"UN has a new nutritional, sustainable diet for a hungry world: insects"

UN has a new nutritional, sustainable diet for a hungry world: insects

Jemma Crew
Monday, 13 May 2013

The solution to world poverty may have been under our noses all along. The United Nations has issued official advice suggesting that Earth’s inhabitants eat insects to help combat food-insecurity and reduce pollution worldwide.

The UN acknowledges that “consumer disgust” remains “one of the largest barriers to the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein in many Western countries”.

Over two billion people worldwide already regularly eat insects as part of their diets. Their high fat, protein and mineral content make them a nutritious alternative to meat, fish and other common dietary staples.

More than 1,900 insect species are edible for human consumption, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation reports, with the most popular insects being beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps and ants.

Insects could be a particularly important food source for undernourished children because most species contain high levels of fatty acids.

Aside from their nutritional value, farming insects could considerably benefit the environment. According to the FAO, insects emit fewer greenhouse gases and need less land or water than cattle when farmed.

As cold-blooded creatures they are “very efficient” in converting feed to protein, needing 12 times less feed than cattle in order to produce the same amount. They also feed on human and animal waste, and can transform this into protein.

In some areas of the world, including Bali and Japan, insects such as dragonflies and fly larvae are considered a delicacy.

While many Brits may feel squeamish at the thought of eating bugs, the Mexican chain restaurant Wahaca, which recently trialled a dish of fried grasshoppers at its South Bank restaurant, said it was impressed by diners’ responses to the experiment and may put the dish on its main menu.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/un-has-a-new-nutritional-sustainable-diet-for-a-hungry-world-insects-8614691.html#

Some salt with your spider? U.N. says bugs good for you
Dan Vergano, USA TODAY7:22 p.m. EDT May 13, 2013

The U.N. is promoting edible insects as a low-fat, high-protein food.

Pass the cicadas -- a United Nations report calls for bringing bugs to your next picnic. On the menu that is.

Along with providing a satisfying crunch, "Insects are a highly nutritious and healthy food source with high fat, protein, vitamin, fiber and mineral content," says the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization report released in Rome on Monday.

Despite that endorsement, "We are not saying that people should be eating bugs," said FAO's Eva Muller, in a statement on the report. Rather, the advice is part of a call for forest conservation to help feed the world's 21st century population, projected to peak at 9 billion people by 2050. "We are saying that insects are just one resource provided by forests, and insects are pretty much untapped for their potential for food, and especially for feed."

About 2 billion people worldwide already munch on bugs regularly because food sources are increasingly stretched. The Western diet is the odd one worldwide, in its exclusion of bugs, notes the report, which calls for making regulations more friendly to bug farming.

"If life gives you locusts, make locust-enriched grain," says entomologist Doug Yanega, a senior museum scientist at the University of California, Riverside, and an expert on consuming edible bugs. "The U.N. report is perfectly logical, looking at it objectively, but it is tough to convince people."

Some scorpions (though not technically insects) and water bugs are yummy, Yanega adds. There are 10 million different insects, he says, and some are better than others. "Honey bees are perfectly delicious."

Cicadas should be good eating, too, he says. And that is good news since the latest brood is hitting the USA now. "You are what you eat with bugs. They eat tree sap for 17 years, that should make them pretty good."


A plate with insects is featured during an insect cuisine competition in Laos.(Photo: Thomas Calame, FAO, via AP)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/05/13/united-nations-insects-food/2155297/