A Sustainable Alternative: Insect-Based Dog Food

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More and more people are populating our planet and meat consumption is on the increase. In view of the enormous environmental impact of livestock farming, it is high time to look for sustainable alternatives for food. This not only applies to our own diet, but also to our dogs’ nutrition.

Why dog food with insects is better for the environment

Worldwide livestock farming causes significant environmental damage and contributes to climate change. It requires plenty of space and goes hand in hand with enormous water consumption. In addition, intensive farming contaminates the soil and is responsible for the emission of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly) larvae, which are commonly used for dog food, can help reduce these problems. They are therefore an ideal sustainable alternative to meat.

Insects require less space

Around 80 percent of all agricultural land worldwide is used for keeping livestock. It serves either as pasture or as arable land to grow animal feed on.

For this reason, huge areas of rainforest are cut down year after year, especially in South America. As is well known, this has catastrophic consequences for the environment.

Breeding insect larvae, which takes place in unheated halls, requires significantly less space. In addition, they use their feed very efficiently, so that they do not need huge arable land to feed them.

Insects do not contaminate the soil unnecessarily

Apart from the requirement for a large amount of space, the soil contamination associated with livestock farming is also a major environmental problem. The soil is polluted with pesticides, ammonia and nitrate, just to mention a few. These harmful substances inevitably end up in groundwater, lakes and other waters.

The use of insects helps to avoid excessive contamination of soil and water. In addition, the residues from the production of the insect protein are an ideal natural fertiliser.

Less water consumption

The water consumption for the production of conventional meat is enormous. This is especially true for beef, which averages more than 15,000 litres of water per kilo meat. For pigs, it is still almost 6,000 litres that are needed per kilo of meat. Considering that water is increasingly scarce in a growing number of regions on earth, this is definitely a problem that should not be ignored.

The use of insects is also convincing in this regard, because their breeding uses just under 30 litres of water per ton. This is significantly less than for breeding conventional livestock.

Avoiding greenhouse gases

It’s well known that cows produce and emit methane while digesting their food. Methane is 28 times more harmful to the climate than CO2. With around one billion cattle worldwide, this is likely to have a significant impact on climate change.

Since the larvae of the black soldier fly do not produce any methane, breeding them is significantly better for the climate.

Are dogs adequately nourished with insect protein?

Most dog owners do not only consider the protection of the environment when choosing dog food. After all, the food should also provide the dog with animal proteins and all other important nutrients.

Fortunately, this is the case with Bellfor’s sustainable insect-based dog food. The insect protein is characterised by its very high biological value. It is easy to digest and provides the four-legged friends with all the essential amino acids.

A permanent change of food therefore has no disadvantages and additional feeding with meat-containing dog food is not required.

Insect protein for diet-related complaints 

The high-quality insect protein is very wholesome. It has practically no allergy potential. For this reason, the food is also an excellent choice for allergic dogs or dogs with general nutritional sensitivities.

As the experiences of countless dog owners have shown, the easily digestible source of protein can even make a decisive contribution to alleviating many nutrition-related complaints. For example, it is very suitable for dogs suffering from pancreatitis, gastritis or IBD.

Dog food with insect protein has therefore many advantages for the dog as well as the environment. It should therefore hardly come as a surprise that more and more dog owners are taking the leap and switch to sustainable and healthy dog food.

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