If you are growing and raising your own insects for personal consumption, does that make you a farmer or rancher?
Regardless, that’s exactly what designer Katharina Unger at Farm 432 has envisioned with a counter-top insect breeding system for your kitchen.
Counter-Top Insect Breeding System- Become Your Own Insect Farmer
Photo courtesy www.kunger.at
Are you the adventurous type who is looking for a higher quality protein; a protein that has fewer calories, and less fat than other “more traditional” proteins? With the recent Paleo diet, and thousands of people becoming more and more obsessed with returning to the roots of food, some are turning to eating insects.
While the thought of popping a cockroach or mealworm into your mouth may make you gag, the practice is growing throughout the world and is already well established in many parts of Asia.
As the practice of eating insects grows, Farm 432 has created a sustainable future of food production that can be done in your very own kitchen.
I’m talking about a prototype that allows us to farm or ranch insects for consumption.
How The Insect Breeding System Works
Become Your Own Insect Farmer
Photo courtesy www.kunger.at
With this new counter-top insect breeding system, those hungry to crunch down on fly larvae can now harvest about 500g a week; which is enough for two meals.
Put one gram of black soldier fly eggs into the metamorphosis box at the top of the apparatus. Give the eggs about 432 hours, and larvae that self-harvest will fall clean and ready to eat into a harvest bucket.
The product is still a prototype, and is currently not available for purchase.
Insects As A Food Option
While it seem unappetizing to many of us Americans, some 2 billion people in the world rely heavily on insects as a much needed source of nutrition. Insects are a very high quality protein, and are great food alternatives for those living in areas that have little food; in which many of the people are malnourished.
As the World’s population grows, our need for meat will grow. It’s estimated that by year 2050, meat production will need to expand by 50% to meet demand. Insects may become more and more mainstream is this is the case.
While many people are required to eat bugs for survival purposes, just how close are the rest of us to making insects a part of our regular diet? Will we be able to go into Trader Joes or Whole Foods and buy dried crickets in bulk, right next to the oats and crunchy granola? Heck, maybe someday we’ll be able to buy chocolate covered grasshoppers next to the Snickers bars at Walmart.
It’s safe to say that Farm 432 is working to bridge the gap.
Farm 432 Insect Breeding System
For a complete overview and more information on Katharina Unger and Farm 432 counter-top insect breeding system, visit www.kunger.at
