Eggs‐traordinary Eco‐Proteins: Eating Insects To Spread By Word Of Mouth?
Could insects be the healthy and nutritious answer to the world's growing food shortages? According to FAO, the commercialization and marketing of edible insects could create money-making opportunities and add key nutrients to the diets of vulnerable populations. In Laos, this innovative project could have a significant impact, chronic malnutrition being a major development challenge. “When we sell, on average, we can earn 1 million kip (115 US dollars) a month,” says Ms Vankham, a cricket farmer for the past five years. She’s now receiving support from FAO in the form of expert advice and equipment to try and recreate that success with grasshoppers.
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It’s a question of getting over the idea. Insects have been found to be very nutritionally balanced, with little fat, rich in amino acids, iron and vitamins but also, unexpectedly delicious. In an effort to fully explore the various facets of eating insects, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific even organized an international workshop, entitled “Forest Insects as Food: Humans Bite Back”(Chiang Mai, Thailand, February 2008). According to Patrick Durst, FAO’s Senior Forestry Officer at the FAO Regional Office, “The important thing is to ensure food safety, hygienic raising and collecting, so we avoid chemical residues and ensure that the quality of the food is really good.”
In Japan, tasting events are so well attended that reservations have to be put off. Insects even have attracted the attention of scientists who are studying them as a potential source of nutrition for humans living on Mars. "It's easy to change people's food awareness," says Prof. Masamichi Yamashita, 62, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He could not forget what he saw at a supermarket in the United States, in the 1980s. Then, the fish department was placed in a far corner of the store. Today, sushi and other Japanese dishes are recognized worldwide. Does eating insects bug you? Then you might be in the cultural minority.
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Small grasshopper. © Clicksy/Flickr
or some 2.5 billion people, eating insects is part of the diet already. So what is it about Western culture that makes it prejudiced against one abundant and readily available food resource? It’s all about cultural choices. On the one hand, the West has closed its mind to insect eating, although it consumes shrimp and lobster. On the other hand, eating raw flesh (roastbeef, sushi) is now commonplace. So is eating live animals (oysters) along pork, a food other cultures reject as dirty. By shunning insects, Westerners have forgotten that they are one of the most nutritious foods available, higher in protein levels and cholesterol free. However, there are several reasons that make edible insects interesting. Insect farming (or “minilivestock”) may provide a cheap and simple alternative in dry grassland environments.
Moreover, it is eco-friendly as well as a low-input, sustainable form of agriculture (and livelihood). Insects appear to be highly efficient in converting biomass to protein: cooked grasshopper, for instance, contains up to 60 percent protein with as little as 6 percent fat. Like fish, insect fatty acids are unsaturated and thus healthier. Some 1700 insect species are consumed in Africa, Asia and Latin America – with China, Japan, Thailand, South Africa and Mexico among the largest consumers. For centuries, insect consumption (also known as Entomophagy) has been part of the everyday diet of many of the world's human inhabitants. Pliny, the first-century Roman scholar and author of Historia Naturalis, wrote that Roman aristocrats loved to eat beetle larvae reared on flour and wine. Before European settlement, the Australian Aborigines had Witjuti grubs as their favourite delicacy. Nowadays, one of the most famous culinary insects, the agave worm, is still eaten on tortillas and placed in bottles of mezcal liquor in Mexico. In the night markets of Thailand, crisp, fried locusts and beetles are favourite snacks to be consumed with an ice cold beer.
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interesting development of the use of edible insects is now unfolding in the Netherlands, to investigate the industrial extraction of insect protein for their food and feedstock sector. An innovative research project, SUPRO2, took off on 8 June 2010 at the University of Wageningen. With 1 million Euro funding received from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, SUPRO2 stands for “Sustainable Production of Insect Proteins for Human Consumption” and aims at working towards a future in which citizens will “put out their feelers” to new proteins. This is foreseen as a gradual process, involving the addition of insect proteins into a range of products. Also under discussion is the promotion of insects as animal (poultry, pig and fish) food. In 2006, the city of Wageningen metamorphosed into the City of Insects. Throughout the whole duration of the 7-day festival, more than 50 activities were promoted by the Laboratory of Entomology of Wageningen University, awarded the Academic Year Prize for its research quality and plan to convey this to the general public. Edible insect products may currently be found at local supermarkets – directly on the shelves, where they are prepared as “bugsnuggets”, “bugsballs” and “buglibars”.
Beetle snack. © FAO
Meanwhile in the UK, “Tequilalix” lollipops, containing a real edible worm, may be ordered online (www.edible.com) along with barbeque worm crisps, giant toasted leafcutter ants, scorpion vodka, baked tarantulas and a range of other products.
People who do have some resistance to insects are warned by Mr Durst: “If they can have an open mind, it’s quite amazing how good insects can taste.” Just as erratic weather patterns threaten agriculture and a growing population leaves farmland exhausted from overuse, insect farming could become a lucrative option. Thailand already can’t satisfy its growing demand for insects with homegrown produce and imports from countries including Cambodia and Myanmar. “The vision of FAO is not just to reduce chronic malnutrition in Lao PDR,” emphasizes FAO's Representative to Laos, Serge Verniau “but also, to feed the grand metropolises in the future, from Calcutta to Shanghai and even New York to Rome.”
Links of interest: Contribution of forest insects to food security and forest conservation: The example of caterpillars in Central Africa CONTRIBUTION DES INSECTES DE LA FORÊT À LA SÉCURITÉ ALIMENTAIRE. L’EXEMPLE DES CHENILLES D’AFRIQUE CENTRALE “Forest insects as food: humans bite back” in Forest News, Vol. XXII, No.1, Jan-Mar 2008 Laboratory of Entomology, Wagenigen University: http://www.bugs2eat.nl SUPRO2: recipe for the future? Blogs Insect Food Fun (only in Japanese) Great Insect Fair (22/6 to 5/9/2010, Edo-Tokyo Museum - only in Japanese) Tasting events (only in Japanese) E-Shopping Edible (UK): http://www.edible.com
This species (known as mang dah; Thai: แมงดา) is a popular dish, eaten whole and fried (Night bazaar, Chang Mai,
Press coverage Thailand). © avlxyz / Flickr BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/science/2009/03/000000_one_planet.shtml The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/7825846/Author-holds-insect-tastingsessions-across-Japan.html Daily Yomiuri: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20100614TDY03T05.htm Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2010/05/31/les-insectes-bifteck-de-l-avenir_1365476_3244.html Radio Netherlands Worldwide: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/livestock-future-insects Science, vol. 327, 12 February 2010: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5967/811 Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100405152543.htm United Nations in LAO PDR: http://www.unlao.org/Blog/post/FAO-promotes-insects-for-nutritional-and-economicvalue.aspx