From our asian association, AFFIA!

 

An entire category of incredibly healthy, very sustainable, yummy food has been forgotten by two continents, Europe and North America, and deeply underutilized in the others. Even in countries where bugs are eaten, they are rarely cooked in recipes, like for any other ingredient, nor were they processed in food.

Even the opportunities to create insect protein to feed animals have been underestimated, and we are now finding out that insects like the Black Soldier Fly can solve the problem of food waste and protein source – two birds with one stone.

For these reasons, this is not business as usual. We are on a mission. We need to start using this environmentally friendly superfood immediately. And since Asia is the place where it is more convenient to farm insects, we also need to convince the West that importing bugs from the East may be way better than try to farm crickets in Scandinavia. Land labour, temperature, everything is more convenient in tropical areas.

How do we boost the change? In a newborn industry, there is not a problem with competitiveness, but the opposite. We need to collaborate and we need support. And an Association is a very good place to make collaboration happen.

This is why AFFIA is growing fast, and it already represents  9 countries and a number of companies and expert from the academia. And for the same reasons we developed a dialogue with the edible associations in Europe and North America, including IPIFF and Woven Networks.

AFFIA founders are a mix of Asian and Western people, and this is an advantage: our companies will know better how to approach Western markets and apply western logic to marketing strategies.

AFFIA connects with Universities and Government agencies to create synergies and help developing regulation and know how.

In Kasetsart University we found an institution very attentive to innovation and sustainability. And we thanks Thai ACFS and Thai FDA for having an effective conversation with us. We are happy that ACFS has created two groups working on edible insects, to improve the farming techniques and safety and to deal with the European Union regulation on importing insects.

If you want help feeding 9.5 billion people by 2050, and doing that with a yummy, healthy food, please cooperate with AFFIA. And also follow us on the website and our social media, and share the content we produce.

AFFIA factsheet available here: PDF