Insect Sandwich Maker, a game made with Scratch

Throughout the workshops for young children, questions on 'How to make children get acquainted with insect food' keep coming on.  Insect food is one way to solve water shortage problems worldwide.

We came up with a thought that creating an on-line game using children friendly platform, 'Scratch', is a good way to make children get cozy with 'Insect food' concept.

Each member took a class and studied the 'Scratch' program and came up with own creation.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/119222170/

This is a game called, 'Insect Sandwich Maker', created by Alberta.

More information on Scratch:
https://scratch.mit.edu

Papillon's Kitchen Visit

  Recently, I visited a cafe named "Papillon's Kitchen" to take a glimpse of how people are now starting to make food out of insects. I did not realize in the beginning but later I learned that using insects for food had special purpose. There are hidden values in using insects rather than other common food sources. The first reason is that insects contain approximately 2 times as much protein than meats such as beef, pork, or chicken. Secondly, it is proven to be more healthy than meat. Insects consists of many different types of protein such as essential amino acids and cellulose. These types of protein cannot be spotted in regular meat. Next, the breeding period for insects are significantly less than cows, pigs, and chicken. It only requires 2-8 months of care whereas meats mandate years of care. In addition, it requires much less resources to take care of insects than meat animals. The main difference is the amount of water needed to raise these animals. Water is quickly becoming a scarce resource worldwide, and insects provide a good alternative to food source that does not require much water.  In addition, using insects as food source reduces CO2 output by 3x compared to regular meat which further enhances environment. Lastly, it requires less money to take care of insects compared to meat. The world population is growing rapidly so the world will face the food shortage in the future. So edible insects can add significant value to food resources. Due to all these reasons, its evident that it is more efficient to utilize insects instead of meat. When I saw and tasted the food made out of insects, I was astonished that it was identical to normal food. First of all, there was no difference in the appearance of the food. Secondly, the taste was extremely similar to food without any insects added.
Overall, it was an interesting experience and I realized that this area of alternative food source will need more attention in order to make our environment better.

 

By Justin Chung