FOOD SECURITY
“It is a supreme irony that all over the world monies worth billions of rupees are spent every year to save crops that contain no more than 14% of plant protein by killing another food source (insects) that may contain up to 75% of high-quality animal protein.” (Belluco et al. 2013)
This statement exemplifies the seemingly counterproductive ways that the western world chooses to farm. With exponential global population growth the need to provide food for everyone is ever increasing. And although farming technologies that intensify farming methods in order to produce greater yields are successful, they come at a cost. It is imperative that we employ methods of food production that not only provide food security for everyone, but is done so in a sustainable way. One of our most unsustainable dietary choices is the consumption of meat. Not only is it hugely wasteful in terms of energy and its environmental impact, but has been identified as one of the major causes of western diseases such as cancer (Belluco et al. 2013). For example in 2003 in the USA 6kg of grain was consumed by domesticated animals in order to produce 1kg of meat. This means that around 7 times as much grain was consumed by livestock than the American public (Belluco et al. 2013).
An alternative to meat is a high priority in terms of establishing global food security. The nutritional benefits alone of utilizing insects as a food source make them a good looking alternative to meat. However they are far more environmentally sustainable on a number of other levels. For example, farming insects would lead to over 2700 million hectares of pasture land becoming available for revegetation and therefore carbon sequestration. Plus insects feed conversion ratio is far lower than conventional livestock, making them much more efficient at converting their feed to protein for our consumption. Insects short life cycle and high fecundity means that they constitute 80% of the entire animal kingdom’s biomass. This coupled with the fact that their edible weight is 100% for larvae and around 80% for adult insects, means that despite their small size, the actual available biomass is enormous (Belluco et al. 2013).
Despite the growing list of reasons to practice entomophagy the Western world remains dubious. This may be largely down to culture and our association of insects with pests, plus the endless legal requirements set out to make new foods available. Once attitudes towards eating insects start to change, perhaps a more sustainable future is possible.
This statement exemplifies the seemingly counterproductive ways that the western world chooses to farm. With exponential global population growth the need to provide food for everyone is ever increasing. And although farming technologies that intensify farming methods in order to produce greater yields are successful, they come at a cost. It is imperative that we employ methods of food production that not only provide food security for everyone, but is done so in a sustainable way. One of our most unsustainable dietary choices is the consumption of meat. Not only is it hugely wasteful in terms of energy and its environmental impact, but has been identified as one of the major causes of western diseases such as cancer (Belluco et al. 2013). For example in 2003 in the USA 6kg of grain was consumed by domesticated animals in order to produce 1kg of meat. This means that around 7 times as much grain was consumed by livestock than the American public (Belluco et al. 2013).
An alternative to meat is a high priority in terms of establishing global food security. The nutritional benefits alone of utilizing insects as a food source make them a good looking alternative to meat. However they are far more environmentally sustainable on a number of other levels. For example, farming insects would lead to over 2700 million hectares of pasture land becoming available for revegetation and therefore carbon sequestration. Plus insects feed conversion ratio is far lower than conventional livestock, making them much more efficient at converting their feed to protein for our consumption. Insects short life cycle and high fecundity means that they constitute 80% of the entire animal kingdom’s biomass. This coupled with the fact that their edible weight is 100% for larvae and around 80% for adult insects, means that despite their small size, the actual available biomass is enormous (Belluco et al. 2013).
Despite the growing list of reasons to practice entomophagy the Western world remains dubious. This may be largely down to culture and our association of insects with pests, plus the endless legal requirements set out to make new foods available. Once attitudes towards eating insects start to change, perhaps a more sustainable future is possible.