UN Says: Why Not Eat More Insects? 626
PolygamousRanchKid writes in with news about a U.N. plan to get more bugs in your belly. "The U.N. has new weapons to fight hunger, boost nutrition and reduce pollution, and they might be crawling or flying near you right now: edible insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday hailed the likes of grasshoppers, ants and other members of the insect world as an underutilized food for people, livestock and pets. Insects are 'extremely efficient' in converting feed into edible meat, the agency said. Most insects are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases, and also feed on human and food waste, compost and animal slurry, with the products being used for agricultural feed, the agency said. 'Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly,' the agency said, adding they leave a 'low environmental footprint.' The agency noted that its Edible Insect Program is also examining the potential of arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions."
And You Are Some Magic Insect Sorting Entity? (Score:5, Informative)
I say "Because OMFG, gross!!!"
If you live in the United States, you likely already engage in accidental entomophagy. Allow me to introduce you to the USDA's guide to what are the acceptable levels of insects in your food [fda.gov]. Go head and CTRL+F on that page for 'insects.'
Having particularly good eyesight, I don't think I've ever eaten a blackberry that didn't have thrips or aphids on it. Guess what? They're delicious on blackberries!
Of course, getting my Wilderness Survival merit badge on my way to Eagle Scout gave me the opportunity to forage for edible insects and I would actually recommend the fly larvae that attach to grassland stalks and form 'bulbs' around them. Taste like walnuts! Too bad it takes forever to harvest them or I'd make a product out of that for the granola-brains community.
That's 8 drumettes per critter, y'all (Score:3, Informative)
I will never know first hand of course.
Re:You first (Score:4, Informative)
You actually can buy flower wit ground up meal-worms currently.
Re:Insecticides (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"UN Says: Why Not Eat More Insects?" (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed, it's a cultural problem that we'll likely have to rectify going forward, unless we either wipe out a large portion of the human population or all go vegetarian. We're already at something like 160% of the estimated sustainable global food production - i.e. we're "spending the capital", producing food at the expense of future soil fertility. Of course somewher between 50% and 75% of that gets thrown away in most Western countries, which is another problem we need to rectify - but regardless, as the bulk of the world's population begins to adopt a more affluent Western-inspired diet there's going to need to be some major changes to make it sustainable. There's also the fact that eating meat in Western quantities appears to cause significant health problems over the long term, but I don't expect that to actually factor in to too many people's dietary choices, like sugar meat is just too delicious for most to pass up, and for much the same reason - it's a concentrated source of readily accessible calories and nutrients.
Insects are something like 9x more efficient at converting plant mass to protein than cows, yielding 9 pounds of meet per 10 pounds of feed, and almost 3x more efficient than chickens, which are about the most efficient meat animals used in the USA. Moreover most insects are perfectly happy eating leaves, stems, and other cellulose-rich biomass that we can't digest. Of course cows evolved to eat the same thing, but their growth rate (and hence profitability) is considerably better on grains and other human-suitable foods, and there's still that abysmal meat:feed ratio.
Re:Religion (Score:4, Informative)
animals that are basically insects from the sea are permitted in some sects of Islam (such as lobsters)
It is a farce. (Score:5, Informative)
World hunger is not a production or availability problem. It is a distribution problem. America alone can already grow enough grain to feed the entire planet a couple times over. Doing so, however, would make the bottom drop out of the grain market and have disastrous economic consequences. That is exactly why the American government pays farmers to not grow food.
More info here. [worldhunger.org]
Re:"UN Says: Why Not Eat More Insects?" (Score:4, Informative)
Copenhagen restaurant Noma have won "Best Restaurant" a few times, on a menu that included candied ants.