Equipping communities to upcycle food waste with insect allies

Commodities

Practices

Roughly one quarter of US land is
devoted to agriculture, while over one third of the food we
produce ultimately goes to landfills, representing an unthinkable
waste. These lost nutrients could be returned to our food systems
with the help of insect allies that naturally decompose and
upcycle food waste into useful products. The manure of the
insects can be applied to cropland as a soil amendment shown to
increase yield and decrease some pest species, and the insects
themselves can be harvested to be a protein source in animal
feed. The goal is to increase food security for the future while
reducing food waste in the present. A key step toward realizing
this goal is to equip communities with knowledge and experience
to partner with insects to recapture lost food and transform it
into animal feed and soil amendments. Here, we propose to: 1)
demonstrate insect-based food waste upcycling in the urbanized
Northeast US, 2) develop insect-based waste upcycling educational
content and a mobile application for dissemination and data
gathering, and 3) partner with local organizations while
deploying the mobile application, document food waste diversion,
and assess user experiences. Our goal is that waste upcycling
would be accessible to any household or organization that is
committed to keeping food in the food system. While there will be
nuances to how the process is implemented across the diverse
geographies of the US, demonstration and education in the
urbanized Northeast US is an important step toward reducing food
loss and waste on a national scale.

Objective 1: Demonstrate
insect-based food waste upcycling in the urbanized Northeast
US

Objective 2: Develop insect-based
waste upcycling educational content and a mobile application for
dissemination and data gathering

Objective 3: Partner with local
organizations while deploying the mobile application, document
food waste diversion, and assess user experiences