Rapidly increasing global population and rising per capita food intake has tripled the global production of animal-based food over the last 50 years. Currently, over 900,000 square kilometres of the rainforest has been converted into animal pastures. If present population growth and meat and dairy-intensive dietary trends continue, then the food system will face massive pressures in the next few decades. The livestock sector also has a huge water footprint: an estimated 41% of total water goes toward the production of animal feed. Alongside this, the average water footprint per calorie for beef is nearly 20 times larger than cereals, for instance. Consequently, there is an urgent need to find alternatives to conventional meat products and other sustainable sources of protein.

Global Bugs aims to provide a solution for this shift with the help of sustainable, alternative protein made from crickets. Plant-based foods are naturally deficient in vitamin B12 and contain less protein than meat, which could partly explain the challenge in transitioning away from meat-based foods. Global Bugs aims to fill this gap with its EntoPowder, derived from crickets. Cricket powder is gaining traction as a sustainable source of alternative protein as it can be produced more effectively than cattle, produce fewer greenhouse gases (GHGs) and have a higher nutritional value than livestock. Regarded as a superfood, crickets provide a rich source of polyunsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals, protein, and other nutrients that raise the nutrition level in food, beverages, dietary supplements and pet food. Another advantage is that harvesting of crickets has a lower overall carbon footprint compared to plant-based products and artificial meat[1].

Currently, around 20% of the world’s population consume insects. While Asia is the largest market for Global Bug Asia, its uptake is also becoming more common in the EU and North American markets.

There are several benefits of cricket as a protein source: it provides nine amino acids essential for human diets, contains two to three times more protein in comparison to beef or chicken, and crickets require at least six times less feed than cattle. Moreover, just 100 grams of cricket protein can provide a significant portion of daily vitamin B12 intake. EntoPowder also gives an optimal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, a combination which the human body cannot break down on its own and has to be supplemented from diet. It is also a rich source of calcium, providing at least 1.6 times that provided by milk.

In terms of water footprint, 1 kilogram of crickets require around 7 litres of water, as opposed to 100 litres for one egg, 3,500 litres for 1 kilogram of chicken, and 6,800 litres for 1 kilogram of beef. What’s more, a cow requires around 8 grams of food to gain one gram in weight—as opposed to insects, who need less than two. From a land-use perspective, EntoFarm employs vertical farms, requiring only one square metre of land for 100 kilograms of product, compared to 20,000 square metres of land for a comparable amount of beef.

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash.