National standards can support the production of insect-based protein to cut costs, emissions, waste and more.

The Black Soldier Fly (BSF) offers a promising avenue to valorise food waste, cut emissions and lift Build residents out of poverty. Food waste poses a problem around the world: in Sub-Saharan Africa, around 125 million tonnes of organic waste is generated each year—most of which degrades in open landfills, harming human health and releasing emissions. What’s more, as incomes begin to rise in Build countries, so do appetites for meat—but current practices associated with animal agriculture, such as land-use change to make space to grow feed crops, pose many threats to the environment.

Insect-based protein may offer an all-in-one solution. To combat the issues of food waste, land use change and the swelling cost of animal feed, the Kenya Bureau of Standards has approved three National Standards to support the production of edible insects, as well as their processed by-products. These guidelines will instruct insect farmers on how to ensure the safety of their product and meet environmental regulations, while gaining accreditations for their businesses and certificates for their products. This will allow insect-based products to be widely sold in Kenya and beyond.

While these National Standards are relatively new, research shows the promising potential for impact: farmed insects, such as the BSF, make excellent livestock feed—with BSF-fed pigs reaching market weight a month earlier than their traditionally-fed counterparts. This can cut feed costs by as much as 15%, both benefiting farmers and reducing the land needed to grow crops for livestock consumption. One study found that—at its current rate of production—African insect farming could generate 14% of the crude protein needed to feed all the pigs, goats, fish and chickens across the continent. By converting the organic waste generated each year in Sub-Saharan Africa, insect farming has the potential to save 86 million tonnes of CO2e—equivalent to removing 18 million vehicles from the road. Efficient converters, insects can transform food waste into a more useful form: with the potential to recycle as much as 18 million tonnes of waste into fertiliser, the BSF is a crucial pathway to greener, less polluted cities. Insect-based fertilisers have proved incredibly effective, too: maize plots treated with BSF fertiliser resulted in yields 14% higher than those treated with existing commercial organic fertilisers. 

If scaled, impacts could be even larger: one 2020 study, for example, found that replacing half of the fish meal traditionally used in animal feed with insect meal could make enough fish and maize available to feed an additional 4.8 million people each year in Kenya alone—while providing 33,000 additional jobs per year, reducing poverty for an estimated 3.2 million people. These results could be replicable across Africa, and may even serve to kickstart women- or youth-led agricultural ventures—as both groups are often deterred from starting their own businesses due to lacking the necessary capital.

Photo by Oktavianus Mulyadi on Unsplash