Insects, algae, yeasts: Forum set to assess the pluses and minuses of new proteins

26-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2016 at 09:19 GMT

What are the pros and cons of feed protein derived from insects, from yeast, from duckweed or from seaweed and microalgae sources for poultry, pigs or farmed fish?

Tune in to our live forum with an expert panel to find out.

What is the challenge? It is for agriculture to increase food production by 70% in 2050.

Observers predict that in the future, this demand will force more of the world’s arable land to be used for human consumption and not feed crops, creating a price rise in feed and a need for protein alternatives that don’t rely on arable land.

So in that context, four speakers will assess the international feed sector’s protein needs in our forum, The Protein Puzzle, on Thursday, 6 October 2016.

The experts, who come from the feed manufacturing side, the academic research arena, as well as from the business of animal protein industry analysis and animal nutrition consulting, will discuss existing sources, the external pressures to find alternatives and the merits and shortcomings of some of the replacement proteins that academics and industry R&D teams have been exploring in the past few years.

And we will ask them about the barriers, regulatory, cost or otherwise, that are preventing new proteins like insect derived meal or single cell protein sources reaching commercial scale.

We will also see if they believe there is potential for wider take-up of processed animal proteins (PAP) in markets like Europe.

Who is talking?

Our speaker line-up includes: Arnold van Huis, tropical entomologist, Wageningen University, Dr Leon Marchal, director nutrition and innovation, ForFarmers, Gert Hemke, animal nutrition consultant, and Gorjan Nikolik, senior industry analyst, food and agribusiness research and advisory, Rabobank International.

The webinar is live at 4.30pm Paris, 3.30pm London, 10.30am New York time.

We welcome audience participation. There will be a Q&A between the speakers and the audience for 15 minutes, as part of the live format, where webinar registrants can send in their questions from 4.30pm to close.

You can register for the FeedNavigator Protein Puzzle webinar here.