Explore Tastes to Save Life
Insect Apocalypse:
Pollination, Taste, and the Ecology of Food
ZLI’s Insect Apocalypse Campaign focuses on insects, supporting research into co-evolutionary mutualism and phototaxis, while relating these biological relationships to human concerns surrounding food security and taste.
Insects shape the ecological systems that sustain agriculture. Their relationships with plants—through pollination, pest regulation, and soil processes—determine the availability and character of the foods that define regional cuisines.
Insect Apocalpyse explores how light conditions influence insect behavior, particularly their attraction to artificial light and its consequences for insect survival. By linking these biological processes to culinary traditions and agricultural landscapes, Insect Apocalypse highlights how environmental change directly affects the foods people grow, cook, and share.
While globally relevant, the campaign has particular interest in Japan and Italy, where agricultural landscapes and culinary heritage vividly reflect long histories of human interaction with ecological systems.
ZLI's Insect Apocalypse Campaign is structured around two pillars: research and media.
Feature Animals
Insects and Pollination Networks
ZLI's Insect Apocalypse Campaign highlights pollinating insects and beneficial species that sustain agricultural systems and natural ecosystems.
Many insects rely on highly specialized sensory systems to detect light, color, ultraviolet patterns, and plant signals, allowing them to locate flowers and navigate complex landscapes. These sensory abilities enable the co-evolutionary mutualisms that connect plants and insects in long-standing ecological partnerships.
However, artificial lighting and environmental disturbance can disrupt these systems by drawing insects away from feeding and reproductive behaviors through phototaxis, altering pollination networks and reducing insect populations.
Because insects sit at the foundation of many food systems, their decline directly threatens agriculture, biodiversity, and culinary culture.
Research Pillar
Light, Mutualism, and Agricultural Ecology
ZLI's Insect Apocalypse Campaign supports research into the relationships between light environments, insect behavior, and agricultural systems.
Within the ZLI Framework, this work draws on three scientific domains of photobiology:
Photo-Physiology
Light regulates insect circadian rhythms, reproductive cycles, and developmental processes. Artificial lighting can disrupt these physiological systems, altering feeding and mating behaviors.
Sensory Ecology
Insects rely on visual signals—including ultraviolet patterns and polarized light—to locate flowers and navigate landscapes. Artificial light sources can interfere with these cues, redirecting insects away from natural ecological interactions.
Integrative Biology
Pollination networks link insects, plants, agriculture, and human culture into a single ecological system. When insect populations decline, the consequences extend into food production, regional cuisine, and cultural identity.
Understanding these connections helps illuminate the ecological foundations of everyday foods.
PhotoDiversity Media
ZLI Insect Apocalypse Campaign Suite
Media projects within ZLI's Insect Apocalypse Campaign explore the relationships between insects, agriculture, and culinary culture, connecting ecological science with storytelling and food traditions.
Vulcan’s Vineyards™
Inhumanities Animated Series
Wrongly imprisoned for murdering one of his ex-wives yet lacking any memory or guilt, Orfeo Cavicchioli escapes the notorious Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto OPG and returns to his Sicilian home to uncover the truth behind his incarceration.
Set beneath Mount Etna, the series explores family history, land stewardship, and the fragile agricultural ecosystems that sustain vineyard life.
Malvasia™ (マルヴァジア)
Kuyō Shōkon Cinematic Production
In this historical drama, Pope Gregory the Great transforms his Sicilian estates into monastic refuges with the help of his childhood friend Severin Cavicchioli, a Sicel vintner descended from the court of Dionysius I.
The film explores how agriculture, faith, and hospitality shaped early medieval Sicily and its enduring food traditions.
Insect Apocalypse™ (昆虫の黙示録)
PhotoDiversity Educational Series
This educational series examines the global decline of insects caused in part by light pollution, building arguments upon the photobiology of different species. Each episode connects an insect species with agricultural products that depend on their presence, culminating in a culinary recipe coordinated with Vulcan’s Vineyards that would be impossible without these ecological relationships.
The Crawlers™ (ミツバチとパン屋の)
Pholk Tales Animated Movie
A reinterpretation of Philip K. Dick’s The Crawlers, set beneath Mount Etna in the sixth century amid the tensions between Valentinian Gnosticism, proto-orthodox Christianity, and lingering Dionysian cults.
The story explores the shared human necessity of food and the ecological systems that sustain it.
Ada’s Kitchen™ (エイダズキッチン)
ChibiKama Playtime Production
In this playful cooking series, Ada Cavi introduces pre-K audiences to the basics of preparing meals. The show presents Sicilian food traditions for Japanese audiences, emphasizing family participation and the shared joy of preparing meals together.
Why Insect Apocalypse Matters
Food Systems Depend on Insects
Insects sustain many of the ecological relationships that allow agriculture to flourish. Pollination, pest control, and nutrient cycling all depend on insect populations. Yet insects are increasingly threatened by light pollution, habitat loss, and environmental change.
The Insect Apocalypse Campaign highlights the direct relationship between insect survival and the foods people grow, cook, and eat, encouraging practical approaches that support pollinator health and ecological stability.
Why Insect Apocalypse Requires Partnership
Protecting insect populations requires collaboration across many fields.
The campaign seeks to partner with:
- entomologists and agricultural researchers
- farmers and food producers
- chefs and culinary educators
- conservation organizations
- media creators and cultural storytellers
Together, these partners help reconnect audiences with the ecological foundations of food and agriculture.
Support Insect Apocalypse!
Your gift advances peer-reviewed research, culinary excellence, and food security.
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