Talk by Alexander Haverkamp, PhD; Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Insects are being increasingly farmed for human consumption and animal feed. Because to their favourable food to protein conversion ratio and due their ability to grown on waste streams that can not be utilized otherwise, insects have a great potential to be part of a sustainable future food system. However, insect farming also requires the mass rearing and the slaughter of large numbers of individual animals. How this is can be achieved in a manner that also considers the wellbeing of the insects is currently largely understudied.

In this seminar we will first address the potential environmental and societal benefits of insect farming, before reviewing some of the current farming practices. We will then explore the potential impacts of farming on insect wellbeing and discuss how we might be able to measure insect wellbeing in the mass rearing systems. I will give some examples of physiological indicators for insect wellbeing and make suggestions on how these could also be linked to behavioural indicators of insect welfare, focusing specifically on different food substrates and rearing conditions.

Finally, we will try to combine different views on insect farming and discuss measures on how to ensure that insect production can indeed become part of a sustainable and environmentally friendly food system, while also considering the welfare of the insects themselves.