Bugs are food of the future: UN agency
Date
May 13, 2013

Beetles, caterpillars and wasps could supplement diets around the world as an environmentally friendly food source if only Western consumers could get over their “disgust”, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Monday.

“The main message is really: ‘Eat insects’”, Eva Mueller, director of forest economics at the FAO, told a press conference in Rome.

Insects can supplement traditional feed sources such as soy, maize, grains and fishmeal.

“Insects are abundant and they are a valuable source of protein and minerals,” she said. “Two billion people, a third of the world’s population, are already eating insects because they are delicious and nutritious,” she said.

Also speaking at the press conference was Gabon Forestry Minister Gabriel Tchango who said: “Insect consumption is part of our daily life.”

He said some insects, like beetle larvae and grilled termites, were delicacies.

“Insects contribute about 10 percent of animal protein consumed by the population,” he said.

The report said insect farming was “one of the many ways to address food and feed insecurity”.

“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,” said the report, co-authored by the FAO and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

But the authors admitted that “consumer disgust remains one of the largest barriers to the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein in many Western countries”.

It suggested that the food industry could help in “raising the status of insects” by including them in recipes and putting them on restaurant menus.

The report also called for wider use of insects as feed for livestock, saying that poor regulation and under-investment currently meant it “cannot compete” with traditional sources of feed.

“The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way,” it added, highlighting in particular producers in China, South Africa, Spain and the United States.

“Insects can supplement traditional feed sources such as soy, maize, grains and fishmeal,” it said, adding that the ones with most potential were larvae of the black soldier fly, the common housefly and the yellow mealworm.

The report also said the insects most commonly consumed by humans are beetles (31 percent), caterpillars (18 percent) and bees, wasps and ants (14 percent), followed by grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (13 percent).

It said trade in insects was thriving in cities such as Bangkok and Kinshasa and that a similar culture of insect consumption, entomophagy, should be established elsewhere, stressing that it was often cheaper to farm insects.

The report concluded: “History has shown that dietary patterns can change quickly, particularly in a globalised world. The rapid acceptance of raw fish in the form of sushi is a good example.”

http://www.theage.com.au/world/bugs-are-food-of-the-future-un-agency-20130513-2jijt.html#ixzz2TGokyDlv

I don’t eat insects because there are none locally available except those I kill myself, and I don’t actually kill any insects.

the chinese already eat scorpions wriggling on sticks and eat them alive

Scorpions aren’t insects.

if we are eating insects it means we have outstripped our food supply

easier to stop giving foreign aid, that should sort things out quicker

Bubblecar said:

Scorpions aren’t insects.

yeah I know I thought i’d throw that one in

they seem to like eating all kinds of fucked up stuff that no one in their right mind would eat

wookiemeister said:

Bubblecar said:

Scorpions aren’t insects.

yeah I know I thought i’d throw that one in

they seem to like eating all kinds of fucked up stuff that no one in their right mind would eat

Bear grills eats spiders too.

I think the questions for a country like ours are:

a) Are Australians – who are amongst the world’s most overfed people – really in need of any more sources of protein?
b) Will feeding livestock insects actually be any cheaper or environmentally friendlier than feeding them what they’re already eating?

Heard something about this on the radio this morning. But the emphasis was not on easting insects as such, more as using insects as protein stock, to be made into supplements to be added to other human foods, or added to the feed of other animals intended for human consumption. There wasn’t anything about let’s eat locusts about it.

roughbarked said:

wookiemeister said:

Bubblecar said:

Scorpions aren’t insects.

yeah I know I thought i’d throw that one in

they seem to like eating all kinds of fucked up stuff that no one in their right mind would eat

Bear grills eats spiders too.

the eternal showman, he’s also meant to be in a survival situation

no sane person eats the things the chinese eat

I mean they are getting rhinos whacked on the savannah for their horns!!

wookiemeister said:

a waste of good weed.

party_pants said:

Heard something about this on the radio this morning. But the emphasis was not on easting insects as such, more as using insects as protein stock, to be made into supplements to be added to other human foods, or added to the feed of other animals intended for human consumption. There wasn’t anything about let’s eat locusts about it.

I have no qualms about eating insects in supplement form but would find chewing on an insect unpalatable. I have eaten insects before though. Ate fried grass-hoppers in China and a black scorpion in Bangkok.

>and a black scorpion in Bangkok.

Scorpions are arachnids.

Bubblecar said:

>and a black scorpion in Bangkok.

Scorpions are arachnids.

I should have said invertebrates.

Bubblecar said:

>and a black scorpion in Bangkok.

Scorpions are arachnids.

we’ve already been through that.

Witty Rejoinder said:

party_pants said:

Heard something about this on the radio this morning. But the emphasis was not on easting insects as such, more as using insects as protein stock, to be made into supplements to be added to other human foods, or added to the feed of other animals intended for human consumption. There wasn’t anything about let’s eat locusts about it.

I have no qualms about eating insects in supplement form but would find chewing on an insect unpalatable. I have eaten insects before though. Ate fried grass-hoppers in China and a black scorpion in Bangkok.

I haven’t eaten insects before. But I’d imagine mass production and then some sort of processing into a powder or something like that would be much more economical that packaging and preserving individual insects.

They mentioned something about a most protein supplements being based on fish meal currently. So changing that to land-based mass production of insects as an alternative makes sense on a superficial level.

Of course I don’t know the details of either fish or insect production.

>I should have said invertebrates.

Lots of conventional eating there – shellfish & crustaceans etc.

Again though, there’s the question of why populations whose only real dietary problem is obesity should be seeking to exploit yet more food resources.

Bubblecar said:

>I should have said invertebrates.

Lots of conventional eating there – shellfish & crustaceans etc.

I don’t eat weird sea food either

lobster is one thing I have never eaten nor will eat

Bubblecar said:

Again though, there’s the question of why populations whose only real dietary problem is obesity should be seeking to exploit yet more food resources.

You have a point there.

>I don’t eat weird sea food either

You’re just being precious.

wookiemeister said:

Bubblecar said:

>I should have said invertebrates.

Lots of conventional eating there – shellfish & crustaceans etc.

I don’t eat weird sea food either

lobster is one thing I have never eaten nor will eat

The one thing you all eat is too much protein. No way you need that much.

Bubblecar said:

Again though, there’s the question of why populations whose only real dietary problem is obesity should be seeking to exploit yet more food resources.

I’m not sure that’s quite the full intention. I think the aim is to have western nations supply their own meat from their own sources without the proverbial clearing the Amazon to make burgers for North American, or over-fishing far flung places of thousands of tonnes bait-fish to provide fish-meal, to feed to poultry so westerners can enjoy deep-fried chicken.

party_pants said:

Bubblecar said:

Again though, there’s the question of why populations whose only real dietary problem is obesity should be seeking to exploit yet more food resources.

I’m not sure that’s quite the full intention. I think the aim is to have western nations supply their own meat from their own sources without the proverbial clearing the Amazon to make burgers for North American, or over-fishing far flung places of thousands of tonnes bait-fish to provide fish-meal, to feed to poultry so westerners can enjoy deep-fried chicken.

Yep.. something like that.

Sorry – that wasn’t well-worded. I’m a bit tired, and I’ve imbibed a couple of beers.

party_pants said:

Bubblecar said:

Again though, there’s the question of why populations whose only real dietary problem is obesity should be seeking to exploit yet more food resources.

I’m not sure that’s quite the full intention. I think the aim is to have western nations supply their own meat from their own sources without the proverbial clearing the Amazon to make burgers for North American, or over-fishing far flung places of thousands of tonnes bait-fish to provide fish-meal, to feed to poultry so westerners can enjoy deep-fried chicken.

Fair enough.

I wonder if you could lure giant swarms of locusts somehow into a huge building, where you could just zip up the doors once they are in and then wait for them to die of thirst or hunger. Then scoop them up with a bobcat, and send them off to be processed into a rich protein gloop… ?

>wait for them to die of thirst or hunger

They might then be in unusably poor condition.

Bubblecar said:

>wait for them to die of thirst or hunger

They might then be in unusably poor condition.

Maybe some active internal netting system to catch them in good health then

… it needs some workshopping.

party_pants said:

Bubblecar said:

>wait for them to die of thirst or hunger

They might then be in unusably poor condition.

Maybe some active internal netting system to catch them in good health then

… it needs some workshopping.

The 2 billion who eat insects now.. pick them off bushes by hand, one by one.

party_pants said:

I wonder if you could lure giant swarms of locusts somehow into a huge building, where you could just zip up the doors once they are in and then wait for them to die of thirst or hunger. Then scoop them up with a bobcat, and send them off to be processed into a rich protein gloop… ?

Many years ago I visited a factory in Germany where they had on display pelletized locusts. I can’t recall exactly how they were captured, but I seem to recall that there was a fan involved. It was done in Africa. The company concerned manufactured pelletizers.

Surely we’ve all eaten witchety grub.

Locusts are easily picked up .. saw a bloke with a fan on the front of his ute for that.

dv said:

Surely we’ve all eaten witchety grub.

Only those who have been out in the bush.

morrie said:

party_pants said:

I wonder if you could lure giant swarms of locusts somehow into a huge building, where you could just zip up the doors once they are in and then wait for them to die of thirst or hunger. Then scoop them up with a bobcat, and send them off to be processed into a rich protein gloop… ?

Many years ago I visited a factory in Germany where they had on display pelletized locusts. I can’t recall exactly how they were captured, but I seem to recall that there was a fan involved. It was done in Africa. The company concerned manufactured pelletizers.

haha – like all my ideas thought up on the spot – it’s already been tired?

where tired = tried

a bit of a Freudian slip there…

Bubblecar said:

>I don’t eat weird sea food either

You’re just being precious.

actually hang on I did once, twice after being encouraged to

I ate some oysters and ended up being violently sick for about 8 hours

I was throwing up every half an hour or less

I just chugged some water between throwing up to keep some water in me

after being assured the oysters might have been off I was encouraged to eat one about a week later and threw again but only a few times

I stay away from any strange sea food now, its just asking for it

wookiemeister said:

Bubblecar said:

>I don’t eat weird sea food either

You’re just being precious.

actually hang on I did once, twice after being encouraged to

I ate some oysters and ended up being violently sick for about 8 hours

I was throwing up every half an hour or less

I just chugged some water between throwing up to keep some water in me

after being assured the oysters might have been off I was encouraged to eat one about a week later and threw again but only a few times

I stay away from any strange sea food now, its just asking for it

that and pizza hut and anywhere various characters seem to be involved in food preparation that meets third world expectations

i’ll try indian food now and then but have generally lost confidence any food hygiene practices in the chinese/ indian whatever restaurants. if they make you sick they just shrug their shoulders and continue serving crap food.

Is no one worries about Peak Insect?

sibeen said:

Is no one worries about Peak Insect?

Nah, as long as we’ve got infinite nuclear fusion to desalinate sea-water.

>i’ll try indian food now and then but have generally lost confidence any food hygiene practices in the chinese/ indian whatever restaurants. if they make you sick they just shrug their shoulders and continue serving crap food.

I’d have to agree with wookie in this case.

I’ve eaten Chinese and Indian food on hundreds of occasions and the number of times I’ve fallen ill I could count on…ah…I suspect it’s less than one.

when I go abroad again i’m more inclined to eat camping food than be poisoned by these silly buggers. in Palestine they were always making me sick with milk that had no date on it (stone cold but rotten), tuna in a can that had been left in the sun and fish cakes that were generally known to make every sick when made by a certain person (thanks for telling me afterwards).

in turkey I nearly escaped being made sick.

the higher end restaurants in these kinds of countries are generally the safer places to eat.

even Egypt has finally got the message and doesn’t wash food with tap water as they know the tap water will kill you

sibeen said:

>i’ll try indian food now and then but have generally lost confidence any food hygiene practices in the chinese/ indian whatever restaurants. if they make you sick they just shrug their shoulders and continue serving crap food.

I’d have to agree with wookie in this case.

I’ve eaten Chinese and Indian food on hundreds of occasions and the number of times I’ve fallen ill I could count on…ah…I suspect it’s less than one.

you don’t always fall ill

we bought one meal from some indian place I thought I could trust and the ex found a cigarette butt buried in some tasty food – you might have just swallowed and it might never have made you ill.

no doubt the chinese have the fried butt variety, as it is the chinese are buying baby milk from over here because their food security has been so badly compromised by the free market psychology. I think it actually killed some babies didn’t it?

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

wookiemeister said:

when I go abroad again i’m more inclined to eat camping food than be poisoned by these silly buggers. in Palestine they were always making me sick with milk that had no date on it (stone cold but rotten), tuna in a can that had been left in the sun and fish cakes that were generally known to make every sick when made by a certain person (thanks for telling me afterwards).

in turkey I nearly escaped being made sick.

the higher end restaurants in these kinds of countries are generally the safer places to eat.

even Egypt has finally got the message and doesn’t wash food with tap water as they know the tap water will kill you

with the tuna I learnt a little known fact that there are muscles in your body that are buried deep inside you

to expel the tuna the body contracted small muscles under my scrotum in a line all the way to my throat to get rid of the crap they serve.

roughbarked said:

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

we suspect it was deliberately thrown in by one of the employees who was fed up of working there, or they figured it would be good filling

roughbarked said:

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

Drunken smokers. Thank goodness we don’t have any of them around here.

wookiemeister said:

roughbarked said:

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

we suspect it was deliberately thrown in by one of the employees who was fed up of working there, or they figured it would be good filling

never piss off the waiter.

we stayed in some half reasonable hotel in Fiji and most people fell sick, yet again no one told me they were being made sick and let me find out for myself (instead of letting everyone know)

it was suspected that the natives were using human shit to cultivate the food

roughbarked said:

wookiemeister said:

roughbarked said:

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

we suspect it was deliberately thrown in by one of the employees who was fed up of working there, or they figured it would be good filling

never piss off the waiter.

was no waiter

I have the brains never to do that anyway

wookiemeister said:

we stayed in some half reasonable hotel in Fiji and most people fell sick, yet again no one told me they were being made sick and let me find out for myself (instead of letting everyone know)

it was suspected that the natives were using human shit to cultivate the food

There isn’t much wrong with using human shit if it is treated first.

wookiemeister said:

we stayed in some half reasonable hotel in Fiji and most people fell sick, yet again no one told me they were being made sick and let me find out for myself (instead of letting everyone know)

it was suspected that the natives were using human shit to cultivate the food

Would that be any different from pig shit? Did you see the show that mentioned faecal transplants?

actually Syria wasn’t a bad place to eat

we were never made ill there and the food was better than turkey

chances all those places I ate in are just bombed out shells now

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

we stayed in some half reasonable hotel in Fiji and most people fell sick, yet again no one told me they were being made sick and let me find out for myself (instead of letting everyone know)

it was suspected that the natives were using human shit to cultivate the food

Would that be any different from pig shit? Did you see the show that mentioned faecal transplants?

yeah but it would help to wash it first

roughbarked said:

There is no way even a smoker could spoon up food that had a cigarette butt buried in it unless he was drunk.

I’d agree, roughy.

On the three or four occasions that I’ve been served food with a prominent cigarette butt protruding out of the top, like a proud Eiffel Tower, I’ve sent it back and asked them to please “take it out”.

OK, once I was desperate; I took the butt and smoked it before sending the food back

I wasn’t proud about that one.

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

we stayed in some half reasonable hotel in Fiji and most people fell sick, yet again no one told me they were being made sick and let me find out for myself (instead of letting everyone know)

it was suspected that the natives were using human shit to cultivate the food

Would that be any different from pig shit? Did you see the show that mentioned faecal transplants?

yeah but it would help to wash it first

The shit ?

the nile cruise food was excellent given the circumstances

the hard rock in cairo was also welcome (never eat at the hard rock in paris – they are arseholes and the food is virtually inedible)

eating out in Egypt – try the KFC its safer there’s a KFC a stones thrown from the sphinx

the other KFC to eat in is in zamalek in cairo run by deaf kids

roughbarked said:

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

Would that be any different from pig shit? Did you see the show that mentioned faecal transplants?

yeah but it would help to wash it first

The shit ?

I would say so

myself and another ate the salad and were violently sick about a day later after feeling sick all day

wookiemeister said:

the nile cruise food was excellent given the circumstances

the hard rock in cairo was also welcome (never eat at the hard rock in paris – they are arseholes and the food is virtually inedible)

eating out in Egypt – try the KFC its safer there’s a KFC a stones thrown from the sphinx

the other KFC to eat in is in zamalek in cairo run by deaf kids

I couldn’t eat in any of those places, even if they were in my street.. I’d move to a different street.

roughbarked said:

wookiemeister said:

the nile cruise food was excellent given the circumstances

the hard rock in cairo was also welcome (never eat at the hard rock in paris – they are arseholes and the food is virtually inedible)

eating out in Egypt – try the KFC its safer there’s a KFC a stones thrown from the sphinx

the other KFC to eat in is in zamalek in cairo run by deaf kids

I couldn’t eat in any of those places, even if they were in my street.. I’d move to a different street.

its the only place i’d eat KFC

macdonalds is better now though

Istanbul has some relatively good places to eat. avoid anywhere with spruikers outside, theres a few good cafes near the old prison of midnight express fame (now the four season hotel)

wookiemeister said:

the nile cruise food was excellent given the circumstances

the hard rock in cairo was also welcome (never eat at the hard rock in paris – they are arseholes and the food is virtually inedible)

eating out in Egypt – try the KFC its safer there’s a KFC a stones thrown from the sphinx

the other KFC to eat in is in zamalek in cairo run by deaf kids

I stayed in Toulouse, home to a hundred al fresco restaurants, with a work colleague once who insisted on eating at Maccas. He was the sort of person who thought that eating anything other than burgers was pretentious. It was pretty painful.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

the nile cruise food was excellent given the circumstances

the hard rock in cairo was also welcome (never eat at the hard rock in paris – they are arseholes and the food is virtually inedible)

eating out in Egypt – try the KFC its safer there’s a KFC a stones thrown from the sphinx

the other KFC to eat in is in zamalek in cairo run by deaf kids

I stayed in Toulouse, home to a hundred al fresco restaurants, with a work colleague once who insisted on eating at Maccas. He was the sort of person who thought that eating anything other than burgers was pretentious. It was pretty painful.

in that case i’d tend to eat what the locals are eating but makinf sure that it really is the locals eating there

munich was horrendously expensive and the food in the augustina was passable – just

we discovered subway and just ate there in the end

the food in Athens and anywhere on the mainland is generally crap apart from one pizza place in sparta

This thread is weird.

Not as weird as witchety grub nachos though.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/middle-east-in-turmoil/syrian-rebel-defends-eating-dead-soldiers-heart/story-fn7ycml4-1226642683086

nom nom nom

“A SYRIAN rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities.”

BYO fava beans and chianti.

Divine Angel said:

BYO fava beans and chianti.

That was pâté, not heart :P

It’s always good to try new things.

poikilotherm said:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/middle-east-in-turmoil/syrian-rebel-defends-eating-dead-soldiers-heart/story-fn7ycml4-1226642683086

nom nom nom

“A SYRIAN rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities.”

we’re probably funding his activities

wookiemeister said:

poikilotherm said:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/middle-east-in-turmoil/syrian-rebel-defends-eating-dead-soldiers-heart/story-fn7ycml4-1226642683086

nom nom nom

“A SYRIAN rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities.”

we’re probably funding his activities

Probably needs more if ‘es that hungry.