Assessing the Socio-Economic Benefits and Costs of Insect Meal as a Fishmeal Substitute in Livestock and Aquaculture.

Sustainability targets set by the United Nations, such as Zero Hunger by 2030, encourage the search for innovative solutions to enhance food production while preserving the environment. Alternative protein sources for feed, while conventional resources like soymeal and fishmeal become more expensive and scarcer, is one of the possibilities. Studies on substituting fishmeal with insect meal show promising results in terms of animal growth and feed efficiency. This paper aims to assess the socio-economic benefits and costs of insect meal substituting fishmeal in feed and to highlight the factors influencing performance most. The study evaluates the economic value of insect-based products, waste reduction, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions as socio-economic benefits. It combines empirical data derived from laboratory trials and two case studies covering black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) and yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). Current analyses reveal negative socio-economic balances, emphasizing that reduction of operating and investment costs through upscaling and technological advancements can give a positive move, as well as factors such as current market valuations for nutrients can change significantly. Thus, a negative balance at the moment does not mean that insect rearing, and larva processing are not desirable from a long-term socio-economic perspective.

Individual responsibilities, collective issues: The framing of dietary practices in Latvian media.

Topics concerning food and diets have gained prominence in academic writing, policy debates and media coverage, not least due to public health problems, sedentary lifestyles, and concerns regarding dietary habits and the impact of food production on climate change. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the ways dietary practices have been framed in the media through an analysis of Latvian print and digital media articles. A selection of 192 media articles published between 2014 and 2019 were analysed through the perspective of framing. The analysis identifies three prominent frames found in Latvian media: (i) a biomedical frame, (ii) a psychological frame, and (iii) a social practice frame. The frames are connected by several cross-cutting themes: individualisation, self-disciplining, gendering, and medicalisation. The results suggest that the media portray unhealthy dietary as the responsibility of individuals, whilst ignoring, with some exceptions, the impact of broader societal and food system processes. These results call for more attention to be paid by media content creators to the diversity of actors involved in food production, consumption and distribution and their inter-connections, as well as the impact that food systems have on economic, social, and ecological sustainability.