COVID-19 RAPID RESPONSE: CREATING ROBUST INSECT PRODUCTION SYSTEMS BY INCREASING ENERGY EFFICIENCY

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The COVID-19 crisis disrupted food and agricultural supply chains as many areas experienced food shortages where families, pets, and zoo animals could not get necessary supplies. Though we are striving to fix these immediate issues, this is the opportune time to reevaluate how food is produced and start building more robust production systems to not only mitigate these current food shortages, but also mitigate ongoing challenges that humans are facing today from multiple crises (e.g. climate change, energy shortages, and feeding growing populations). Meeting animal protein demands for growing populations with limiting energy resources, water supplies, and available land is one of the most important and difficult challenges that must be overcome to ensure food security. One promising solution for meeting these increasing animal protein demands is producing insects. Insects are currently a nutritious protein source for many reptiles, birds, fish, small mammals, and by humans in various countries. In general, insects are highly nutritious with high protein content, have high feed conversion values, and use significantly less land and water resources for mass production compared to the production of livestock and other protein additives for livestock and animal feeds (i.e. soy and fish meals). However, insects are expensive to mass produce and this cuts into potential profits for farmers. This is because insects can be labor intensive to maintain and harvest and mass production requires high energy consumption from heating and cooling facilities to maintain optimal indoor growth temperatures between ~26-28°C. Labor costs can be cut by available automation techniques, but there have not been improvements in energy efficiency to decrease high energy costs. Therefore, this USDA NIFA SBIR Phase I project proposes to build the first zero net energy insect production facility, specifically for live mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), using sustainable architectural strategies and renewable energies. To achieve this, our proposed facility will utilize naturally sourced building material (adobe/cob), passive and active solar collection practices, geothermal ventilation designs, a smart self-regulating temperature controlled system, and photovoltaic technology to regulate optimal mealworm growth conditions (26-28°C) and operate automated systems year round. A series of experiments that include continuously measuring indoor and outdoor temperatures and monitoring labor hours will determine if this facility can indeed regulate uniform indoor temperatures without increasing labor costs. Additionally, to quantify energy efficiency, a Life Cycle Assessment will be performed to measure land (m2), water (m3), and energy usage (MJ) to produce live mealworms (measured in kg of edible protein). These results will then be directly compared with a similar study that measured these metrics in a traditional mealworm production facility. If proven feasible, this innovative design could increase incomes for small to mid-size farms. Once this project is completed and the results are shared openly with farmers, the hopes for these system operations are to (1) increase the profitability of insect farming that will incentivize a proliferation of localized farming operations that will in turn (2) increase robust protein productions toensure food security for growing human and animal global populations while conserving natural resources and combating climate change.