An article published on TheScientist, "Why Insects Should Be in Your Diet" by Aaron T. Dossey, points out several reasons why insects are a promising food source for the global food crisis in the future.
According to this article, the increase in population, and hence the increase in demand for food, will place an immense burden on the earth's environment due to "[c]limate change, reduced productivity of agricultural lands, overfishing, dwindling freshwater resources, pollution from fertilizers and pesticides, and a host of other factors" (Dossey). These are all problems that we are starting to experience right now. Then Dossey proposes a possible solution, which is insects.
Insects, as Dossey describes, have numerous benefits. To begin with, they are sources of numerous important nutrients, such as "the eight essential amino acids, vitamin B12, riboflavin, the biologically active form of vitamin A, and several minerals" (Dossey). Also, insects are particularly high in protein. Usually, we obtain protein from meat, such as cows or pigs. However, raising livestock costs the earth many environmental problems. This is where the environmentally positive aspect of insects comes in. First, insects are more "efficient at transforming a wide variety of organic matter into edible body mass" (Dossey). Meaning, less feed is required of the insects than of the cattle to produce the same amount of nutritious value. One of the reasons why is because insects are cold-blooded, so they do not need to use energy to control their temperature. Second, "[i]nsects are also easy to farm in large quantities using very little space" (Dossey). Insects have significantly larger fecundity and shorter life spans, so they can be grown rapidly, according to the article. Additionally, insects are capable of consuming agricultural waste and plants that humans and traditional livestock cannot. This means that insects don't have to compete for food supply with humans.
As the article points out, there are numerous benefits to eating insects over traditional livestock. The only real problem with them is people's repulsion against their appearance. One way we can tackle this problem is to expose recipes of insects to many people, especially of a younger age, so they can get familiar with them.
Ecosave Club has recently partnered with a local insect cafe and started uploading creative insect recipes on Youtube. We are aiming for many people to watch our videos and start shaking off the hostility towards insects! Come visit our channel, BugHouse365 :)
Link to the article: https://www.the-scientist.com/thought-experiment/why-insects-should-be-in-your-diet-39838
by Ji Won Cindy Kim
