We know fishmeal has problems. After posting an article back in January on the potential for bugmeal to replace fishmeal in farmed fish production, several readers asked some hard questions and wanted more information. I like readers to get what they want, so I spoke with Dr. Lou D'Abramo, who has a doctorate from Yale University and has been working to create more sustainable aquaculture systems for freshwater prawns. He is also the lead scientist studying how striped bass are responding to insect meal at Mississippi State University and got encouraging results. I pointed Dr. D'Abramo toward the original blogpost on the subject and he answered your thoughtful questions (and some of my own), which I have summarized here:
What are the insects raised on?
They were grain fed, probably with corn but they are looking to other waste materials to create a different fatty acid profile. You can't feed the corn directly to fish because carnivorous fish cannot deal with plant-based proteins as well as animal-based proteins.
Do the farmed fish grow as quickly?
Higher fat lipid contents (which tends to be the profile of grain-fed animals and insects) in formulated diets can retard growth rates. But we did get 80% of the growth rate that you would get with fishmeal.
Would bugmeal work for any species of fish?
It seems so.
What about bugmeal's Omega-3 content?
The insects in the experiment were chosen for their relative amino acids but, since you are what you eat, the insects were low in Omega-3 content due to their grain diet. However, the experimenters did add fishoil derived from menhaden to compensate for the lack of Omega-3s on the bugmeal. This is not ideal, however, since the industry suspects a shortage of oil (due to competing interests by cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and the pet industry) before fishmeal.
How will the price of bugmeal compare to fishmeal?
They hope to do more work on the economic analysis of mass culturing insects but D'Abramo believes bugmeal will be competitive even if it's more expensive due to its relationship to sustainability.
Areas of future research?
D'Abramo's lab would like to experiment with partial substitution of insect meal for fishmeal and see the results. They would also like to begin feeding the insects waste material from fish processing (which they cannot do currently because it's not in a form that would make operation successful, e.g., there would be issues with water quality). Dr. D'Abramo is very encouraged by the results so far and hopes to continue this research as well as his other work on fishmeal-free freshwater prawn systems.
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Here is a link to a commercial cricket, etc. producer. http://www.flukerfarms.com/
Any species, tilapia and pacu (both herbivores) included?
Bugmeal does seem promising for shrimp farms, though.
It'd be extra nice if species of insects that act as pests on argiculture, such as grasshoppers or mormon crickets could be harvested when they occur in overwhelming numbers, as a feedstock for aquaculture. I suppose that would take a degree of coordination not common in human economic activity.
Jennifer, thanks for following up on this. You are very nice to your readers.
Hopeful, especially if the bugs can be grown on waste, like municipal kitchen scraps, etc. Interesting about the omega 3 issue. Goes to show you once again, no such thing as a free lunch.
Erik, Orion Grassroots Network
This is not ideal, however, since the industry suspects a shortage of oil (due to competing interests by cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and the pet industry) before fishmeal. thanks