Insects as Food and Feed

Improving food/feed safety, and working towards sustainable and economic approaches for all nations to achieve zero-waste status by harnessing the power of insects and their microbes as biorecyclers.

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Developing sustainable and scalable agricultural practices will provide livelihood empowerment from small-scale rural community groups that would supply the raw materials for insect development, utilize the remaining waste as compost for additional crop growth, and produce an alternative protein source to supplement the growth of livestock. Investing in agriculture and rural community development to boost food production and nutrition is a global priority.

The goals of our activities are to:

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1. Identify local stakeholders that would potentially implement the use of insects as a novel feedstock for livestock, such as aquaculture and poultry; and

2. Identify the specific insect species and their food sources that will be targeted during preliminary research.

These efforts are focused on optimizing insects and their associated microbiomes to improve nutrition that would benefit local stakeholders. Thus, this research has real-world impacts that will improve African livelihoods by increasing the amount of available protein for consumption through improved livestock, and will enhance livelihood security of individuals through community-level actions.

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This work was partially funded by the Michigan State University Alliance for African Partnership in collaboration with Prof. Jeremiah Kang'ombe, Dr. Kingsley Masamba, and Dr. Andy Safalaoh at Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources (LUANAR), Dr. Arox W. Kamng’ona at the University of Malawi College of Medicine, and Dr. Eric Benbow at Michigan State University.