Manipulating Diet Content and Context to Improve Edible Insect Farming Yield

Food security is a major global concern and Canada’s current agricultural model is not adequately positioned to support our growing needs. Insects may solve this problem as they are nutritious and their production requires less resources than vertebrate protein sources. A primary goal of this project is to increase cricket yield. Together with Entomo Farms, we have identified key concerns surrounding increasing yield that cannot be addressed without academic support. We will determine how to best manipulate diet content (Goal 1) and context (Goal 2) to improve rearing facilities and practices and will test diet formulations and rearing practices at Entomo Farms (Goal 3). We will identify the protein:carbohydrate and ipid:phosphorus:vitamin C, along with the ideal plant-based protein and the optimal particle size required to maximize yield. Insect growth is also heavily influenced by abiotic temperature. Because different physiological processes have different optimal temperatures, insect growth’s temperature sensitivity is also dependent on diet. We will determine how diet and thermal environments interact to impact yield. Further, we will also determine the effect of rearing density and diet on growth and survival.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sue Bertram;Heath MacMillan

Student:

Partner:

Entomo Farms;Aspire Food Group

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Manufacturing

University:

Carleton University

Program: