I’ve noticed a slight inaccuracy in this article (I’ve already discussed it with Abraham and he agrees that it is an inaccuracy).
> Global fishmeal production was 15.8 million tonnes in 2014 (FAO 2016). As an example, we might reasonably expect insect meal to replace 25% of global production, or 3.95 million tonnes.
The source does claim that “In 2014, fishmeal production was 15.8 million tonnes” but I am now certain that this claim is misleading because in another place it says “Almost all of the remaining 21 million tonnes was destined for non-food products, of which 76 percent (15.8 million tonnes) was reduced to fishmeal and fish oil in 2014”. This page claims that 15.8Mt of fish were caught to produce 4.7Mt of fishmeal. And other sources like this also claim that fishmeal production is about 5Mt. The question is which number is more relevant. I think it’s the smaller one. Abraham said that the model uses the dry weight of insects, which should be closer to the protein / oil weight than to the total full body weight. I imagine that the conversion ratio between insect dry weight and insect protein is not 1:1 but I don’t know what it is. The guesstimate model assumes that the conversion ratios of fish to fishmeal and the dry insects to insect protein are the same but they are probably not. I think it follows that insects replacing fishmeal would require fewer individuals.
From what I read, insect protein would not be replacing fishmeal, but it would likely be an additive that has some health benefits for fish and allows producers to claim that they are sustainable. I’m not sure it would lead to more sustainability, as they would probably continue to produce as much fishmeal as it’s possible to produce without totally depleting the oceans at an even faster rate (I think fishmeal production has been constant). And fishmeal is likely to remain to be cheaper than insect protein. What insect production might allow is continued growth of fish farming because now the growth might be limited by the amount of available protein feed.
In general, Rethink Priorities has done more research on this topic since this article was written but it’s not published. If anyone is interested in doing anything about insect farming, please contact us, and we can share our new research. There are also some other new sources on this topic, like this report (it’s written by a major investor into insect farming though so might be biased). This and other similar reports predict insect farming to grow really fast.
Finally, note that Rethink Priorities is hiring an Executive Director of the Insect Welfare Project who will see what (if anything) should be done about the welfare issues explained in this article. Please apply if you think you are suitable or share with whoever you think is suitable. And we’ve just hired an entomologist (insect expert) to look into welfare issues and how they could possibly be mitigated.
Ah, this comment is all over the place, but I have little time and I thought that writting an unorganized update would be better than nothing.
I’ve noticed a slight inaccuracy in this article (I’ve already discussed it with Abraham and he agrees that it is an inaccuracy).
> Global fishmeal production was 15.8 million tonnes in 2014 (FAO 2016). As an example, we might reasonably expect insect meal to replace 25% of global production, or 3.95 million tonnes.
The source does claim that “In 2014, fishmeal production was 15.8 million tonnes” but I am now certain that this claim is misleading because in another place it says “Almost all of the remaining 21 million tonnes was destined for non-food products, of which 76 percent (15.8 million tonnes) was reduced to fishmeal and fish oil in 2014”. This page claims that 15.8Mt of fish were caught to produce 4.7Mt of fishmeal. And other sources like this also claim that fishmeal production is about 5Mt. The question is which number is more relevant. I think it’s the smaller one. Abraham said that the model uses the dry weight of insects, which should be closer to the protein / oil weight than to the total full body weight. I imagine that the conversion ratio between insect dry weight and insect protein is not 1:1 but I don’t know what it is. The guesstimate model assumes that the conversion ratios of fish to fishmeal and the dry insects to insect protein are the same but they are probably not. I think it follows that insects replacing fishmeal would require fewer individuals.
From what I read, insect protein would not be replacing fishmeal, but it would likely be an additive that has some health benefits for fish and allows producers to claim that they are sustainable. I’m not sure it would lead to more sustainability, as they would probably continue to produce as much fishmeal as it’s possible to produce without totally depleting the oceans at an even faster rate (I think fishmeal production has been constant). And fishmeal is likely to remain to be cheaper than insect protein. What insect production might allow is continued growth of fish farming because now the growth might be limited by the amount of available protein feed.
In general, Rethink Priorities has done more research on this topic since this article was written but it’s not published. If anyone is interested in doing anything about insect farming, please contact us, and we can share our new research. There are also some other new sources on this topic, like this report (it’s written by a major investor into insect farming though so might be biased). This and other similar reports predict insect farming to grow really fast.
Finally, note that Rethink Priorities is hiring an Executive Director of the Insect Welfare Project who will see what (if anything) should be done about the welfare issues explained in this article. Please apply if you think you are suitable or share with whoever you think is suitable. And we’ve just hired an entomologist (insect expert) to look into welfare issues and how they could possibly be mitigated.
Ah, this comment is all over the place, but I have little time and I thought that writting an unorganized update would be better than nothing.