Professor, AgriLife Research Fellow, Presidential Impact Fellow and Director, National Science Foundation Center for Environmental Sustainability Through Insect Farming
Project: Edible insects and health.
The commercial industry around entomophagy was valued at 33 million USD in 2015, with future growth estimated at more than 40% by 2023. The release of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s publication “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security” in 2013 accelerated attention to the past, present, and future uses of insects as components of human diets and as animal feed ingredients. Studies on the role of insects in food systems cross disciplinary boundaries and bring together scientists from natural and social science as well as the humanities to document the past and explore the future potential of this group of organisms that up until now have escaped the globalization of food systems. This research will address the knowledge gaps related to the incorporation of edible insects as part of Precision Nutrition.