Does anybody know of any academic work where the use of biotechnology to breed insects for food and feed is discussed?
To my knowledge, none. Insects as food or feed are not in such huge demand. So the need for speeding up the production quantity or qualitywise using biotech approaches is not required at this stage.
Dear Mickey
There is a prediction for future that insects can be a source of animal protein, but now the insect used as a food in some countries in small scale.
Please, read in the following links :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315546383720122
and:
http://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/abs/10.3920/JIFF2015.0097
Good Luck
To my understanding, the reason why this topic is not a global agenda is
1. genetic modification for food purpose is more devastating for the fact that organic agriculture farming goes down to the hill which has its own negative implications on the food production.
2.most infectious diseases use insects as an intermediate or reservoirs and opening a door for insects genetic engineering is another pain in the neck to understand the symbiosis.
3. So far, the world is not demanding that much for insects as source of food and this will remain unquestionable for undefined time.
4.However, genetically modified honey bees are highly recommended and there is progress on that.
cheers!
Hi, Haven't seen or heard anything about it. Very interesting topic and will be on the agenda sooner than later is my guess. There are several people working on GMO and food at SLU (Project MistraBiotech) that I have talked with about insects as food, but as far as I know, they do not work on anything related to this yet. They do podcasts on GMO and food, but they might be in Swedish https://www.slu.se/shapingourfood_podcast Greetings, Åsa
Hi Åsa. I am myself a part of MISTRA - and know there are no insects-plan, but agree with you that it will come up soon. At least we will begin lookin i to possible ethical issues. all the best Mickey
Here you can find information about this issue:
Edible insects are the future?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26908196
Nutritional composition and safety aspects of edible insects.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23471778
Review of food composition data for edible insects.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26433285
Assessing the Potential of Insects as Food and Feed in assuring Food Security
http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/an233e/an233e00.pdf
Insect cells for human food
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073497500600142X
Potential and challenges of insects as an innovative source for food and feed production
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1466856412001452
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