Rising Occupation

Food Developers Using Edible Insects As An Ingredient 

Prospective occupations will continue to change as a result of new technology and people’s perception and awareness. In that sense, food developers using edible insects as ingredients is quickly arising. 

Meat consumption around the world is increasing steadily and environmental problems have been growing seriously. In the process of breeding the livestock, methane gas is generated excessively and greenbelt such as grassland have decreased. As an alternative, ‘edible insect’ is the answer. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, edible insects are almost 77% higher in protein than beef and other meats while it only takes ⅙ of the feed to produce the same amount of the protein. In addition, it produces fewer greenhouse gas.

In the last 10 years, the edible insect food market has risen almost two times. The edible insect food developers have produced new products to diversify the market. In the past, the health food products were mostly in the form of powder, but currently, daily products such as cereal and pasta have been produced. In particular, the pet food product market has increased notably. 

However, the biggest problem to the edible insect food developers is the people’s reluctance to “eating insects.” Their issue from past to present has always been to change people’s perception of edible insects. According to KOTRA, it is estimated that people eating edible insects are 2.5 billion around the world. However, there is still much reluctance to eat edible insects in Europe and the Western world. This means that suitable products need to be developed to fit the cultural area. To become a food developer of edible insects, it is important to be able to solve this reluctance among people more than obtaining a school major, license, or certificate. In addition, there aren’t any major edible insect food corporations or companies compared to regular food product companies not large in size. The industry predicts that the growth of the market is clearly obvious but the people in the industry advise that “you must consider the long hours of research until you take it as your profession and make some achievement.”

Dark Chocolate made with edible insect power

By Sangwook Alex Ahn

Reference: https://biz.chosun.com

Interview on Solar Panels

 Last week, I got a special opportunity to interview Mr. Hee Chan Park, who is currently on the new renewable energy team of Dohwa Engineering Corporation. 

Solar panels are cells that use solar energy as a source of energy and generate electricity. Because of its characteristic that it uses a renewable and unlimited energy source, the sun, solar panels have been recognized as an eco-friendly technology for some time now. 

Here is a short interview with Mr. Park on solar panels. Enjoy!

Promoting Edible Insects at the Goyang City Corporate Merchandise Hall

Starting from Thursday, November 12th to Sunday, November 15th, J-poong, the edible insect cafe we have been in contact with for over a year now, participated in the 2020 Mega Show. There, the cafe contributed to the Goyang City Corporate Merchandise Hall with its various edible insect ingredients and snacks. 

The Ecosave Club contributed to the cause of spreading awareness of the benefits of edible insects by donating our self-designed boardgames. We were very happy to hear about the increased interest rate from the visitors compared to the 2015 fair. Here are some pictures that they sent us!

A young visitor bought our boardgame!

On an ending note, we hope that our efforts will continue to increase the awareness of the global food crisis and the environmental and health benefits that edible insects have. 

by Ji Won Cindy Kim

Computer Donation to Inarawan and Paopawan

 The Ecosave Club is continuing to fund Cherryl Leaning Center in Inarawan and villagers in Paopawan with computers for educational purposes. This summer, we delivered the fundraiser money to OpenHands Korea, who then funded the two learning centers with computers and other necessary items such as wi-fi. Last month, the children in Cherryl Learning Center also started their online education program.

Here are some pictures from the Philippines!

From Inarawan:

From Paopawan:

by Ji Won Cindy Kim

Why hygiene is very important and how to wash our hands properly? - with OpenHands

 

This summer during my internship, one of my projects was to create an online hygiene lesson for the Cherryl Learning Center. 

'Personal hygiene' is being emphasized above all in the situation of suffering from COVID-19 infection around the world. As it is well known, the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 is wearing a mask and washing your hands for at least 30 seconds.

In the poor areas of the Philippines, many students do not have basic education, so the level of awareness of personal hygiene is low, making them susceptible to disease. The best way to solve this problem is to teach the importance of hygiene, but there is a limit to conducting hygiene education due to the current outbreak.

In a situation where confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in the Philippines, OpenHands has planned to create and distribute online hygiene education contents in order to raise the importance and awareness of hygiene for children in poor areas of the Philippines.

The creation of this online hygiene education content was focused on being fun and effective for Filipino students.

This online training includes contents such as 'Why should I wash my hands?', 'Why should I wash my hands with soap for 30 seconds', and 'How to wash my hands.' Using Korea's 'Three Bears' nursery rhymes, we have created creative a video that can attract children's attention. 

Link to OpenHands Story: https://openhands.or.kr/27/?q=YToxOntzOjEyOiJrZXl3b3JkX3R5cGUiO3M6MzoiYWxsIjt9&bmode=view&idx=4991796&t=board

by Ji Won Cindy Kim

BugHouse Boardgames Donation to Cherryl Learning Center!

 Link to OpenHands Story: https://openhands.or.kr/27/?q=YToxOntzOjEyOiJrZXl3b3JkX3R5cGUiO3M6MzoiYWxsIjt9&bmode=view&idx=4345712&t=board

With the help of OpenHands, the Ecosave Club successfully donated our self-made boardgames, 'BugHouse.' 

by Ji Won Cindy Kim
 

Summer Internship at OpenHands Korea

 This summer, I got an opportunity to intern at OpenHands, a non-profit organization that the Ecosave Club has been partners with for over 4 years now. According to plan, this year's internship was supposed to be the planning for the annual visit to Inarawan. We obviously needed a change in plans, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the difficulty of traveling to other countries. 

So, for the 4 weeks I interned at OpenHands, we focused on reaching out to the Filipinos virtually. 

I accomplished 3 main tasks during my internship at OpenHands: 

1. Translation of the Water Kit manual from Korean to English

    Water Kit is mentioned multiple times throughout this blog, but to remind some of the readers, it is a simple filtering device that the OpenHand teams developed for those Filipinos living in underdeveloped areas such as Inarawan. The OpenHands team and Ecosave Club used to visit them annually to clean and exchange the filters. Because of the inability to do that this year, I took on the role of translating the already existing Water Kit manual into English, so that volunteers living in the Philippines can reference it while helping out with our original job.

2. Online Hygiene Education for Cherryl Learning Center

    This project was planned in the hopes that the students at Cherryl Learning Center will be able to access the videos we have created through the computer we installed the last time we visited. For more information on Cherryl Learning Center and our past connections with the students, please read about it in the previous posts! This time, because we could not visit them directly, we decided to film and edit a quick video on hygiene. The idea of washing hands is very unfamiliar in Inarawan, so we really wanted to make sure the students know proper washing techniques to prevent illness. This video is still in the editing process, so look out for an update!

3. Research on Philippine Organizations that could help with Financial Independence

    Lastly, I researched organizations in the Philippines that could help the people in Paopawan become financially independent. Paopawan is a small village located in the northeast of Manilla, Philippines, and it is a collective settlement built according to the government's urban plans. The young men in this village have started a mask business with the help of OpenHands. Their desire to attend school started this project. The main problem with the business at Paopawan is that the products are of varying quality and sizes, so it is almost impossible to sell them. My job here was to research organizations in the Philippines that could help the OpenHands team with educating these people about production. 

Read more about the project here: OpenHands newsletter , My research presentation

by Ji Won Cindy Kim