Name: Insects Make Protein More Efficiently Than Mammals
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Unlike mammals—including those we raise to eat—insects can't generate their own body heat. This physiological difference has a major effect on the quantity of resources they need to grow.

Most of the calories insects eat can be converted into nutrients that we can then eat.

Insects Make Protein More Efficiently Than Mammals

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Unlike mammals—including those we raise to eat—insects can't generate their own body heat. This physiological difference has a major effect on the quantity of resources they need to grow.

Most of the calories insects eat can be converted into nutrients that we can then eat.

Nature

Insects Make Protein More Efficiently Than MammalsPublished: October 21, 2021Narrator: It turns out that insects have the potential to make protein far more efficiently than other animals. The reason lies in their physiology.Tanya Latty: Animals like mammals and birds are warm-blooded. So, what that means is that we generate a tremendous amount of body heat. Insects are a little different.This is a thermal camera, and what it’ll let us do is detect heat.Narrator: On the image, Tanya’s skin appears red, meaning it’s warm. As a mammal, she is endothermic, burning food to generate internal heat. But the spiny leaf insect appears blue, meaning it’s cool. It is ectothermic.Latty: Ectothermic refers to the fact that some organisms are unable to generate body heat. If it’s warm outside, their bodies are that same temperature. If it’s cold, they’re also cold.Narrator: This physiological difference has a major effect on the quantity of resources they need to grow.Latty: Since insects aren’t wasting energy trying to keep their bodies warm, most of the calories they eat can be converted into nutrients that we can then eat. So you get a much higher conversion efficiency with an insect than you would with a mammal.Narrator: When it comes to generating animal protein efficiently, insects rule. To produce just a pound of beef requires nearly 10 pounds of feed, but growing a pound of insects needs less than two pounds. One pound of beef also requires over 2,000 gallons of water, but the same weight of insect can take less than 12 gallons.Latty: If you’re farming an insect, you don’t need to feed them nearly as much as you would a mammal of the same size. Insects offer so much promise. They are a really accessible form of protein that, you know, potentially could feed the world.Narrator: The numbers look great, but can humanity really move from farming pigs, chickens and cows to farming insects? If we are going to feed billions, the amount of insect protein needed will be enormous.Over 90 percent of insects consumed today are foraged from the wild. The palm weevil, probably the most popular edible insect of all, is harvested from rotting palm trunks, but natural harvesting like this could not be scaled to feed billions.Valerie Stull: It’s local and it’s free. But really, the way to utilize insects better as a food is to help people farm them and engage in insect agriculture.Narrator: Change is already happening. In Thailand, the last few decades have seen a surge in start-up insect farms. Led by entrepreneurs like Thanaporn “Kaew” Sae Leaw.Thanaporn "Kaew" Sae Leaw: (Dubbed) We heard about insect farming from our relatives. They said it’s something you can do as a sideline, without giving up your day job.In this container, I’ve got a batch that are already 15 days old. Here, let me show you.Narrator: In Thailand, crickets have become these new farmers’ insect of choice, because not only does cricket farming take up very little space, but their rapid growth allows farmers to continually harvest, year-round.But there is still a lot to learn.Stull: The field of insect agriculture is really in its infancy. So, learning to farm insects at scale to feed lots of people, we’re just now scratching the surface.Narrator: Farming insects definitely comes with unfamiliar new challenges. Much of Thanaporn’s time is spent keeping her ectothermic charges at the correct temperature.Sae Leaw: (Dubbed) We’ve always got to keep a close eye on the weather. Sometimes when it gets too hot we have to spray water on the crickets to cool them down.Narrator: And cattle farmers don’t have to deal with the problems of cannibalism.Sae Leaw: (Dubbed) Unfortunately, if there’s not enough food, they do start to eat each other. That’s one of the reasons we’ve put in these egg cartons. It gives the vulnerable ones somewhere to hide from their voracious companions.Narrator: But it’s worth the effort. With low costs, low maintenance and a quick turnover, Thai farmers are taking to the emerging industry in the tens of thousands.Sae Leaw: (Dubbed) Most of the time, there aren’t enough for us to eat. We’ve all sold out. And if the demand gets any higher, we might have to expand the farm.

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Insects Make Protein More Efficiently Than Mammals

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Support Provided By

Explore More

The Case for Eating Bugs

Edible Insects

Five Reasons to Eat Insects