Food for thought: Valuable bioproduction pathways emerge in a circular food production model

Abstract

Ensuring the production and supply of food, fuel and other resources meets growing demands is among the world's most important and difficult challenges. The climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, limited resources and immense wastage have resulted in a lack of food availability, accessibility, and affordability. Transitioning to a circular production model provides one of the most straightforward strategies to address these problems and improve food systems’ efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability. A circular production model is one in which waste streams, a renewable bio-resource, are kept in the system and recycled into matter or energy. Industrial-scale insect rearing offers a marketable solution to convert large quantities of organic waste biomass into food and high-value bioproducts with lower resource dependency and environmental impacts than current systems. This paper presents a review of the literature on the feasibility of using insect biotechnology to implement circularity in food production systems by critically analyzing a circular model in its entirety, including all emerging production pathways. Using black soldier fly mass-rearing as a model system, we outline the environmental and socio economic benefits from bio-converting waste streams for food production and a range of novel raw material pathways; including chitin, agricultural fertilisers and bio-fuels, which emerge within the model. This review addresses challenges in achieving scalability, reducing food safety risks, and establishing regulatory frameworks and legislation if we are to see a global transition. A circular production model is a practical and applicable method to develop sustainable and resilient food systems and address the global challenges of food security and climate change across multiple disciplines and industries.