Bugs are the food of the future: UN

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/13/bugs-are-the-food-of-the-future-un/



Beetles, caterpillars and wasps could supplement the diets of billions of people globally and help feed livestock, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Monday, calling for more investment in edible insect farming.

“One of the many ways to address food and feed insecurity is through insect farming,” the report said, pointing out that insects were “nutritious, with high protein, fat and mineral contents”.

“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,” it said.

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”.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. 'Consumer disgust'?

Every aspect of modern commercial meat production and distribution could be considered disgusting.

[GoCubsGo]

10. Yep.

People think their beef, pork and poultry comes from happy, little animals who roam around in sunny, grass-filled pastures all their lives, and meet a peaceful end a la "Soylent Green". If only that wer ethe case...

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Cultural preconceived notions are hard to overcome

There's a built-in 'yuck' factor extending back for millennia. Modern meat-packing practices have developed, for the most part, out of sight, so the closest connection with the process that most people have is the 'sanitary' packaging - the meat kept artificially red from treatment with carbon monoxide - bloodless, neat & attractive. I believe insects could be marketed successfully - as long as the actual processing isn't scrutinized too closely. From a pathological standpoint, it seems that processed insects would be 'cleaner' than some of the offerings from meat-packing facilities, so that aspect could be emphasized.

[GoCubsGo]

22. I wonder how many people would still eat meat if...

...they knew all about the things you just described. I think bugs could be marketed successfully, too. Maybe not to most older people, but the young folks tend to be more open-minded about such things. Just start out by marketing some of them as delicacies, and point out that bugs are just more evolved versions of shrimp and lobsters.

I have to chuckle about people saying they'll never ever ever eat bugs, when in fact, they eat parts of them on a regular basis. They get into the grains, peanuts, and other raw ingredients, and get ground up and incorporated into breads, crackers, peanut butter, flour, etc. I think that's how it's all going to happen...

[JackN415]

33. +1

[DetlefK]

2. What about the parasites and illnesses in those "free-roaming" insects?

You can't just dig insects out, wipe the dust off and consider them suitable for regular consumption. Animals get sick, they get parasites, they contract illnesses, just like humans do.
The only solution is to grow the edible insects in isolated systems, which costs money and invites a new branch of food-related fraud.

Are you sure that your dinner wasn't living under the trashcan in the back-alley behind the restaurant?

And the high protein content? A good chunk of this is chitin (the carapace) which the human stomach can't digest.

[GoCubsGo]

7. They are talking about farming insects, not "free-roaming" ones.

Things like parasites can be controlled for in a "farm" situation, just like they are with cattle, pigs, chickens, and unlike wild-caught fish. And, life under a trash can in a back-alley isn't any worse than life in a shit-filled feed lot, or in a small cage crammed with dozens of other other animals. And, it's a hell of a lot cheaper to farm-raise bugs than it is any animal you are eating now.

As for protein content, bones, hair, feathers, beaks, teeth, and hooves are not digestible by the human stomach, either. One can process insects to remove the inedible parts just as cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry are butchered. And, caterpillars and grubs have a far higher protein-inedibles ratio than does anything you find in the meat department of your local grocery store.

[DetlefK]

13. Butchering insects on an industrial scale?

Do you know how fish are butchered? They lie belly-up on a conveyor-belt, an automated saw slices their bellies open from head to tail and a rotating brush scrubs their intestines out. And as each species of fish has it's own body-shape, they need their own kind of brush.

How would you butcher insects on a conveyor-belt?
You can't crack them open like nuts and collect what comes out.
You can't separate the goods parts from the bad parts with a swift scrub.

The only practical method that comes to my mind right now is boiling them into a broth.

(Caterpillars and scrubs? Yes, that would work.)

[GoCubsGo]

20. Yes, I know how fish are butchered.

As for processing insects, you can process them the same way you process their relatives, shrimp and crayfish. And, they can also be ground up. Lots of undigestible chitin? So what? Lots of matter in beans and other plant food that can't be digested, too. I don't see anyone trying to species that are mostly carapace anyway.

[Locrian]

31. that just struck me as funny...

Free range insects. Maybe they would eventually have "cage free" insects and / or 'organic insects'. Ha.

[RevStPatrick]

3. I've got a copy of this book on my bookshelf...

Published in 1885:



The thing is, you don't have to sit there and eat a plate of bugs.
They can be ground up and baked into bread or whatever, and you would never know.

It will happen someday, if we survive long enough...

[DetlefK]

5. We already have wood in our bread, so why not shredded mystery-insect-bits?

Mmm. Tiny, black and crunchy. Could be an insect-head. Could be insect-shit. (Proper processing costs too much money.)

While we are at it, why not rats? After all, they are basically just walking bundles of mammal-flesh, available for free!

[NickB79]

37. There are already lots of insect parts in food

Huge numbers of insects get picked up, dried, and ground up with grains during the fall harvest. There's no way to screen all of it out, either.

So, I have no problem with seeing bread "fortified" with powdered insect protein.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Slugs, Snails and Fresh Water Mollusks too

There is only one rule you have to remember: When it comes to land snails, land slugs, and fresh water mollusks you must cook them thoroughly or they can kill you. Got that? Taste is a secondary consideration.

Okay, why cook them? People do eat slugs raw on a dare, and the Indians used live slugs to numb gums, tongues and toothache. These common little creatures aren’t too bad unto themselves, but some of the land crawlers especially in warmer areas have parasites, one of which they can get from rat feces. That parasite, normally infecting a rat’s lung, goes from your stomach to your brain, crawling there over time — yes, crawling there — and causes your brain to swell. That big head folks have accused you of having will come to pass and kill you. Thorough cooking will kill the parasites.

Some of the freshwater mollusks (clams, snails et cetera) are in water with bacterial waste, be it beavers’ or Butt Head’s. Cooking throughly kills all bacteria and parasites. It is recommended you collect said, especially slugs and land snails, while wearing gloves and or be careful, have no cuts on your hands, and wash your hands immediately and until then keep them away from your eyes, nose and mouth… the same precautions you would do if you handling raw chicken. The chances of you getting the disease are really low should you eat a slug raw. A few have been sickened that way, but the possibility is there: Avoid it.

Now what about taste? Some taste good, like escargot, some taste bad regardless of preparation, some have no taste. But there are no truly poisonous slugs or snails. Once cleaned and cooked, or cooked and cleaned, it is a matter or preparation and personal taste. Slugs are just snails with no shells, and snails are really just specialized clams that moved from water to land. By the way, all of this applies only to land slugs, land snails and freshwater mollusks, not slugs and snails and mollusks in salt water. (Salt water slugs tend to be toxic.)

http://www.eattheweeds.com/are-slugs-edible-what-about-snails-2/

[xchrom]

8. snail caviar

http://www.snail-caviar.com/index.html

[dipsydoodle]

9. In all seriousness

I think I'd rather die than eat any such thing.

[xchrom]

12. !

and here i am actually wanting to try the caviar -- i love escargot -- so i just imagine the caviar would be good.

[DetlefK]

6. The Chained CPI-guys would love this: This year steak, in ten years bugs.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Austerity is the Practice of Death.

Preparation for the future, I suppose . . .

[Cirque du So-What]

16. It may turn out

that insect consumption could be a blessing in disguise. Eating lower on the food chain avoids a lot of carcinogens and other pollutants that accumulate in animals farther up the line - plus all the hormones, antibiotics & other pharmaceutical concoctions that end up in the food supply. Of course, Big Ag will probably muck it up with insects as well, which would create a market for 'organic' insect products.

[Javaman]

15. I've had cricket...

If you can get past the "ick" factor, which I really didn't have, they are actually pretty good.

I wish I could find this great article regarding the raising of bugs. It explained the carbon footprint of raising bugs in comparison to beefs.

give it time.

the U.S. is only part of a few nations that still don't eat bugs as part of the regular diet.

[Cirque du So-What]

17. I once had fried maguey worms in Mexico

They definitely didn't taste like chicken. In fact, they didn't taste like much of anything. The closest I can come to describing them: fried onion rings - extremely mild onions - cut into tiny pieces. The only aspect of eating this dish that triggered my 'yuck' reflex was their tendency to stick to my teeth.

[Javaman]

18. That's were the crickets have it over them...

they were cruchy and had a mild "nutty" flavor.

I looked at them much like the way I eat crawfish. I just split them in half and ate the "backend".

The guy that was selling them told me I could eat the whole thing, legs and all. I did. And I have to admit, the legs were a little rough to get past, so just yanked them off the others.

[GoCubsGo]

21. Meal worms are nutty, too.

I was once at a science fair that had an exhibit on insects as food. The exhibitor had a plate of cookies with meal worms in them. Lots of people turned their noses up at them. Their loss. They were delicious! Meanwhile, he also had a crock pot full of queso dip around the corner. It also had meal worms in it, that were not whole. The people who snubbed the cookies were unknowingly slurping that dip down like it was Beluga caviar.

[a la izquierda]

24. I had chapulinas in Mexico as well.

They were diced, fried, and chilied. I had them in tacos. Not too bad. Kind of shrimpy, I suppose.

[RevStPatrick]

36. There's a fancy Mexican place here in my Brooklyn neighborhood...

...that gives you a small dish of fried, spiced crickets when you order shots of Tequila.

Yes... Ick factor.
Yes... Delicious!!!

[Zorra]

19. I've never, ever, ever, ever, been happier to be a vegetarian than I am right now.

Fruit salad with yogurt over homemade waffles for breakfast is so much more pleasant than a maggot cockroach omelette with a side of soylent green.

I'm going pout to hug my tomato plants.

[a la izquierda]

25. No kidding.

These are the times I love veggies and legumes.

[NightWatcher]

23. Up next. Dirt it's what for dinner

Instead of feeding the masses, lets convince them that eating dirt is the new thing. Maybe Monsanto would even be kind enough to spray chemicals on the dirt before we consume it.

[Auggie]

26. Soylent Green is insects!

[smirkymonkey]

27. Here is where I go vegetarian.

I think I could live on grass. It's starting to look pretty good to me these days.

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. Grilled witchetty grubs. Yum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchetty_grub

Okay, maybe I watch Survivorman too much. But damn, he made them sound tasty!

[Newest Reality]

29. Good source of protein.

I guess there won't be a need for PETI though, huh?

[GaYellowDawg]

39. Just wait.

When people here start eating them, PETA will protest it.

[Bake]

30. Crawdads ... AKA "mudbugs" are pretty good eatin'.

As long as you don't look at them too long.



Bake

[JackN415]

32. I'm all for it for the sake of the earth of course. But I'll stick to my vegan diet :) n/t

[Auntie Bush]

34. I had chocolate covered ants once...

Thought it was good till I found out what it was. I was told the crunchiness was Rice Krispies. Horrified to find out it was ants.

[KittyWampus]

35. What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? >>>>>>

HALF a worm in your apple :-D old joke from my Grandmother.

I eat kale from my garden. Kale is prone to certain little buggers and while I get most of them off I'm quite sure a few slip by.

[Rex]

38. Let them eat bugs.

nt.