Funding agency: Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Period: Jul. 2018 - Dec. 2019 Budget: 50,702 € Function: PI Link:Grant no. TCS48
Description
The FWF - Top Citizen Science project “Six-legged livestock: Rearing black soldier fly on biowaste” has the objective to complement the already existing FWF project “From Waste to Feed: Waste products as a source of protein-rich feedstuff”. The purpose of the currently running FWF project is to evaluate and optimize the production of an animal feedstuff in form of Hermetia illucens prepupae fed on a variety of organic waste sources. So far, single and defined diets were tested in laboratory experiments, never mixed diets, such as domestic biowaste. The composition of such source-separate collected biowaste is hard to define, because it strongly depends on the eating habit of the consumers, season and region. To counteract this deficiency, experiments have to be conducted in a high number and with a broad spectrum of different diets and associated biowastes. This perfectly justifies a project based on citizen participation. Citizens who do not usually work in science will, supported by researchers and experts, conduct feeding experiments with black soldier fly larvae at their homes. They will use their daily incurring domestic biowaste using feeding container boxes they are building from scratch. By getting in touch with edible insects, participants will lose their prejudice against insect- based feed which will increase public acceptance of insect based fish- and chicken feed and nutrition. Furthermore, this citizen science project will dismantle existing barriers between science and society, by connecting both in an alliance that forms greater knowledge than science could obtain alone.
Involved students
Magdalena Gassner (diploma thesis)
References
2020
Black soldier fly school workshops as means to promote circular economy and environmental awareness
Andreas Walter*, Thomas Klammsteiner*, Magdalena Gassner, Carina Desirée Heussler, Suzanne Kapelari, Markus Schermer, and Heribert Insam
Today, insect applications for food and feed are of strong economic, ecological and social interest. Despite their tremendous potential, insects still elicit negative associations in the mindset of Western consumers, which is attributed to a lack of knowledge and scarce opportunities for engagement in this topic. The citizen science project ‘six-legged livestock’ aims to increase the potential of the insect Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly), merging the topics ‘waste re-valorisation’ and ‘protein production’ as a cross-link to circular economy. Workshops were held in four school classes, involving 89 pupils, aged 15 to 18 years old. Making use of organic wastes, participating school classes ran eight rearing systems containing a total of 1800 H. illucens larvae. In the four-week experiments, the pupils monitored larval growth and development. Evidently, the pupils were highly motivated to run their rearing systems and fulfil their working tasks. Furthermore, negative associations with insects, including phobia and scepticism decreased, while excitement for the topic increased after hands-on work with the insects. The presented project may be considered an innovative approach paving the way for the establishment of insects as an important educational tool, since they are still underrepresented in scholarly curricula, despite the public outrage over insect decline.
@article{walter_workshops_2020,title={Black soldier fly school workshops as means to promote circular economy and environmental awareness},volume={12},copyright={http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/},url={https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9574},doi={10.3390/su12229574},language={en},number={22},urldate={2020-11-20},journal={Sustainability},author={Walter*, Andreas and Klammsteiner*, Thomas and Gassner, Magdalena and Heussler, Carina Desirée and Kapelari, Suzanne and Schermer, Markus and Insam, Heribert},month=jan,year={2020},publisher={MDPI},keywords={<i>Hermetia illucens</i>, black soldier fly, citizen science, insect biotechnology, waste valorisation},pages={9574},dimensions=true,}
