Insects as a sustainable alternative to feed animals in the city

Insects can be alternative source of nutrients in various parts of the food-chain, as feed for livestock but also human consumption. However, the acceptation of insects as a source of nutrients is low. Insects are in no way a part of western culture except when they are a pest. Insects do play a vital role in upcoming developments such as urban farming. This research describes how insects can add value to urban farming. Project goals were made explicit as a guiding and selective tool. To define search area’s, expert interviews were done with urban farming practitioners. The urban farming context was explored with the use of nature inspired design, a method developed at TU Delft to help designers create product-service systems that benefit their direct environments. A brand analysis of the company gave brand requirements and brand guidelines that were used as boundary conditions of what the final result must be and can be. Trough a combination of NID, market, brand, urban farming and insect requirements and guidelines, the search area of bio-coverters was defined. Bio-coverters based on insects have numerous benefits to urban farming by up-cycling waste streams into high-grade nutrients and compost. Four concepts were developed within the search area. The selection process was two-fold: a rating against requirements and guidelines and a rating against project goals. The highest rated concept was chosen and based on growing black soldier fly larvae on organic wast materials from the urban farm and foodscraps from the urban residence. The larvae are a source of animal-based protein and lipids which can replace the meaty diet of carnivorous animals. The focus was on dogs that get fresh meat diets. They consume excessive amounts of meat (an average dog consumes almost twice the amount of meat compared to an average human). Experts on field of pets were interviewed in order to gain insights into the needs and wishes of the target group. These insights were then tested with a questionnaire for a focus group (people with dogs). This questionnaire had 165 respondents, of which 59 were located strongly- urbanized environments. Of this last group, more than half indicate there is no municipality green waste pickup. An average dog in this group gets about 400gr of fresh meat per day and more than 50% practices a form of urban farming. The concept was developed to be a community driven design. In this way, a community facilitated by the company can develop, improve, test and maintain the product. Modules for monitoring can be developed and added. The community is also able to adapt design parameters to individual users needs. This evolutionary aspect is in line with life’s principles (a basic paradigm from the nature inspired design method. The design makes use of readily available resources (such as surplus thermal energy, standard glass jars, standard fasteners and standard piece of wood). The final proposal was designed to be low in effort and maintenance. High-effort actions have to be taken once a week. Every day operation includes feeding the system (similarly like a trash bin). A prototype was tested with a user that fits the prospected target group. The user indicated that the design was easy to understand and increased her comfort of having insects in her home. The object felt (although manufactured with FDM technology) as a high quality product. A functional test with the final 3D printed prototype was conducted over 5 days with appropriate age larvae. The result prove that the concept works as expected. With appropriate recommendations, the products functionality can drastically improve with respect to hatching black soldier fly eggs.

Subject

insects
urban farming
rearing
Black soldier fly
larvae
larva
circular
food
feed
open source
pet food
BSF
nature inspired design
NID

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