With the global population set to top nine billion by 2050, it's estimated that food production needs to increase by around 70 per cent to meet demand, and do so sustainably. Some 820 million people go hungry globally, yet a third of all food produced is wasted, which equates to 1.3 billion tonnes of biomass waste across the food value chain, and an economic loss of around $1tn (£734bn) each year. A lot of that waste ends up rotting in landfill, leading to 4.4 gigatonnes CO2equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions, which is similar to that of a large country. Incredibly, part of the solution to this massive problem may lie with small grubs. A Cambridge-based university spin-out is growing a network of decentralised AI-powered insect mini-farms that can be attached to animal-rearing farms, to reduce waste and increase food production at the same time.