Food shortage? How about eating insects?

"Eating insects will tackle food insecurity" says FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) in their latest book released called as "Edible Insects- future prospects for food and feed security" .

Beetles, caterpillars,bees, ants,wasps, crickets, locusts, grasshoppers are some of the known edible insects. Already two billion people around the world especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa have ben supplementing their diet with insects. Out of the nearly one million species of insects, around 1900 come under the edible category. Insects have never been the staple diet of Westerners, but slowly becoming kind of supplementation to their diet.

Eva Muller, the Director of FAO’s Forest Economics, Policy and Products Division says that insects are not harmful to eat, in fact they have great nutritional benefits; they are rich in protein, fat and mineral. She says this area may be having huge untapped potential and insect-farming has more to be explored.

Though insects gives a strange creepy, crawly feeling to see and touch, they are already being recognized as delicacies and finding their way into recipe books and menu cards in many European cities. So, the day is not far off for the general population to create a taste for insects. Already animal feeds are produced using insects and insects are present in the form of powders and pastes in many processed foods. So, insects are not just "famine foods".

Reasons to support eating insects (entomophagy) or rearing insects are many. The greenhouse gases produced by mealworms are just one-tenth to one-hundredth of that produced by livestocks. Insects feed on bio-waste, use significantly less water than livestock, and can be farmed more easily. Insect farming creates good job opportunity with minimum technology and capital investment.

In the scenario that by 2050, nine billion people need to be fed along with billions of livestock and pet animals, insect farming may become inevitable. The land and water pollution as well as deforestation caused by livestock will also force enhanced insect farming and mass production.

Watch the informational Video: Entamophagy: Food of the Future!

Small insects or Big insects?

"I don't care how small or big they are, insects freak me out."
- Alexander Wang