In the last decade, scientists have been trying to find a sustainable way to create enough food for the 9 billion people who will inhabit our planet by 2025. Impact Food have got into the Halloween spirit and come up with a solution – bugs! Yes, that’s right! The latest recommendation is to consume insects. But will bugs soon be on the menu?
For the past five years, The Food and Agricultural organisation have been testing genetically modified plants, but now bugs have stepped into the limelight. There are nearly two thousand edible insect species on earth, but it is really only in Western cultures that insects have the ‘ick’ factor when it comes to mealtimes. Other countries have already introduced this rather odd choice of cuisine into their day to day life and so now the pressure is on to make bugs seem acceptable on the menu in England!
Why should we bin our fly swatters and insecticides in favour of insect cuisine?
Apart from being packed with essential fibre, protein, fats and minerals, some scientists even think they may be more beneficial than food sources we are consuming now.
Silkworm larvae anybody?
Insects are also far more economical to farm. Livestock are far more inefficient at converting food into protein than bugs, meaning they consume far more food in order to produce a product. Insects also produce a lot less greenhouse gas (if you know what I mean…).
Yes, bugs are great but realistically how are we going to introduce them into our diet? Well, look no further – Julieta Ramos-Elorduy is a biologist who loves insects so much that she has written a cookery book about them, Creepy Crawly Cuisine. She deciphers which bugs are easiest to adapt to our diet and even offers up some recipes to get you started.
First up is the humble beetle; most people know that beetles are eaten across parts of the world. They are incredibly high in protein in comparison to other insects.
…Or would you rather the mealworm brittle?
Butterflies and Moths come next; during their pupal stages these critters are full of iron and protein and have proven a good supplement for pregnant women and small children who would otherwise be deficient.
In third comes ants, and yes I know you would have to eat a lot of them for it to constitute a meal, but it is probably not as many as you think. One hundred grams of red ant provides such a punch that they have fourteen more grams of protein than a standard size egg. It would also contain nearly fifty grams of calcium, some iron and other nutrients… and all in less than a hundred calories.
Bugs may not be all that bad after all; stink bugs have an apple flavour, red agave worms are spicy and a bite of tree worm apparently brings pork rinds to mind.
Happy hunting!
Rachael King
Follow Impact Food on Twitter and Facebook
Image Credits: Just Walk Away Renee, Alpha, and Lorna via Flickr
