Buzzing: YIMBY to insect farms
Dear all, how are you keeping? It was lovely to see that so many of you enjoyed my radio piece on the BBC. If you’d like more insects on the radio, here are three more “insectivorous dispatches” (as my lovely BBC producer calls them) from Kenya, Wales and Madagascar, which were all broadcast before Buzzing existed. Happy listening.
Now, on to business. This week in Buzzing:
From NIMBY to YIMBY
In Other News: World Edible Insect Day and some great telly
Test Corner: Pasta and lollipop
How do you build an insect farm? This is not something I had ever contemplated until I attended the AGM of the North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture (NACIA). Not that I plan to build one, but I enjoyed the conversation because it made me consider the sector in a whole new light.
Just imagine for a moment what it takes to build something that has not been done before. This is obviously something all new industries/moonshot endeavours face, but what it means in practice is that insect companies wanting to build large-scale facilities cannot just find a general contractor with previous experience. Gabe Mott, Chief Operating Office at Aspire, a company building a large cricket farm in London, Ontario (Canada), said they often had to dispel myths and incredulity. “People are 50:50 about whether this is a joke.”
Engineering challenges aside (of which there are plenty, and which companies seem to deal with by developing in-house expertise), education about the industry seems to be a recurrent theme. Liz Koutsos, President of Enviroflight, a BSF company building a facility in Kentucky, recalls that their local community was concerned about potential externalities. “Is it going to smell? Are the insects going to escape?”. These are fair points when you know nothing about what these facilities look like.
Local authority officials too need to become more familiar with the industry if they are to support it. French BSF company InnovaFeed for instance invited officials from the city of Decatur, Illinois, to visit their facilities in France to help plan their US facility, which really helped the project go through planning. That support can be invaluable further down the line: Mott says that their municipality re-scheduled roadworks that would have delayed the delivery of their steel works. Respect to the local authority.
Raising awareness about the insect industry is especially important to highlight the impact it could have on the local economy: opportunities for businesses, jobs for the workforce. Beta Hatch is building a facility in “apple county” (Cashmere) in Washington State, and CEO Virginia Emery says they’ve had to do a lot of outreach to attract talent and become a household name in the area (it’s working: the barista in her local coffee shop now knows who they are!).
Emery is the incoming president of NACIA and she said that the discussion had made her think that NACIA could probably do more to convert NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard movement) to YIMBYism (Yes In My Backyard?!). I’ve never heard that word before but I like it: Yes please, put insects in my backyard because not only are they a brilliant, sustainable source of protein and fertilisers, they’ll also bring opportunities and jobs to my area. Such a great concept, and one that should underpin the expansion of the sector everywhere.
In Other News
Graphic Story
It is World Edible Insect Day tomorrow, so here is a challenge for you: try an edible insect product. Most people should be able to get hold of products online, be it a cereal bar or crackers, or an insect powder, which you can fold into recipes. If you’d like a no-cooking option, try my amazing mango cricket smoothie. Alternatively, try the pancakes. Oh and don’t forget to let me know how it goes here (hit the big green button below) or on social media (@buzzingnewsletter on Instagram).
Sector News
NOVA, the popular science series on PBS (US), did a special episode on edible insects this week. I’m gutted because I’m not able to watch it in the UK but given the clips and the people featured, it looks like a cracker.
If you haven’t seen it already, watch chef and insect ambassador Joseph Yoon’s masterclass How to Eat Every Insect on Epicurious.
Crickets made an appearance on Masterchef Australia last week – I’ve only seen the clips but the picture of the final dish looks delicious.
Japan’s Development Agency (JICA) invest $2.5 million in Kenyan BSF business Sanergy (press release).
Buffalo worm burgers are now on sale in Austrian supermarkets BILLA (press release).
Test Corner: More insect pasta & ant lollipop
You get two reviews for the price of one this week, partly because this is the third time I am reviewing insect pasta and there are only so many things one can write about it!
This time, it is cricket penne, which changes from the tagliatelle and the fusilli I’ve had before. As with most things containing cricket powder, the pasta was darker than its standard counterpart, similar to a wholewheat pasta. I found their flavour to be very close to normal pasta though, which is what I had also observed with the tagliatelle. I suppose it’s not surprising since they only contain 10% cricket powder. A nice boost nutritionally, but not one that makes a material difference to the texture or taste of the pasta.
This time, I cooked the penne as a pasta salad. I love this recipe because all the ingredients are store cupboard essentials (except for the feta, although its long shelf life in the fridge means I always have a couple of packets at hand) and you can magic it even when the fridge looks dangerously bare. Little-boy-who-likes-everything loves it too, which is another bonus. I usually mix three or four marinated vegetables (sundried tomatoes, roast peppers, artichokes, olives, finally chopped), a couple of nuts or seeds (always pine nuts, and pumpkin or sunflower seeds) and crumbled feta. It takes about 5 min to put together. Boom.
Tomorrow Foods 250g box of protein pasta £4/$5
Now for a bit of fun, I tried the ant lollipop my friend Conrad got me. I don’t think I’ve had a lollipop since I was about 7 so it was fun to eat and really yummy. I tried it in watermelon; other flavours include blueberry, tropical and green apple, with pop colours to match. The same flavours are also available with other insects: scorpions, mealworm and cricket, but I really think the ants are the best match for this particular treat given their zesty nature. The lollypop is big so I ended up biting chunks off to make it more manageable!
These would make really fun gifts for the ento-curious. Friends reading here, you know what to expect for Christmas 😉