The Beatles Revolution: when innovation starts with insect

In any field, innovation does not necessarily imply the occurrence of the «absolutely new» but can be reached also through the original use (as for ways and purposes) of something that is not new at all. This is what is happening with insects: their discovery, or rediscovery, depends on some utilities that have never been taken into account before, except for some species or specific types of insects (bees, ladybugs, fishing worms). In the last years, new uses of insects have been hypothesised, sometimes till the concrete demonstration, both in food and feed. In other sectors, however, the use of insects is raising interest: waste volume reduction, production of innovative materials, and entomotherapy. Staring from the potential that insects could express within the agrifood sector, and from their answers to the search for sustainability, with its environmental, social and economic meanings, the speech will underline some critical points in the EU provisions that sometimes undermine or limit the implementation of new solutions. Innovation, that nowadays starts with insects, clashes with the rigidity and narrow hermeneutical areas of a law that requires changes.