Insect Farming Is A Climate Problem🐛🏭

👋 TDLR: UK government is seeking consultation about the feeding of insects to UK livestock. But this would require insect farming, which is bad for climate change.

📣 Action: Fill out the UK DEFRA’s public survey about insect farming to let them know that industry will cause more emissions, not less.

💪 Estimated Impact To Effort Ratio: Very Solid – This could prevent UK government investment in insect farming.

🏃‍♀️Estimated Time To Complete: 10mins — Fill it out while you drink your morning coffee and make an impact for the environment today!

⏳Deadline: April 1st.

Start Here: Open the consultation (HERE) in a new tab and use the guide below to answer it as you go through it.

What to expect: Some questions gathering basic information about you, like your name, then some questions about feeding livestock, and questions gathering feedback about the survey itself.

We suggest answering no to all questions in the consultation due to the substantiated and possible environmental concerns of these issues.

Only 3 questions relevant to Insect Farming: Questions 11, 12, and 15

Only 1 question to explain in detail: Question 12 — and we provide some answers you can submit as is or customize.

Details: In February the U.K.’s Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) opened a consultation on whether it should allow insects to be feed to UK livestock. Though you wouldn't know this from the insect farming’s greenwashing, the development of this sector is bad for the environment.

Questions: In-Depth Guide

Questions = (Q) 🤔

Suggested Responses = (SR) 🎯

🛠️ Make these responses fresh: Feel free to use ChatGPT or Claude to rewrite these questions, but be explicit in your prompt to be against the greenwashing of the insect farming. Because they are trained on the internet, some responses clearly have the insect farming industry’s greenwashing points included.

Question 11

• 🤔 Q: Do you agree with allowing insect processed animal protein in porcine and poultry feed?
• 🎯 SR: No

Question 12

• 🤔 Q: Text field asking for clarification as to why you answered ‘No’ on Question 11.
• 🎯 SR: Copy and paste one of the 2 responses below, but bonus points if you put it in your own words or have Chat GPT rewrite them. However, double check AI written responses for insect industry greenwashed talking points.
• 🥩 ANSWER #1: Feeding insects to livestock is worse for the environment than our current status quo. The promise of insect farming was to replace livestock like cattle that are sources of heavy emissions, but people find bugs unappealing to eat. So the insect industry is now pivoting to feed livestock their insects. But that will only increase the UK’s carbon footprint while we are experiencing a climate crisis. The source for this claim can be found here.
• 🦠 ANSWER #2: According to a 2023 UK Food Safety Standard Report there are major food safety risks with the mass rearing of insects. “[They can] be vectors of diseases and lead to pathogen contaminations threatening animal and eventually human health. When reared on livestock manures insects may carry veterinary drug residues, hormones and biological contaminants (e.g., bacteria with transgenic DNA, mycotoxins).” See the report here.
• 🐝 ANSWER #3: Insects raised in industrial farms will likely lead to the decline of local native insect populations. “The species being reared and sold are often non-native, in rearing centres not equipped to contain the species, and in areas without regional or national pre-entry regulations, post-entry monitoring guidelines and early response programmes to address escapee species.” (See the report here). In addition, genetically modified or selected insects are being developed, and since they are bigger, they could compete with local species.
• ✍️ OPTION #4 – Here’s a prompt to feed to an AI like Perplexity.ai or ChatGPT: In one paragraph or more please describe why insect farming is now seen to be bad for the environment.

Question 15

• 🤔 Q: Do you agree with the proposed measures to prevent cross contamination in the feed chain?
• 🎯 SR: No