The International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) – the Brussels-based business association representing the European insect sector – welcomes today's Communication of the European Commission on Safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems.
In the context of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine and its negative consequences on global agri-food markets, local insect-derived products and other new sources of nutrition can play a role in strengthening regional food and feed self-sufficiency. To this end, the European insect sector reiterates its call for concrete support measures for sectors such as insect farming under national initiatives, such as the national protein plans that already exist or are being developed at Member State level.1 In the medium-/long- run, we believe that supporting the upscaling of insect farming throughout the European Union will also facilitate the transition towards more circular, resource-efficient production systems – offering pragmatic and sustainable answers to several challenges of the agri-food sectors.
IPIFF also values the call of the European Commission to 'increasing the […] production of bio-based alternatives to close the nutrient cycle'. In particular, the wider use of insect frass on agricultural land may offer a concrete solution to farmers seeking alternatives to maintaining and improving soil fertility.
1. While 'insects' were not explicitly mentioned in the Information Annex presented by the Austrian delegation in the latest AGRI-FISH meeting, our position is aligned with the spirit of this communication - as we would value the development of a future-oriented 'European protein strategy' as mentioned in this document.