Morning:
12°c
New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
Secret loans totalling £61.6 billion to struggling banks Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS revealed for the first time
More...
Just the cricket: Eating insects is good for us and for the environment, scientists claim
Last updated at 10:15am on 02.06.08
It might be a while before they appear on the shelf at Tesco.
But scientists claim adding insects to our diet would be good for us and the environment.
Crunching into crickets or snacking on grilled caterpillar is apparently a means to a nutrient-rich diet that also helps reduce pests and puts less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat.
Some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein of raw meat and fish, while others are rich in unsaturated fat and contain important vitamins and minerals.
Experts believe they could one day be marketed as a healthy alternative to fatty snacks.
In most of Europe, bug-eating is largely restricted to the belated realisation that there has been an unwelcome addition to the salad.
It is common elsewhere, however, with some 1,700 species of bug eaten in 113 countries.
In Taiwan, stir-fried crickets or sauteed caterpillars are delicacies. A plate of maguey worms - larvae of a giant butterfly - sells for £12.50 in smart Mexican restaurants.
Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves go down well in Papua New Guinea, as does dragonfly in Bali.
In many parts of south-east Asia market stalls sell insects by the pound and deep-fried snacks are served up as street food.
Insects are arthropods, much like crab, shrimps and lobster which are all accepted by the European palate. In North Africa locusts are sometimes called sky prawns.
But Patrick Durst, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that if consumers were to be tempted to broaden their culinary horizons the trick might be to make the bugs look more palatable.
'You need to get the food into a form where someone doesn't have to look the bug in the eye when they eat it,' he said.
Earlier this year the Food and Agriculture Organisation held a conference to discuss how entomophagy - eating insects as food - could contribute to sustainable development.
Bug-farming preserves forests - which are needed to attract insects - and is encouraged in some countries.
As for pesticides, some experts have pointed out the irony of using chemicals to get rid of bugs that are more nutritious than the crops they prey on.
In Thailand when pesticides failed to control locusts, the government urged locals to eat them and distributed recipes.
Chef Paul Cook, who supplies exotic and unusual food through his Bristol-based business Osgrow, has sold a range of insects including locusts.
He said: 'You have to get past your feeling when you look at a whole locust or cricket. They are very clean and nutritious.
'But I don't think we are going to see Jamie Oliver encouraging us to have sky prawns on the school menu.'
Reader views (14)
Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. I'm still trying to convince my roommates to let me raise mealworms in my dorm. They're quite tasty and versatile.
- Caitlin, Indiana, USA
I lived in a Brazilian Indian village for some years, and every year there are 3-4 days wherein the leaf cutter ants begin their life cycle. The princesses emerge from their holes amid thousands of guards and servants, accompanied by their male consorts. They then take flight, mating in the air and falling to the ground a queen. If they survive the night, they will produce a brand new colony. We harvested them while standing in holes filled with water, so they wouldn't bite us. We snatched up the princesses before they flew and filled up litre cans full of them. Later, the Indians would fry them up, grind them, eat them in a stew, or eat them alive from a bowl. It is a major cultural event for many tribes of Indians in Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and I would wager Columbia, too. Therefore, I'm surprised this article said nothing about leaf cutter ants. They're probably the most interesting insect that is used as food. They have sort of an oily flavour that is extremely strong. They don't taste good the first time, but neither does Coca-Cola. You just get used to it.
- Kurenan, Boa Vista, Brazil
hey dernon..go sift your cornflakes...see thos little white things....???magotts...enjoy your breakfast............
- koolhan, owatonna mn
Eating grasshoppers - chapulines - is common in some parts of Mexico. They are eaten as a snack like potato chips and no one thinks it is anything unusual. They are pretty good, crunchy. They are often served sprinkled with a little chile powder, salt and lime.
- Suebob, Ventura USA
Disgusting, and don't tell me I'll get used to it, or that I'm retro if I won't. Some things are food for human beings, and some aren't. Bugs aren't. And the "scientists" who make these learned proclamations are the same charlatans who, with their climate change hysteria, are causing titanic economic dislocations as we are encouraged to fall all over ourselves with the "carbon footprint" nonsense. Meanwhile, worldwide foot shortages and price spikes are ensuing as "enlightened" governments scramble to supplant fossil- with biofuels. That is, the corn goes into the ethanol-making hopper instead of into our bellies, or those of our domestic animals. Let the scientists eat the bugs, if they like. One day the bugs will surely eat the scientists.
- Dernon Ruton, New York, USA
I love roaches....
- Larryng, Hong Kong
...Eating scientists is good for us and for the environment, insects claim.
- Buggedbyidiocy, Seattle,Washington USA
Why not? I have eaten fried grasshoppers and they were very tasty.
- Ron Willis, Birmingham USA
This is not surprising considering the amazing amount of waste it is to raise traditional animals for food. The resources wasted on factory farming could feed ten times more people if the crops were used to directly feed people. As our resources continue to dwindle and our economy continues to suffer traditional farming practices will have to change. Don't like the idea of eating bugs-just eat veggies!
- Melanie, Portage, Indiana
Bikers have been doing this for years.
- Ken, Kansas City, mo
I think this would work well for Westerners if the bugs are ground up, dried and made into a kind of protein powder. When you eat a hamburger you don't think about the cow's eyes or tail. So why think about the insect's face...
- Al, Ayer, Mass.
Let's see them do it first! I'll stick with Beef and Chicken for my main courses thank you! Real Americans aren't going to eat that rubbish!
Eat them as snacks? God created fruits and nuts, I'll stick with fruits and nuts for snacks.
- Swathy, Boynton Beach, Florida, USA
Mmm...Peanut butter and bug jelly sandwiches.
- Gross, Here
There's seemingly no end to the proclamations these fruitcakes come up with - or- perhaps they're readying us for the inevitable world famine to come. Given that they're outlawing pesticides, herbicides, all forms of fossil fuel usage, it may very well come down to eating insects.
- Gl, Bellevue Canada
