Some experts think that edible insects could be a good option for sustainable
protein production and consumption, and one of the keys to global food security
in a world of nine billion people or more. We used the methods of Foresight
to explore the potential of insect-eating within four different future scenarios.
Interestingly, edible insects featured as a plausible part of all four imagined
futures. This suggests that eating insects might become mainstream in a few
decades. However, questions remain about the economic viability and food safety
of insect-based foods. Research into these questions is necessary and justified.UK Department for International Developmen

Glover, Dominic

Sexton, Alexandra

English

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ISSUE 114 • APRIL 2016
“With the 
challenge of 
feeding a rising 
global population 
more sustainably, 
some experts 
think that edible 
insects could 
contribute 
significantly to 
human food 
security in the 
future.”
 Edible Insects and 
 the  Future of Food
There are more than 1,900 species 
of insect that feature in human diets 
around the world. With the challenge of 
feeding a rising global population more 
sustainably, some experts think that edible 
insects could contribute significantly to 
human food security in the future.
Edible insects contain protein with a 
little fat and dietary fibre, as well as some 
important micronutrients. Being cold-
blooded, they are able to convert their 
feed into edible meat more efficiently than 
chickens, pigs and cattle, while producing 
fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 
requiring less land and water.
Edible insects are already being developed 
as an alternative feed for conventional 
livestock and farmed fish, in place of grain 
crops and fishmeal. A few insect products 
for human consumption are available from 
specialist retailers in Western countries 
and can even be found on the shelves in 
some branches of major supermarket 
chains in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Using Foresight to imagine 
scenarios for the future
We used the tools of Foresight to think 
about the potential of edible insects to 
contribute to human food security in 
a future global food system. Foresight 
offers a tool box of approaches and 
methods for thinking about the future in 
a methodical, deliberative way.
Foresight methods can be used to 
anticipate (not predict) plausible future 
developments, which can help society 
to prepare to meet future challenges or 
even think about how to steer towards 
desired futures and avoid negative 
outcomes.
We convened an online discussion and 
a Foresight scenario workshop involving 
people with relevant expertise in fields 
such as entomophagy (insect-eating), 
nutrition, food security, public health and 
regulation.
In the scenario workshop the participants 
identified major trends and drivers of 
change, which they expected to play 
significant roles in shaping the future of 
global food and nutrition security. They used 
these as building blocks for four scenarios 
with different properties, as follows:
Scenario 1: A gated world
The ‘gated world’ scenario imagined a 
future characterised by a concentration 
of wealth and economic power with 
intensified resource constraints. It featured 
vertically integrated, socioeconomically 
segmented food systems. Big corporations 
produced edible insects in large quantities, 
and they were incorporated into highly 
processed foods. Conventional meat and 
fish become high-status foods consumed 
primarily by rich people, who were ready 
to pay for a high-quality, organic, ‘natural’ 
product. For the mass of the population, 
conventional meat became a rare treat.
Scenario 2: New Asia
Characterised by distributed economic 
power and intensified resource constraints 
many people developed a positive 
preference for edible insects in the ‘New 
Asia’ scenario. Conventional meat and 
Some experts think that edible insects could be a good option for sustainable 
protein production and consumption, and one of the keys to global food security 
in a world of nine billion people or more. We used the methods of Foresight 
to explore the potential of insect-eating within four different future scenarios. 
Interestingly, edible insects featured as a plausible part of all four imagined 
futures. This suggests that eating insects might become mainstream in a few 
decades. However, questions remain about the economic viability and food safety 
of insect-based foods. Research into these questions is necessary and justified.
IDS POLICY BRIEFING ISSUE 114 • APRIL 2016 www.ids.ac.uk
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IDS Policy Briefings are published by the Institute of Development Studies and aim to provide high quality 
analysis and practical recommendations for policymakers on important development issues. 
To subscribe: www.ids.ac.uk/idspolicybriefings
Institute of Development Studies, Brighton BN1 9RE UK
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Further reading
van Huis, A. (2013) ‘Potential of 
Insects as Food and Feed in 
Assuring Food Security’, Annual 
Review of Entomology 58.1: 
563–83
van Huis, A.; van Itterbeeck, J.; 
Klunder, H.; Mertens, E.; 
Halloran, A.; Muir, G. and 
Vantomme, P. (2013) Edible 
Insects: Future Prospects for Food 
and Feed Security, FAO Forestry 
Paper 171, Rome: Food and 
Agriculture Organization of the 
United Nations
Credits
This IDS Policy Briefing was 
written by Dominic Glover, 
IDS Research Fellow and 
Alexandra Sexton, King’s 
College, and edited by Vivienne 
Benson. It was produced as part 
of the IDS Policy Anticipation, 
Response and Evaluation 
programme, supported with UK 
aid from the UK Department for 
International Development.
The opinions expressed are 
those of the authors and do 
not necessarily reflect the views 
of IDS. 
Readers are encouraged to 
quote and reproduce material 
from the IDS Policy Briefing 
series. In return, IDS requests 
due acknowledgement and 
quotes to be referenced as 
above.
AG Level 2 Output ID: 262
© Institute of Development Studies, 2016 
ISSN 1479-974X
Policy recommendations
A future of widespread entomophagy is plausible but many challenges would need 
to be addressed before the industry could emerge on a substantial, even global, scale:
• Research is needed into production and processing technologies and food 
safety issues. The economic viability of a future edible insect sector is substantially 
uncertain at present. It will depend on the size of the eventual market for edible 
insects as well as the scale economies of insect production and processing.  
• The reality of human insect-eating could increase the availability and affordability 
of healthy protein in the developing world. Countries in tropical regions where 
insect-eating is already established may be in the best position to expand this market 
and companies in these regions may have a competitive advantage in serving it.
• As developing countries become wealthier, insect-based foods may offer a more 
sustainable way to meet future protein requirements than conventional meat. 
However, the assumption that it will be easier to persuade consumers to eat 
insects than convince them to eat less meat should be tested, and it is possible 
that other meat alternatives (such as lab-cultured meat or vegetable and algal 
proteins) may be as sustainable and marketable, or more so, than insect-based foods.
fish became relatively expensive luxuries, 
frowned upon by some consumers. People 
ate many of their meals outside the home 
and developed cosmopolitan tastes. Many 
kinds of insect-based foods became 
common foods within a diverse food 
system. A few people reared their own 
edible insects at home.
Scenario 3: Mundus middle-class
In this scenario, economic power was 
more evenly distributed and resource 
constraints were substantially eased 
compared to today. The latter change was 
driven by technological breakthroughs in 
energy generation and storage, the rise 
of the sharing economy and a reduction 
in consumerist behaviour. Conventional 
agriculture became more environmentally 
benign, with insects being fed to livestock, 
while some consumers chose to eat 
insects in preference to conventional meat 
products. But insects were just one food 
among many available on the market and 
many people continued to eat meat.
Scenario 4: Bread and circuses
The final scenario was characterised 
by concentrated economic power and 
eased resource constraints. It was a highly 
unequal world in which the rich were 
able to enjoy a diverse diet of tastefully 
prepared foods while the food most 
people ate was in the form of heavily 
processed food products manufactured and 
sold by big ‘nutrition services’ companies. 
Elites would eat whole insects occasionally 
as an exotic treat, but most people ate 
insect protein regularly, incorporated into 
baked goods, burgers, pies, and so on.
Insects could be the future
It is notable that edible insects featured in 
all four scenarios, suggesting that some 
kind of edible insect sector producing 
human food and animal feed is quite likely 
to emerge. This suggests that funding for 
research into production technologies and 
safety issues would be legitimate.
In all four cases the edible insects sector 
was envisaged as bifurcated into a fine 
foods concept at one pole and a mass-
produced protein substitute at the other, 
but the relative size and importance of 
these two segments varied between the 
different scenarios.
The relevance of insect-based feeds in each 
scenario depended largely on whether 
conventional meat products remained an 
affordable and socially accepted option for 
consumers. Where conventional meat-
eating remained an option, insect-based 
feeds could help to make conventional 
livestock production more sustainable.


Edible Insects and the Future of Food

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Edible Insects and the Future of Food

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