Edible Bugs to Help Fight World Hunger Life's

[Javaman]

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2190-edible-bugs-world-hunger.html

Meat-eating is an inefficient way to get calories, because livestock such as cows and sheep must ingest around 10 times more vegetable matter, in terms of calorie count, than they convert into meat. En route to a steak, a huge number of food calories are wasted.

And yet, humans need protein. Fortunately, insects are full of it.

There are at least 1,700 edible insect species around the world, from beetles to locusts to grubs. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in conjunction with Wageningen University in the Netherlands, has begun a research project to determine the potential of these insects to supplement the food supply in Europe and other places. At a conference in late January in Rome, scientists began work on a plan to exploit insects as alternative sources of protein, and incorporate them into livestock feed and food products. [Eat the Old: Could Mass Cannibalism Solve a Future Food Shortage? ]

Eating bugs is common practice in much of the world. According to the FAO, the practice has come to be regarded with disgust in Western cultures simply because cold climate countries have fewer edible insect species, and smaller swarms to utilize, and these countries have therefore not integrated bug-eating into their cultures.

More at link...

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I have been trying to find a local place here in Austin that serves bugs of one kind or another. I've read enough about them that intrigues me enough to try them.

Mmmmm gummy worms.

[HopeHoops]

1. Just riding a bike at dusk will feed you enough protein for the week.

[polly7]

2. Ugh ........ my only phobia.

Bugs. But kudos to those who can eat them, I'm sure in many parts of the world they will be a huge source of protein. Hopefully, not mine.

[yodermon]

3. I've seen these sold by street vendors in Seoul

silkworm pupae! mmm!



and for sale, in cans, in Korean grocery stores stateside.



better than dog meat i guess

[meow2u3]

4. OMG!! I'd starve before I'd eat bugs

[Earth_First]

5. Oh come on...

There has to be a better solution than this, folks!

This seems to me to be the most 'profitable' way of doing it, not a method of solving anything...

[Javaman]

6. Actaully, compared to raising cattle, raising insects for food

out striped the beef industy by a huge margin and it's very environmentally friendly.

We are one of only a few nations that don't eat some sort of insect as part our regular diet.

why does there need to be a "better solution", this one is perfect.

I've read up enough on it to know that the insects that are typically used in cooking are pretty clean to begin with and taste pretty good by the majority of accounts.

I want to first try them by someone who knows what they are doing, then, if I like them, I'll cook them myself.

aside from the social phobia of bugs, I don't have a problem at all with eating them. Heck if you eat shrimp, crawdads, lobster or shell fish, they aren't all that different.

[libinnyandia]

7. Honey is very popular. If you think of how it is produced you would think it wouldn't be.

[Javaman]

11. I raise bees. nt

[libinnyandia]

14. Actually I was thinking more of people who wouldn't eat insects not wanting to eat something

produced in the bees' digestive system. My mother told the story of one of my cousins not eating beef tongue because she would not eat something that a cow had in it's mouth. She was then asked why she ate eggs. She wouldn't eat a dead bird but ate chicken

[a la izquierda]

8. I ate grasshoppers in Mexico once...

they're not too bad, actually. Kinda crunchy and salty. With a bunch of chile on them, you really don't know what you're eating. Almost like dried shrimp.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Better to feed the bugs to the chicken and fish, imho.

I'd rather not live quite that low on the food chain.

[WingDinger]

10. Cal Worthington will set you up. He's been eating bugs to seal a car deal for years.

[yellowcanine]

12. Mmm. Deep fried insects.

Deep-fried insects for sale at a food stall in Bangkok, Thailand.

[Javaman]

13. I would try them in a heart beat. nt