Bugs For Life

Bugs for Life is an interdisciplinary international charity promoting insects for food security globally. We work collaboratively with communities in Benin to increase their food resilience, and also deliver educational programmes in the UK and beyond to spread the word about the benefits of edible insects! Why do we do this? There are more than 7 billion people on planet Earth, with more arriving every day. By 2050, that number will have risen to 9 billion, who will all have needs that make demands upon our increasingly fragile ecosystems Food demand is expected to rise by around 50% in the next 20 years, but land for producing it is becoming increasingly scarce. Over 70% of agricultural land - an area as large as the Americas - is used up farming livestock for human consumption. And the costs of rearing, transporting and processing these food sources are taken into account, the enormous financial and environmental inefficiency of traditional farming methods becomes clear. Also, not all 7 billion of us get an equal share. Unaffordability, regional scarcity and lack of food security conditions mean that many people around the world often go without. So what can be done? Bugs For Life proposes an alternative to traditional livestock farming that is: affordable, available, sustainable, nutritious, and environmentally secure. Insects have formed part of the traditional diets across the world for thousands of years. From the honeypot ants of the Aboriginal Australians to the delicious fried grasshoppers found in East Asia. Edible insects are a safe, nutritious and reliable protein source. They produce minimal greenhouse gas emissions, require much less food and space, have a rapid breeding cycle and can be established very easily. Food security and environmental changes will pose increasing challenges. Bugs for Life aims to find solutions to these problems not only for the here and now, but for the future world we will inhabit.