Environmental impact potential of insect production chains for food and feed in Europe

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a comprehensive sustainability assessment framework for insect production chains, useful for LCA and food system researchers.

🏢実務担当者:Offers insights for food and feed companies considering insect-based products, highlighting environmental benefits and conditions for positive impact.

🏛政策担当者:Informs policy on alternative proteins and sustainable agriculture, supporting EU's climate and food security goals.

Insects can address sustainability issues associated with current food systems by providing an alternative protein source to address hunger and disease. Only the production systems that rely on side-stream heat and alternate energy sources may benefit from replacing compound feed production with insect value chains. Seventy-five percent to 93% of the effects of compound feed production on global warming potential, land use, and fossil resource shortages can be avoided. To fully assess the potential of insect production, it is critical to consider a wide range of sustainability indicators, including social, economic, and environmental aspects. The current food systems are facing several sustainability problems. One major issue is the environmental impact of food production, which contributes to climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss (Poore and Nemecek, 2018). Additionally, current food systems depend on finite resources, such as water and fossil fuels, which are becoming increasingly scarce. Moreover, the current food systems have a significantly negative impact on human health, particularly the increasing incidence of chronic diseases linked to the overconsumption of animal products (Willett, 2013). Furthermore, the current food systems are inequitable, as they often fail to provide adequate access to food for marginalized communities and contribute to social and economic inequality (UN, 2019). As a result, it is crucial to develop sustainable food systems that can provide nutritious food for a growing population while minimizing negative environmental and social impacts. Alternative proteins, such as plant-based, lab-grown meat and insects, can potentially address many of the sustainability issues associated with current food systems. For example, replacing animal-based products with plant-based alternatives has significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water use associated with food production (Poore and Nemecek, 2018). Additionally, lab-grown meat has been proposed to reduce the environmental impact of meat production while still providing a high-quality source of protein (Post et al., 2020). Insects are also seen as a promising alternative protein source, they have a high nutritional value, are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals, and have a lower environmental impact than traditional livestock (van Huis et al., 2013). Furthermore, alternative proteins can contribute to food security by reducing dependency on finite resources and increasing the resilience of food systems (Sexton, Garnett & Lorimer, 2019). Alternative proteins can also improve human health by providing nutritious food options and reducing the incidence of chronic diseases linked to the overconsumption of animal products (Willett, 2013) While life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and other specific information about insect production can provide valuable insights into the environmental and nutritional aspects of insect-based food systems, it is important to note that these studies do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability potential of insect production chains on a European level. Factors such as social acceptability, economic feasibility, and production scalability are also crucial to consider when evaluating the sustainability of insect production chains (Gjerris, Gamborg & Röcklinsberg, 2016; Veldkamp et al., 2022). Additionally, the results of LCA studies on insect production can be affected by several variables, such as insect species, the type of feed used, and the production method, which can lead to varying results (Smetana et al., 2021). Therefore, it is important to consider a wide range of sustainability indicators, including social, economic, and environmental aspects, to fully evaluate the potential of insect production as a sustainable food system on the European level. The aim of this study was to define the potential of insect production to improve the sustainability of the food system on the European level using a comprehensive assessment approach. This study relied on the FAO Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) guidelines to analyze published data on environmental indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, biodiversity, energy, and animal welfare (FAO, 2014). SAFA is a comprehensive worldwide framework that evaluates sustainability across food and agriculture value chains. It serves as a universal benchmark for analyzing the interplay between various sustainability dimensions and identifying conflicts and opportunities for mutual benefits. By assessing these indicators, this study provides a holistic basis for the identification of the potential of insect production to tackle environmental hotspots of sustainable food systems on the European level. SAFA concentrates on supply chains and enterprise(s) as elements of those chains. The LCA approach focuses on the evaluation of the environmental impacts of a product through its lifecycle, and, therefore, is not always suitable for the sustainability analysis of regions and countries. Similarly to LCA, SAFA covers multiple components of inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts; however, its focus on a larger system scale (value chains) enables a more comprehensive consideration of the scope of good governance and social well-being of sustainability (SAFA). The current study concentrated only on the aspects of environmental integrity, including the quality of the atmosphere (greenhouse gas emissions), water, land, biodiversity, materials and energy, and animal welfare. The impact categories that have been selected are extensively used and established due to their rigorous research and inclusion in the most scientifically validated methodologies. By using these categories, the study can facilitate evidence-based decision-making towards sustainability and provide a more comprehensive assessment of environmental and social impacts. According to the SAFA guidelines, the food system should be analyzed from a few aspects of the environment. From the impacts on the condition of the atmosphere, we relied on the accounting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In some initial studies (van Huis et al. 2013), it is indicated that the GHG emissions per kilogram of insect protein were lower than those for beef and pork but higher than those for chicken and fish. Similarly, a study by van Loon et al. (2018) found that the GHG emissions per kilogram of mealworm protein were lower than those for beef and pork but higher than those for chicken and fish. Impacts associated with GHG emissions in insect production systems depend heavily on the use of diet. Thus, using a standard diet based on commercial or proprietary feed is associated with 2.3–3.1 kg CO2eq per kg of fresh insects produced (Oonincx and de Boer, 2012; Halloran et al., 2017). This aligns with the results found for 1 kg of dried larvae, which is 5.76 kg CO2eq (Bava et al., 2019), and for 1 kg of protein, which is 3.9–7 kg CO2eq (Halloran et al., 2017; Bosch et al., 2019). However, some studies have reported a higher carbon footprint of up to 21.1 kg CO2eq per kg of fresh larvae (Suckling et al., 2020) or 15–29 kg CO2eq per kg of protein (Ulmer et al., 2020) when the production systems are specific and so on not optimized for the production. These higher impacts can be attributed to the inclusion of frass application to the field as an emission factor (Suckling et al., 2020) or the analysis of a different production system with low technology readiness level (Ulmer et al., 2020). The impacts associated with GHG emissions of insect production based on food processing by-products (food waste) can vary widely, from positively impacting the environment at −6.42 to 5.3 kg CO2eq for all functional units (Thévenot et al., 2018; Bosch et al., 2019; Smetana et al., 2019; Ites et al., 2020). The application of manure as feed for insects has a great potential for environmental improvement, but reviewed studies have indicated considerable environmental impacts from 0.77–12 kg CO2 eq per 1 kg of dried insects (Roffeis et al., 2017) to 1–7 kg CO2eq per 1 kg of proteins (Bosch et al., 2019). In order to consider the potential improvement in GHG emissions of the European food system, we relied on the following considerations: insect can potentially substitute different, or all meat produced in Europe; insects can potentially substitute compound protein feed produced in Europe; insects can potentially substitute other products on one-to-one basis on a wet basis (fresh insects to fresh meat); data on the amount of meat produced were acquired from EUROSTAT for 2021 (“EUROSTAT, 2021”, 2021); data on the amount of compound feed produced in Europe were acquired for 2021 from FEFAC (Feed and Food, 2021); data on the environmental impacts of meat and feed was acquired from the Agri-footprint database (van Paassen et al., 2019) and economic allocation methods using IMPACT2002+ (Jolliet et al., 2003). For the estimation of GHG emission changes with insects replacing conventional products, we considered two options for their impact: minimal (0.3 kg CO2eq per 1 kg of insect biomass) and maximal (3 kg CO2eq per 1 kg of insect biomass). This range was defined as the most beneficial for different insect species, resulting from the analysis above. The beef impact was 35.0; pork: 6.95 and poultry 5.97 kg CO2eq per 1 kg of meat. 1 kg of compound feed was responsible for 1.34 kg CO2eq. Production of insects with a defined range of GHG emission impact has the potential to improve the food system if the insects are consumed as a substitute for meats. GHG associated with meat can be reduced in this case by 72% to 97% (350–466 Mton CO2eq) (Figure 1). The biggest potential for impact reduction is observed in bovine meat production systems, the lowest in poultry substitution. The use of insects for feed substitution might not result in straightforward benefits, as a

• openalex https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfad033first seen 2026-08-02 16:49:58