Eating insects will tackle food insecurity says FAO !
Image credit:United Nations FAO
"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?
Image credit:www.mama-knows.com
"I don't care how small
or big they are, insects freak me out."
- Alexander Wang
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