Humanity Needs to Start Farming Bugs for Food, Says United Nations Policy Paper

Yum, insect burgers! This is probably a good idea, but it will take at least a generation to take hold, I think. I know I won't be changing from my beef deliciousness for sometime.

I don't think so.....

No shit?? I had this idea YEARS ago... consider the locust swarms in africa that decimate 'crops' and leave people starving to death.... a few NETS to catch the little buggers would lessen their impact on crops, and AND provide an excellent source of protien....

And you beef lovers.... I hope you're happy with the state of the rivers in North America, not to mention the Gulf.... congrats, our fish is no longer fit to eat.

I have wondered why people [Americans at least] havn't become more acceptable of eating insects. Insects obviously have a lot of advantages over other forms of livestock as this article points out. I would bet that many people would like the taste of a well prepared platter of these little guys, especially if they didn't know what they were eating. Since it seems like the only reason this isn't caught on is because people think they are "gross," even though they have never tried it.

Taste and consistency is needed.

I think most I agree with neuenkir, I can comprehend they're nutritious but I don't think I can cope with the thought of trying to stomach them. I'd leave it for the next generation, of course a cross generational family dinner might be a struggle: Today's holiday menu, green bean casserole; 30 years from now green cricket casserole.

... Waiter! Waiter! Where are the flies for my soup!?

Want to learn how to cook bugs? Watch Girl Meets Bug, the online edible-insect cooking show!

I teach people how easy, tasty, and healthy eating insects can be, with simple, step-by-step instructions and info on the bugs chosen. My goal is to get every American eating bugs once a week by 2020!

By eating insects, and encouraging others to do the same, you can help popularize a concept which, if adopted, could: help solve world hunger within a decade; help cut down on greenhouse emissions and water pollution; lessen pesticide use; and increase personal nutrition (crickets, for instance, contain more calcium and iron than beef).

Eat a bug, save the world.

I just dont see bugs catching on over beef. Considering that most people I know wont even eat one if you PAID them. MY thoughts are F-ck this. Im sticking with beef.

Why not just eat vegetables... or just less meat.

I read somewhere recently that people already eat bugs,only they're called lobsters/crabs,which are basically giant insects.It is because shellfish remind me of insects that I never developed a taste for them.I agree with gorash-eat veggies instead of meat!

Daniella, I watched your two vids on youtube and I must say, its very interesting. Im not saying I would eat it, but its cool to see how you do it. And, you are very beautiful btw. Are there any more webisodes in the near future?

The grasshoppers are actually pretty good, fry then in oil and garlic and they have a taste a bit like popcorn. I ate some in Japan and Thailand, not bad once you get over the yuk factor.

"Humanity Needs to Start Farming Bugs for Food, Says United Nations Policy Paper"

"Humanity" needs to quit having so many kids, but that isn't going to happen.

Hey Setarip -- thanks! And yes, stay tuned for more: my upcoming episode teaches you how to make cricket flour.

As for veggies vs meat, in some areas, the land is too arid or inhospitable to grow large amounts of crops, whereas insects can be farmed in small containers with very little water (check out the Food Factory Foundation and Small Stock Foods). It is for this reason that they are currently being researched as a space food. Also, we must consider the vast numbers of insects that are destroyed daily through pesticide usage; if we could create a market for the pests themselves, mightn't the switch to organic farming be faster?

I don't think the question is of switching from beef to bugs, but rather to expand our diets to include them. This way, the idea could also become more 'palatable' to world health organizations. Remember, 80% of the world eats insects, and not just as a last-ditch means of survival. The only reason we don't eat them is because of cultural bias. I say, why not break out of the matrix, and become part of this inherently logical movement! And P.S., did you know the FDA already allows quite a lot of bug matter to be present in all processed food? I'm talking coffee, cereal, etc. You're already doing it, so why not make it consensual? :)

Plus, I'm tellin' ya, a lot of the edible insects are darn tasty. I don't mean "tasty for a bug," I mean TASTY. Like chanterelle mushrooms crossed with pine nuts. Or extra-light French Fries.

Bug apetit!

@ gorash: If bugs come full circle into the US market, that will sure as hell be the case for those who can't stomach bugs! Genius! Blackmailing America's stomach with bugs so that vegetables become the new Big Mac. :D

lnwolf41 Sorry I'm a comfirmed meat eater. Not that I wouldn't give a bug a try, but if buggs are so great and nutritious why are we shipping our grain to africa and india to feed their starving people, why aren't they all big healthy people eatting buggs?
As for organic farming its good for feeding a small number of people, but it won't produce the yield you need to feed hundereds of millions of people.

I agree with onlyhuman the only real solution to production and waste is reduction of cause. The cause is overpopulation of a species. No one likes to hear that but it is fact.
Think about it from this perspective. OK we start eating bugs driving whatever that doesn't directly consume in view things. (note that if people can't see it it doesn't exist. So they think electric will replace well, but it consumes fuel too.) Anyway so we reduce consumption and waste, but don't stop growth. Well when growth catches up with the little that we could actually save we are back and square one with more problem over all.

Fortunately humans like all animals on this planet will succumb to mother nature at some point. When any species gets out of control the governing factors are supply and demand. For the fox it is the hair for the hair it is the shrub and so on down the line. When there is a lot of rain there is more food for the rabbit and so on up the line. Conversely when there is little rain there is less food for the rabbit for the fox, thus the fox dies off. At some point if we don't manage ourselves nature will stop the nurture and instead of being so cruel as to tell people they can't keep reproducing like they have in all of history nature will starve us to death until balance is found.

So ask yourself slow or reverse population growth, or watch yourself and/or loved ones slowly die to starvation. Think those starving kid commercials you turn off. Well if we don't control population growth then that will be all of us. The unfortunate part of it is this: when humans reach that point they will have grazed the world to the point that it can no longer recover.

I know this seems cruel to bring to the table like this, but it is infact how the food chain works. The sooner all of society realizes this the better off we will be. Under this light though the west is not necessarily the issue we are at or near our balance point here. However countries like China and India would need to have some form of external control to stop or curb growth for around two generations maybe three if I guess correctly. Go ahead look it up 1/3 of the worlds population is in two countries. I am sorry, but I should not have to give up my steak because people can't keep it in there pants or wear a condom. If they are starving elsewhere it is because their government/culture allows it, and does not regulate growth to a reasonable level. Admittedly though if we done put reins on in other countries soon they will be no better.

Actually it is not the Belgian entomologist Arnold van Huis, but the Dutch entomologist Arnold van Huis. He is professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

There's also the question of childhood nutrition-- bug salad or Bug Soy burgers may be sufficient for adult nutrition-- but for a growing child?

Okay. . .NO-ONE is gonna touch THAT Study in the Western World. But consider that in East Asia and parts of Africa where insects are already part of the. . .'food choices'. Why haven't they gone whole hog and basically farmed termites, let's say?

I would say that any culture that depends on insect life as a major part of their food supply is actually a Subsistence Culture that it already close to the edge of starvation.

Asia has its share of historical stories of horrible starvation wherefore perhaps they had to overcome any past cultural aversion to insects as food in order to survive. And let's not forget their inclusion of what we think of as household pets as an alternative meat.

I mean we've all heard a version of "They'll eat ANYTHING". It was probably a result of dire necessity. And when food became abundant again, they went right back to the Cow, the Pig and the Bird.

No thanks. . .Enviro-nuts. If I want something that tastes like nuts-- Nature has already provided. Just because some people who've never cooked a real meal for a family in their life is bored enough to Try Anything so long as it's fried or sprinkled with chocolate. . .I'll believe you when you eat your own roaches. And you don't need to truck them in or buy them at Whole Foods. I bet they have a nutty smell when roasted.

"I agree with onlyhuman the only real solution to production and waste is reduction of cause. The cause is overpopulation of a species. No one likes to hear that but it is fact."

World birth rates have been declining consistantly for atleast fifty years.

Years CBR
1950-1955 37.2
1955-1960 35.3
1960-1965 34.9
1965-1970 33.4
1970-1975 30.8
1975-1980 28.4
1980-1985 27.9
1985-1990 27.3
1990-1995 24.7
1995-2000 22.5
2000-2005 21.2

As quickly as birth rates decline, death rates are also declining. If peoplke are going to live longer and longer, there isn't much we can do about an expanding population outside of world-wide abstinence or a "Logan's Run"-like capped lifespan...

You can fry anything in oil and it will taste good. Count me in.

@rosen380,
Thank you for the information, I never thought about the death rate.
Also thank you for not calling me an idiot for not knowing what you know. I get so tired of reading posts from intolerant opinionated people who try to feel better about themselves by belittling everyone else who don’t agree with them. I'm glad to find someone who doesn't do that.

McBugBurger not in the too far future.

Processed meat is already generic (so much so that tofu dogs and Boca burgers are barely different from real meat). I suspect that if you don't scream about the protein source, it will go down easier, so to speak...

Wow, now that is downright scary dude. Seriously.

Lou
www.remain-anonymous.at.tc

yummy, chocolate-covered ants!

Rejected, next idea please.

Who really thinks it is economically productive to put 1,000 lbs of grain into making 5 lbs of meat? Do people really need to eat 4 hamburgers a week? I mean seriously America, quit stuffing your greedy, obese, spoiled faces with cow and pig meat and eat a friggin' carrot for once. Because of people like you who need their "beef deliciousness" (looking at you, neuenkir and Setarip) these silly, desperate articles about eating bugs are written. But that's ok, I suppose it's a form of natural selection when people like you die of heart disease and colon cancer. Keep eating up all that cow meat, and leave the better food for the rest of us!

I think the United States should stop trying to act like a big brother to the world. Lets keep all our foreign aid to help the people here, lets stop giving grain shipments to Third-World Countries in Africa.I see hundreds of homeless in the city shelters where I volunteer. Who knows, maybe if we stop sending aid to half the world that will help reduce the population a little more, then again they are doing a find job on their own.

I think any gross reactions went out the window the second humanity started eating pigs. What could be worse than a pig?

Even a grasshopper would be healthier

Natives in the americas have been eating insects for centuries. Nothing to it. Tastes just like chicken

How about the the Taliban and all those MFers over there that support them eat the bugs! I would just as soon eat what I want. Thats what freedom is. Thats what "progress" is. Those wackos in other "developing countries" that want to live in filth and chant "death to America" - let them eat the bugs. Who are we to force our agenda on them? They get wiped out by a flood - screw em - let the Taliban help them out. They got eye and teeth problems - screw em - let the Taliban help them out. The Taliban is already eating the bugs. They know how to live. Thats ok with me - more fresh vegetables and meat for freedom loving Americans. I'm sick of apologizing for being an American! If you feel guilty about what you are eating - go live in Afghanistan or Pakistan or some other "stan". Then you will know - They would rather chant "death to America" and eat bugs than live with the kind of freedoms we do. Its their choice. I'm not responsible!

wow really, leave it to the next generation?? How many times have we heard that before >< We need to make the big changes ourselves people, saying we'll let our kids do that is both irresponsible and immature. But i'm not saying that we have to eat nothing but bugs, we just should start including them into our diet.

As for you Twobrain, its our god given right to have children, why else do you think we have the parts? Some animal species live to do pretty much nothing but reproduce, and ensure the survival of the species. If that means eating bugs, shouldn't we be willing to step on and do what it right for all of humanity?

And for my last point, i dont even remember who said it, but we should always give a helping hand to others. sure you may think that we should help only ourselves while ignoring others, thats all fine and dandy for us, but what about when WE need help?? I know id hate to have someone say no i cant help you, im only gunna look after myself. Talk about a selfish attitude.

nice concept and then leave the middle and poor class eating insects while the beef, chicken, vegetables and all the good western and european food rise prices that only the RICH enjoy

yeah sir would you like a hamburger is $500

you sir would you like a insectger for $4.99

this is just another misleading concept unless you garanty me that the rich will not enjoy the real stuff of food while we enjoy the insects delicious and viscousus taste hmmmm

Myself is hard to tell I just can't unless is for a matter of survival

I remember watching Daybreaker a vamp movie were syntetic blood is created to satisfied the needs of overpopulation of vampires while the all mighty rich enjoy the low but pricey supplies of Pure blood

so maybe it can happen or maybe not but eating insects depends on how we learn to eat it and the rich too because is unfair they enjoy beef while I am not

I understand that bugs have been a part of cultures around the world for thousands of years. And I understand that they can be a rich source of nutrients. There are risks to eating bugs (like any other food - salmonella on eggs, E.coli in beef, etc) but especially since we don't farm them.

In our Western culture, considering other sources of protein require much less work to obtain now (like poultry and cattle), I don't see entomophagy EVER catching on.

orajnamalik, while I appreciate your criticism of my callus stance, (The United States needing to take care of its own), your argumentation for why I am wrong is purely founded upon your own perception of morality.

Governments are created through a social contract, created by the people, at least ours is supposed too.

Your only rebuttal is that my stance is "all fine and dandy for us, but what about when WE need help?? I know id hate to have someone say no i cant help you, im only gunna look after myself. Talk about a selfish attitude."

First off sir, cite one instance where the United States has required help from another country. Hurricane Katrina? One instance when it was required, and Cuba only sent doctors. The United States spends BILLIONS in aid to other countries, who cannot feed or take care basic care of their own.

Then you make a fallacious ad hominem attack, when you say I have a "selfish attitude".

This is popular science, stop polluting it with your ill-informed, silly opinions. This forum is for real discussion, founded upon facts.

uuuuummmmmmmm , if things take a turn for the worse and you cant get beef and stuff Id just become a vegitarian

As a voracious meat-eater, I've always been annoyed at how difficult it is to get a nice meaty bite-sized snack in a bag (at a reasonable price), which are so common with grain-based snacks. If they packed up a bag of bugs and sold it at 7-11, I'd be all over it.

In fact insects sell for more than beef in many countries, and many Americans pay more for shrimp and lobster -- which are related to insects -- than for beef.

Adult insects may be a bit of a drag, (very crunchy, and some don't taste so good) but the larvae are better. Think of a shrimp sausage, with no shell or legs to worry about.

If someone wants to get into the business there is an easy way, because pig,chick and fish farmers in any state would buy all the insects you could raise, starting tomorrow. Then you could hit the gourmet stores with frozen larvae in a fancy package.

The interesting thing about insects is the growth rate - the (female) goat moth caterpillar increases its weight about 28,000 times in six months. I think this is the fastest-growing animal life in the world.

Small mammals are also a good bet, (the Romans loved stuffed dormouse.) Someone once calculated that the same forest that would support one person eating deer would support 100 people eating mice. If all the progeny were to survive, the descendants of one cow would weigh perhaps a few thousand pounds after three years, but the descendants of one female mouse would weigh hundreds of tons.

One anthropologist (I forget who) figured that modern Americans eat about 75 different plants, some of them imports. North American Indians ate about 1,200 plants, all native.

This could be important because the world is on the edge of famine now, and the floods in Pakistan might just push us over. If se don't start diversifying our consumption, we will be in trouble.

I've eaten dozens of types of bugs over the years (survivalist camping). Most taste exactly like you think they would - a pine grub taste like pine bark.

The problem getting Americans to eat bugs is that they have become hypersensitive about animals and death. Most have a "so long as it looks like when I get it in the store" attitude anytime I slaughter a chicken, goat, lamb, or cow.

Another problem is that you are usually dealing with entire creatures (some people can't get over lobs and crab for that reason). Also, I've found when cooking crickets, getting rid of the waste is very difficult. They don't hold up well to freezing/thawing either.

Still, spray with butter and dry roast in the oven, and a cricket taste like meaty popcorn - good stuff.