Published on Sep 25, 2014
About 2 billion people already eat bugs. Mexicans enjoy chili-toasted grasshoppers. Thais tuck into cricket stir-fries and Ghanians snack on termites. Insects are slowly creeping onto Western menus as novelty items, but most people remain squeamish. Yet there are three reasons why eating insects makes sense.
First, they are healthier than meat. There are nearly 2,000 kinds of edible insects, many of them packed with protein, calcium, fibre, iron and zinc. A small serving of grasshoppers can contain about the same amount of protein as a similar sized serving of beef, but has far less fat and far fewer calories.
Second, raising insects is cheap, or free. Little technology or investment is needed to produce them. Harvesting insects could provide livelihoods to some of the world’s poorest people.
Finally, insects are a far more sustainable source of food than livestock. Livestock production accounts for nearly a fifth of all greenhouse-gas emissions – that’s more than transport. By contrast, insects produce relatively few greenhouse gases, and raising them requires much less land and water. And they’ll eat almost anything.
Despite all this, most Westerners find insects hard to swallow. One solution is to use protein extracted from bugs in other products, such as ready meals and pasta sauces. Not having to look at the bugs, and emphasising the environmental benefits, might make the idea of eating insects a bit more palatable. For more video content from The Economist visit our website: http://econ.st/1ytKwbp
Published by Đào Thu Hằng
I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank; a co-founder of POTATO - potato.edu.vn, working on outdoor education programs for kids in Vietnam. My English blog: hangbelu.wordpress/. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus Christ. I practice mindful living including meditation. I play table tennis as a hobby. Xem tất cả bài viết bằng Đào Thu Hằng
Eating insects and worms has been a long traditional cuisine for Vietnamese. Unfortunately, it’s no longer a habit nowadays due to heavily use of pesticide
Documentary by BBC about eating insect as a source of nutrition
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Not very good idea.
Insects now are abundant and cheap because not too many people eat them regularly. If lots of people eat them regularly (directly or just their protein after processing), they would become rare and expensive. Some may even be extinct. And we might discover that ecology has been so out of balance and damaged beyond repair.
Leave them alone. Focus on what we are doing and make it more effective.
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I don’t think people can make it as a regular food that soon instead of what we are eating today. It’s still good to promote eating insect with good selections. Actually, the insects eating in the West and even in Thailand today is farming insect, not natural insects anymore.
The role of the insects in the nature is to balance the ecology systems which many have been damaged. The problem I concern is not insects extinction (which already happening without noticed) but when people raising too much farm insects and make it out of control that would cause ecological damage to other crops by the insects.
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