I N S C T S documents the solutions insect farming offers to global environmental and social challenges.
Insects can be fed on organic waste, bioconverting it into fertilizer and feed for animals - like chickens and many freshwater fish - that eat insects in their natural diet.
Therefore insect farming could become a nature-based solution for managing the increasing amount of organic waste, with the potential to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production: conventional animal feeds rely on high-yield monocrops, which require intensive use of land, water, and pesticides, contributing to biodiversity loss and soil degradation.
Replacing soymeal and fishmeal as feed components could reduce emissions, lessen land use in agriculture, and reduce overfishing. Moreover the "frass," the biofertilizer produced in the insect farming process, has the potential to rebuild soil infrastructure, promoting a more a regenerative, land-based global agriculture.
The photographs were taken in research centers, farms, companies and communities across Europe (The Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany), the U.S. (California and Texas), Thailand, Malaysia and Colombia.
In Colombia I focused on “Insectos Por La Paz” a social initiative that promotes the reintegration of former guerrilleros of the FARC-EP and supports the livelihoods of indigenous people training them to become smallholder insect producers. This project illustrates the change insect farming can promote in the Global South.
In fact the ideal conditions for insect farming occur in the tropics, offering rural communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America an affordable way to alleviate poverty and a pathway to community sovereignty by making small farmers less dependent on expensive, and environmentally costly, imported industrial products. This makes insect farming a redistributive agricultural practice.
I N S C T S is the story of an ongoing reconnection to nature-based systems—a revolutionary global opportunity. During the shoots I also recorded audio interviews. Some conversations are published as a podcast “Get The Bug”. I met environmentalists, entomologists, entrepreneurs, anthropologists, and activists. Some of them are renowned worldwide experts. All the I N S C T S contents refer to their research.