In this presentation from the New Harvest 2019 Conference, Natalie Rubio introduces the concept of entomoculture, which combines the sustainability of edible insects with the technology of cellular agriculture. She argues that culturing insect cells offers significant advantages over traditional mammalian cell culture, as insect cells are more robust and can grow at room temperature in simpler, serum free media. By targeting specific muscle and fat body tissues, this research aims to create familiar, high protein food products that avoid the sensory barriers often associated with eating whole insects.
Natalie shares her success in cultivating fruit fly and caterpillar muscle cells in both two dimensional and three dimensional environments, using sustainable scaffolds made from mushroom derived chitosan. Her findings demonstrate that these cultures are not only more dense in protein and minerals than typical mammalian lines but can also be nutritionally enhanced through their growth media. This work highlights the potential for insect based cellular agriculture to provide a scalable and affordable pathway toward a more resilient global food system.