research into the history of insects in the food system, especially in the Netherlands. While I was rooting for Ynsect and other big players to figure something good out I believe that it's a problem much better suited to a smaller scale (perhaps on the city level). Basically, have the food waste from various stores brought to a facility to be fed to insects and then let those insects be turned into whatever (pet food, fish food, trendy protein bars).
You'd have thought it wouldn't be the proteins in the input, but the prions in the output they would care about. They're remarkably resilient, it's not unreasonable to be cautious.
Our city just had a compost program. Throwing away compostable material into the provided bin was free. They put it into the city managed compost yards and then every weekend you could go down there and pick up bags of the finished product to use at home in your garden.<p>It's also the case that many states already have a "garbage feeding" program that allows food waste to be diverted into feed for commercial animal lots. The food has to meet certain criteria and be fully cooked and ready for human consumption before being discarded.
Better safe than sorry.
> But don’t be too quick to attribute its failure to the “ick” factor that many > Westerners feel about bugs.<p>I think this is a weird wording.
I dont think you need to limit the ick factor to "Westerners"
There are an awful lot of people out there who would feel the "ick"
factor.<p>And even for some of those who do eat insects, they are specific insects,
form specific places, prepared in traditional ways.<p>Not a powder of insects
>The fact that Ÿnsect failed doesn’t mean the entire insect farming sector is doomed. Competitor Innovafeed is reportedly holding up better, in part because it started with a smaller production site and is ramping up incrementally.<p>>For Prof. Haslam, Ÿnsect exemplifies a broader European problem. “Ÿnsect is a case study in Europe’s scaling gap. We fund moonshots. We underfund factories. We celebrate pilots. We abandon industrialization. See Northvolt [a struggling Swedish battery maker], Volocopter [a German air taxi startup], and Lilium [a failed German flying taxi company],” he said.
I think in the case of flying taxi's is just that it is a moronic idea tho.
Startups failed, now here's bob with the weather.
I'm letting my mind wander and thinking what a French insect wrangler looks like. I'm kind of imagining a mix between French style, a cowboy hat, and lab gear.
> bankrupt despite raising over $600 million, including from Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, taxpayers, and many others.<p>How on earth did <i>French taxpayers</i> get roped into funding a moonshot startup whose entire goal was to make <i>pet food</i> out of insects..
Good question.<p>There seems to be strong lobbying for insects as human food, in particular from companies that would be happy feed us with their own shit as long as it's cheap and they could get away with it<p>The green-left seems to enjoy that idea. Exactly why is hard to tell - especially on HN, but let's say I don't think it's rational.<p>So I guess, successful lobbying?
Because pet food is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions?
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Ynsect-crushing reality - nobody really wants to eat bugs
“Human food was never the focus”<p>I eagerly purchase insect/grub kibble for my dog - both fly and cricket based. Also a lot of vegetarian kibble, I am a vegetarian myself.
Why not? Have you tried? I have, must've been almost 30 years ago now, at Wageningen University. They taste quite well, if well prepared (they were). Insect burgers are also nice. I liked Damhert's insect burger [1]. People just think too much it looks like [2]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.jumbo.com/producten/damhert-nutrition-insecta-groenteburger-met-buffalowormen-2-x-75g-151485PAK" rel="nofollow">https://www.jumbo.com/producten/damhert-nutrition-insecta-gr...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.theburningplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/adoboe-stock-cricket-bug-insect-burger-2000x900-1.jpeg" rel="nofollow">https://www.theburningplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/0...</a>
Yet most people over a certain age probably have without realising. Haribo, Tropicana, lots of fruit juices, sweets and dairy products used Cochineal.
People do however both keep pets and eat animals that eat insects, which is what the company was aiming for.
I would happily eat cricket protein if it were more scalably environmentally sustainable. I’m fine with milk, but cows aren’t helping our greenhouse sitchu.<p>Not to mention the issues with pea protein and lead content.
And here are some of the reasons why:<p>1. high risk of severe allergic reactions and cross-reactivity<p>2. contamination with pathogens, toxins, and heavy metals<p>3. digestive and nutritional drawbacks, including anti-nutrients (no pun intended) and imbalances<p>4. and last but not least, the good old precautionary principle: limited research on long-term human health impacts and emerging hazards<p>if you still want to eat zee bugz, consider yourself warned !
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This is one of the posts on HN where I first read the dead comments. And they did not disappoint.
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Because the natural order of things is wild shih tzus hunting down cows?
Wolves did hunt aurochs, and apparently, shih tzus are one of the closest related dogs to wild wolves: <a href="https://www.dogingtonpost.com/8-dog-breeds-closest-to-wolves-genetically/" rel="nofollow">https://www.dogingtonpost.com/8-dog-breeds-closest-to-wolves...</a>
Why would that be? Killing and having them eat chicken and lamb is morally superior how?
if u saw what goes into commercial animal feed u might feel different about trying to figure out better ways to do it...
Not the heckin doggos :((
…because most dogs just will eat bugs on their own, no outside influence necessary? I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.
I am baffled as to why cat food is labelled up as having "The great all-natural taste of beef and lamb that your cat loves!" because if my cat could naturally eat beef then that would be fucking terrifying, a 4kg cat that can eat a 600kg cow.<p>They should say "The great all-natural taste of mice and wasps that your cat loves!" based on observed behaviour.
Cats <i>love</i> tuna. Why? Basically got a lot of the amino acids that taste good to them, just coincidence.
you eat beef and you're only 73kg and eating a 600kg cow! Baffling!
Thanks to tools, I'm a far more capable hunter than my cat. It's trivial for a human of any size to kill a slow moving cow. It's very hard to imagine any scenario where a domestic cat would be capable of hurting a cow, let alone kill and eat it.
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Oh my god eat some beans. Eat some tofu, eat some black-eyed peas, eat some green peas, eat some lentils, eat some northern beans, eat some lima beans, eat some chickpeas
'Ÿnsect focused on producing insect protein for animal feed and pet food'<p>Surely nothing could go wrong feeding herbivorous animals a diet of insect protein...
Especially when you could have just fed them the grain directly:<p><i>…factory-scale insect production typically ends up relying on cereal by-products that are already usable as animal feed — meaning insect protein just adds an expensive extra step. For animal feed, the math simply wasn’t working.</i>
They fooled investors with the sustainability angle. What a huge waste of money on a terrible idea cloaked in lies about sustainability.
This sounds like "draff", or distillery mash, where you get a huge lorryload of spent grain from brewing for very little money, which is still pretty damn nutritious for cows and sheep.<p>Better than letting it sit and rot, emitting massive amounts of methane in the process.
plant protein is vastly inferior to animal protein. they don't feed livestock fishmeal for the hell of it.
The quote you make doesn't mention herbivores.<p>Cat food contains insect protein, and cats are carnivores. They even catch and eat insects themselves.<p>In contrast, cats are being fed grains which they wouldn't naturally eat.<p>Moreover, insects are a cheap source of animal protein.
Not all agricultural animals are herbivores. Pigs and chickens are both omnivores. Also insects are probably good feed for some species of farmed fish.
From the article looks like fish feed.
I mean most pets are carnivores or omnivores, it sounds to me like they just scaled up before they had really found product-market fit