FOOD Edible Insects Move Closer To European Plates [Let them Eat Bugs- Melodi]

Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
And we now return you to the topic of "Let them Eat Bugs" this time EU style (remember if you are allergic to shellfish, bug flour hidden in your food could possibly result in severe illness or death...) - Melodi
www.barrons.com

Edible Insects Move Closer To European Plates

The EU's food watchdog on Wednesday paved the way for diners across Europe to tuck into insects as it gave safety approval for human consumption of dried yellow mealworm.
www.barrons.com www.barrons.com
Edible Insects Move Closer To European Plates




AFP - Agence France Presse
January 13, 2021
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AFP2843363781365290637798024214666134374719-eu-food-drink-insects-files-food-food-lifestyle-1.jpg

Insect burgers containing protein-rich mealworm could soon be available in European Union countries
Fabrice COFFRINI
Text size

ADDS comment from edible insect umbrella group
The EU's food watchdog on Wednesday paved the way for diners across Europe to tuck into insects as it gave safety approval for human consumption of dried yellow mealworm.
The move by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the preliminary step needed before officials can decide whether to allow the beetle larvae to be sold to consumers across the 27-nation bloc.
The ruling is the first completed risk assessment of an insect food product application by the agency as it looks to approve a potential boom sector that could provide a sustainable source of protein.

It could "pave the way for the first EU-wide approval," Ermolaos Ververis, scientific officer in EFSA’s NUTRI unit, said in a statement.
"Risk evaluation is a decisive and necessary step in the regulation of novel foods by supporting policy makers in the EU in making science-based decisions and ensuring the safety of consumers."
The EFSA said it had found the mealworms -- or Tenebrio molitor larva -- were safe to be eaten "either as a whole dried insect or in the form of powder" after an application from French insect-rearing firm Micronutris.
"Its main components are protein, fat and fibre," the statement said, but warned that more research needed to be done on possible allergic reactions to the insects.

The burgeoning insect farming industy in Europe welcomed the decision and said they hoped to see authorities give permission for yellow mealworms to be marketed to the public by the middle of this year.

"The release of this document indeed represents an important milestone towards the wider EU commercialisation of edible insects," Antoine Hubert, president of the the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed, said in a statement.
The Italy-based EFSA has more insect investigations on its plate and is also set to examine if crickets and grasshoppers are fit for consumption.
Insects are widely eaten elsewhere on the globe with an estimated 1,000 species finding their way onto dinner plates of some 2 billion people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
They are already available for human consumption in a small number of EU countries and are more widely produced for use in animal feed.

The industry says it expects the European market for insect-based food products to grow rapidly in the coming years and for production to reach some 260,000 tonnes by 2030.
del/rmb/har

The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.
© Agence France-Presse
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Despite the "ick" factor, my big problem with this is that "they" (manufacturers) have been talking about using this stuff in processed foods like bread and pasta, possibly without even putting it on the label (or calling it something else).

That and the obvious implication of plans to "replace" real meat and/or grains like wheat with "bugs" no matter what consumers actually want.

There are plenty of places where people enjoy "bugs" of various sorts and have them as part of their regular diets and I have no issues with regulations coming in for that, for people that WANT to consume them.

But this doesn't feel like just "another food option" this has felt for several years like "a plan." I've mentioned before how the UK newspapers would always bring this up around the same time as they would have a rash of articles on how "evil" meat is for the planent and/or if consumers don't change their ways they will just "have to eat bugs."
 
PanBear

PanBear

Veteran Member
Melodi, you are 100% right, we have no idea what has been added/not labeled in our food.

Right now they are giving us a choice in meat, "impossible meat" or "real beef" (grocery stores and fast food) but one day it will just slide in and we will not notice the difference.

The "great reset".
 
20Gauge

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
I would project / guess that during the next food panic, this along with the soy burgers will be the only thing left on the shelves. Historians will be puzzled for sure when they did that grocery store.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
As a "GAG" gift, our oldest son bought us 2 packages of Texas BBQ Whole Roasted Crickets while on his honeymoon! I still have them on the window shelf above my kitchen sink! They've been sitting there for over a year, and I still have no hankering to eat them. Nope, Nada!
 
twobarkingdogs

twobarkingdogs

Veteran Member
This was on zerohedge a couple of days ago

tbd

World’s Largest Insect Farm To Be Built In Illinois Amid Signs Of Soaring Food Inflation | ZeroHedge

World’s Largest Insect Farm To Be Built In Illinois Amid Signs Of Soaring Food Inflation

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden
Sunday, Jan 10, 2021 - 9:45
The food industry is about to take a giant leap forward towards sustainability as a new partnership between Chicago-based food processing company Archer Daniels Midland and InnovaFeed, a French firm that makes insect protein for animal feed, are set to build the world's largest insect protein factory farm in central Illinois, according to Forbes.
ADM and InnovaFeed will grow and harvest billion and billions of insects called black soldier fly, whose larvae are scavengers and thrive on decomposing organic matter and convert it into a nutrient-rich protein that can be transformed into animal feed.
Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Once the facility is operational, both companies estimate yearly output could be around 60,000 metric tons of animal feed protein.
"I'm in awe. If they can pull this off, it will be magnificent," said Jeffrey Tomberlin, a professor and entomologist at Texas A&M University who has conducted years of research on insect protein
"This facility will be several times bigger than anything else in the world," Tomberlin said.
Click to expand...
Black soldier fly larvae produce at least one hundred times more protein per acre than traditional animal feed sources such as corn, soybeans, sorghum, oats, and barley. This could be a monumental achievement for the agriculture industry as a bid for sustainably sourced food when pandemic-related shortages have developed, along with soaring prices.
Albert Edwards, an investment strategist at Societe Generale SA, recently published a report on soaring food prices.
Edwards, quoting the latest figures from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), showed food prices of oilseeds, dairy products, meat, and sugar are on the rise. Show below, the FAO food index hit a sixth-year high in November.
FAO Food Prices

"At a time when the World Bank notes that the Covid-19 pandemic will increase extreme poverty by around 150 million, we all need to be very vigilant of another food price bubble," Edwards warned.
He also links soaring food prices to the Federal Reserve's easing policies that caused a rapid jump in food prices in 2011, resulting in social unrest in multiple countries.
Food Price Rises And The Arab Spring

The pandemic has devastated the working poor as rising food prices come at an inopportune time that could incite social unrest.
Americans Go Hungry In Pandemic

Edwards makes the case that "another food price bubble" could be dead ahead.
The good news but not likely to offset a spike in food prices that is already underway is the future mass adoption of insects into the global food supply chain. Pound for pound, insects are the most efficient food source for animals and humans.
 
China Connection

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Ah, people are coming around to the good tucker.

The problem is what they are feeding to the Darling little maggots. Dead maggots look the same as each other but one could have been fed shit and the other great stuff.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
And things are ramping up again, I can predict with no psychic ability what-so-ever that we are seeing another round of this nonsense, this is all over the UK papers...but the UK daily mail has the best headline - though as always with the UK daily mail - this is best seen at the link (lots of photos, long articles, etc). - Melodi
www.dailymail.co.uk

Eating one rasher of bacon a day 'increases risk of dementia by 44%'

Study suggests that eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting dementia by 44 per cent. Leeds University research explored the potential link in data of 500,000 people.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
Eating one rasher of bacon a day increases your chance of getting dementia by 44%, study into dangers of processed meats suggests
  • Eating one rasher of bacon increases chance of dementia by 44%, study finds
  • But some unprocessed meat can protect against dementia, scientists found
  • Research used data of 500k people to explore 'link' between meat and dementia
By MILLY VINCENT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 01:08, 22 March 2021 | UPDATED: 08:31, 22 March 2021



Eating processed meat such as sausages, bacon and burgers could dramatically increase the risk of getting dementia, new research shows.

The findings suggest that eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase your chances of developing the disease by a staggering 44 per cent.

However meat-lovers need not despair, as scientists conducting the study also found that eating some unprocessed meat including beef, pork and veal can protect against dementia.

In the study, people who ate 25g a day of processed meat had a 44% greater chance of developing the condition, but those who consumed 50g a day of unprocessed meat were almost 20 per cent less likely to develop dementia.
The findings suggest eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting the disease by a staggering 44 per cent


+4
The findings suggest eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting the disease by a staggering 44 per cent

Share
The research, by Leeds University, explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people.
Professor Janet Cade, who supervised the research, said: 'Anything we can do to explore potential risk factors for dementia may help us to reduce rates of this debilitating condition.

'This analysis is a first step towards understanding whether what we eat could influence that risk.'
Researchers investigated links between eating different types of meat and dementia risk.
The research explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people


+4
The research explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people
The team studied data from the UK Biobank database containing genetic and health information from half a million Brits aged 40 to 69 between 2006 and 2010.

This included how often people snacked on different kinds of meat, with six options from never to once or more daily.
Vegetarian and vegan diets were not looked at specially but the study did include people who avoided red meat.
Over an average of eight years, almost 2,900 dementia cases emerged.

This was seen in people who were generally older, more economically deprived, less educated, more likely to smoke, less physically active, more likely to have stroke history and family dementia history.

It was also seen in people more likely to carry a dementia-related gene called the APOE gene, the team explained.
More men than women were diagnosed with dementia in the study.
Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study. Steak ( stock pictured)


+4
Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study. Steak ( stock pictured)

Professor Cade said: 'Some people were three to six times more likely to develop dementia due to well established genetic factors, but the findings suggest the risks from eating processed meat were the same whether or not a person was genetically predisposed to developing the disease.

'Those who consumed higher amounts of processed meat were more likely to be male, less educated, smokers, overweight or obese, had lower intakes of vegetables and fruits, and had higher intakes of energy, protein, and fat including saturated fat.'

Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study of participants over time to examine a link between specific meat types and amounts, and the risk of developing the disease.
Lead researcher Huifeng Zhang, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, said: 'Worldwide, the prevalence of dementia is increasing and diet as a modifiable factor could play a role.

'Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption to increased risk of a range of non-transmissible diseases.'
Dementia's development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle


+4
Dementia's development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle

There are around 50 million dementia cases globally, with around ten million new cases diagnosed every year.
Alzheimer's Disease makes up 50 per cent to 70 per cent of cases, and vascular dementia around 25 per cent.

Its development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle.
Ms Zhang added: 'Further confirmation is needed, but the direction of effect is linked to current healthy eating guidelines suggesting lower intakes of unprocessed red meat could be beneficial for health.'

Executive dean of medicine for the University of Exeter, not involved in the study, said the study was an important first step, but was too small of a data set to over-interpret results on their own.

He told the Sunday Times: 'We should not assume from this research that one rasher of bacon a day increases your risk of dementia by 44% - it is simply not possible to demonstrate that in a study like this.'
The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Monday.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
Melodi said:
'Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption to increased risk of a range of non-transmissible diseases.'
Click to expand...

But...but...in keeping with the Georgia Guidestones, this means they should be ENCOURAGING we eat more meat! It will kill us faster and result in the must-have population reduction!!
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
China Connection said:
Ah, people are coming around to the good tucker.

The problem is what they are feeding to the Darling little maggots. Dead maggots look the same as each other but one could have been fed shit and the other great stuff.
Click to expand...
This, and note the warning is coming from someone with actual experience. I've posted before about raising foundational protein sources. I am interested if one can do this with a reasonable amount of effort/money, and still stay high on the food chain by eating the livestock that feed on the bugs. I'm also interested because I am feeding captive birds, rodents, reptiles, and fish.

What is frustrating, is that most protein from *thin air* requires quality inputs. Otherwise, infusoria, daphnia, and mosquito larva are extremely tiny, and the fish they are fed to are tiny. Brine shrimp and scuds (bigger) are best raised with an airstone - not a sig. amt of electricity, but it helps to have it. I have cultures of vinegar eels (a micro worm in ACV), starch culture micro worms, and Grindel worms; again, all very tiny. The biggest, the Grindel worms, I can actually see with my glasses. The tarantula and dart frog and gecko keepers like flightless fruit flies, and pinhead crickets. We can go up in size with various roach species and flour beetle larva species from that. These also work for fish. The maggots and BSL larva are easy ones that can be produced in sig. amts. from "thin air," so one doesn't have to worry about cultures, but that adv. also makes them seasonal.

I have been investigating raising blue gill in big stock tanks, but I'll have to feed them something much larger than all the above.

I plan to purchase more E. foedita, and more E. hortensis (spell? basic red worms with different temp. requirements) as well as the Canadian and African night crawlers. (All the above stuff can be found on ebay, or specialty suppliers.) These for fish and rat food. My new rosy minnow "feeder" fish are doing well, and would be good feeders for the rats (don't use goldfish - look up thiminase deficiency), but I love fish, and it is hard to think of feeding off the lovely fish. (It is also hard to feed off the fancy rats to the snakes, but has to be done - I don't have anything else for them.)

I'll be posting more about this fascinating topic - it is the food chain we depend on - as I learn more about it.

Anyway, bottom line, CC is right: You don't know what is in the bugs if you haven't raised them!
 
Last edited:
Freeholder

Freeholder

This too shall pass.
We will not be eating bugs. I will gladly feed bugs to my poultry, and we can eat their eggs and meat, but no bugs on our dining table.

Kathleen

ETA: And I think the so-called research saying that eating bacon causes dementia is a crock. My grandparents and great-grandparents ate a lot of bacon, and NONE of them had any dementia. Also none of their siblings as far as I know.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Nightwolf says this is "BS" the bacon thing (and of course it is) he also said that this sounded to him like an attempt to force people basically into plantation serfdom by lowering the expectations of the majority of people in the first world.

I tend to agree, but I've also seen this "pattern" especially in the UK press of it starts with an article about how "meat" is bad for you, moves on the following week to "why you should be vegan to save the earth," followed by "Let Them Eat Bugs."

This has gone on at least since the year 2000, only now the cycles between this are getting shorter and a bit more authoritative and desperate-sounding.

Add to this the threads on Bill Gates and his "syntho meat" and "lab-grown meat" and you start to see a picture forming.

Not to mention what Nightwolf said the other day - "if you take the meat and dairy products out of the diets of most people, especially growing children, it is likely that they will grow up weaker, smaller, and easier to control."
 
Walrus Whisperer

Walrus Whisperer

Hope in chains...
Melodi said:
And things are ramping up again, I can predict with no psychic ability what-so-ever that we are seeing another round of this nonsense, this is all over the UK papers...but the UK daily mail has the best headline - though as always with the UK daily mail - this is best seen at the link (lots of photos, long articles, etc). - Melodi
www.dailymail.co.uk

Eating one rasher of bacon a day 'increases risk of dementia by 44%'

Study suggests that eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting dementia by 44 per cent. Leeds University research explored the potential link in data of 500,000 people.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
Eating one rasher of bacon a day increases your chance of getting dementia by 44%, study into dangers of processed meats suggests
  • Eating one rasher of bacon increases chance of dementia by 44%, study finds
  • But some unprocessed meat can protect against dementia, scientists found
  • Research used data of 500k people to explore 'link' between meat and dementia
By MILLY VINCENT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 01:08, 22 March 2021 | UPDATED: 08:31, 22 March 2021



Eating processed meat such as sausages, bacon and burgers could dramatically increase the risk of getting dementia, new research shows.

The findings suggest that eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase your chances of developing the disease by a staggering 44 per cent.

However meat-lovers need not despair, as scientists conducting the study also found that eating some unprocessed meat including beef, pork and veal can protect against dementia.

In the study, people who ate 25g a day of processed meat had a 44% greater chance of developing the condition, but those who consumed 50g a day of unprocessed meat were almost 20 per cent less likely to develop dementia.
The findings suggest eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting the disease by a staggering 44 per cent


+4
The findings suggest eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase the chances of getting the disease by a staggering 44 per cent

Share
The research, by Leeds University, explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people.
Professor Janet Cade, who supervised the research, said: 'Anything we can do to explore potential risk factors for dementia may help us to reduce rates of this debilitating condition.

'This analysis is a first step towards understanding whether what we eat could influence that risk.'
Researchers investigated links between eating different types of meat and dementia risk.
The research explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people


+4
The research explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people
The team studied data from the UK Biobank database containing genetic and health information from half a million Brits aged 40 to 69 between 2006 and 2010.

This included how often people snacked on different kinds of meat, with six options from never to once or more daily.
Vegetarian and vegan diets were not looked at specially but the study did include people who avoided red meat.
Over an average of eight years, almost 2,900 dementia cases emerged.

This was seen in people who were generally older, more economically deprived, less educated, more likely to smoke, less physically active, more likely to have stroke history and family dementia history.

It was also seen in people more likely to carry a dementia-related gene called the APOE gene, the team explained.
More men than women were diagnosed with dementia in the study.
Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study. Steak ( stock pictured)


+4
Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study. Steak ( stock pictured)

Professor Cade said: 'Some people were three to six times more likely to develop dementia due to well established genetic factors, but the findings suggest the risks from eating processed meat were the same whether or not a person was genetically predisposed to developing the disease.

'Those who consumed higher amounts of processed meat were more likely to be male, less educated, smokers, overweight or obese, had lower intakes of vegetables and fruits, and had higher intakes of energy, protein, and fat including saturated fat.'

Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study of participants over time to examine a link between specific meat types and amounts, and the risk of developing the disease.
Lead researcher Huifeng Zhang, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, said: 'Worldwide, the prevalence of dementia is increasing and diet as a modifiable factor could play a role.

'Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption to increased risk of a range of non-transmissible diseases.'
Dementia's development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle's development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle


+4
Dementia's development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle

There are around 50 million dementia cases globally, with around ten million new cases diagnosed every year.
Alzheimer's Disease makes up 50 per cent to 70 per cent of cases, and vascular dementia around 25 per cent.

Its development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle.
Ms Zhang added: 'Further confirmation is needed, but the direction of effect is linked to current healthy eating guidelines suggesting lower intakes of unprocessed red meat could be beneficial for health.'

Executive dean of medicine for the University of Exeter, not involved in the study, said the study was an important first step, but was too small of a data set to over-interpret results on their own.

He told the Sunday Times: 'We should not assume from this research that one rasher of bacon a day increases your risk of dementia by 44% - it is simply not possible to demonstrate that in a study like this.'
The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Monday.
Click to expand...

Study away, I AIN'T eating bugs. I have been eating bacon. I shoulda been dead 20 years ago according to them.
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
I honestly don't know what I would eat if I didn't have eggs. I also don't know what I'd feed my chickens most of the time if I didn't have the bags from the feed store (who knows what is really in it). We have enough pecans (most years), but they ARE a PITA to smash up in flock sufficient quantities every morning. That concerns me.

Love bacon. Will get my own pigs when the move eventually happens. Pigs will eat almost anything - I don't much trust what goes into pig feed either.

Feed manufacturers use soy because it is cheap and easy, and gives them the protein content needed on the label.
 
Last edited:
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Until Southerners became wealthy enough to own enough land to raise cattle, pork was king down here. According to most of these studies, most Southerners should be dead by now. Chicken and pork are still very cheap here, because so much of both are still farmed here. Besides chicken, pork is my favorite meat. Bugs, not so much! I'll let others have my share.
 
V

vestige

Deceased
SouthernBreeze said:
Until Southerners became wealthy enough to own enough land to raise cattle, pork was king down here. According to most of these studies, most Southerners should be dead by now. Chicken and pork are still very cheap here, because so much of both are still farmed here. Besides chicken, pork is my favorite meat. Bugs, not so much! I'll let others have my share.
Click to expand...
I agree.

Long ago in training I ate some bugs (tent caterpillars and ants) but damn if I will go out of my way to eat them because some idiots think beef farts are changing the weather.
 
Freeholder

Freeholder

This too shall pass.
Melodi said:
Not to mention what Nightwolf said the other day - "if you take the meat and dairy products out of the diets of most people, especially growing children, it is likely that they will grow up weaker, smaller, and easier to control."
Click to expand...

I agree. This is a connection I made as a young child, learning about places like India where the Hindu religion forbids the eating of (most?) meat. You can't tell me that these supposedly well-educated adults don't know about the connection, too. This is being done on purpose to make the lower classes easier to control.

Kathleen
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Maybe I should have given this article its own thread, the "bug-eating" part is only a piece of the picture, it is just I've seen this "triad" of attempted social engineering, especially in the UK so often I can "smell" it coming.

However, being personally allergic to shellfish and therefore bugs, I do worry about the "quiet plans" just to "enrich" flour with ground bugs and the like, especially in the UK.

Also, I heard on a news broadcast about two weeks ago that in the UK the NHS was seeing an increasing number of people in the ER with severe (potentially fatal) allergic reactions after drinking ground coffee.

It seems the world's coffee shortage is such that third-world countries either can't afford or are not bothering to get rid of the cockroaches that can get into the coffee sacks and instead just grind it all up together.

There is enough "cockroach" in some ground coffee to give people like me anaphylactic reactions! Guess what just went off of our "prep" storage list; we prefer beans anyway but no more ground coffee as a backup.
 
China Connection

China Connection

TB Fanatic
Let's see!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here in Australia we have a huge part time section of the workforce.

Then your average full time wage for those on a basic income is about $600 a week after tax.
House rents start around $350 with your average sitting between $400 to $500 a week.

Then there is car costs along with petrol. If you can get out of it under $150 a week your doing well. You sure don't have a new car but....

Now your steaks and lamb range in price from $30 to $50 a kg here in Australia. Most of your trays of steak are sold in 300 gram lots.

Sure you have your cheap meat like chicken.

So tell me what you will be prepared to eat as buying power and wages as far as buying power goes down???????????

Now say I have got two kg of dry mixed grains from the produce store. Sprout the seed for 24 hours then put it through a meat grinder and fed maggots with it. I could have a kg of clean maggots wet weight in a few days. Cost $2 a kg and as good as eggs in protein content.
 
Ractivist

Ractivist

Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
It’s all moving toward soylent green.......would you know....muslims from china. Eww...
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
I knew this was coming, so we now have real food shortages in the UK caused by a combination of BREXIT, supply chain issues, and limited trucking and right on cue, we are back to "Let Them Eat Bugs" this time with CANDY! (yuck)
www.bbc.com

The edible insects coming to a supermarket near you

A number of firms are now farming locusts and mealworms for human consumption.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
The edible insects coming to a supermarket near you
By Natalie Lisbona
Business reporter, Tel Aviv

Published2 days ago
Share
Related Topics
Locusts at Israeli firm Hargol
IMAGE SOURCE,HARGOL
image captionHargol farms its grass-fed locusts in northern Israel
It has long been suggested that we should start eating insects to help the environment, but for many of us it is not a palatable thought. One Israeli firm is hoping to win over the squeamish by adding different flavourings.
Dror Tamir opens a packet of brown, jellied sweets. "Try one," says the boss of food tech firm Hargol.

The little gummies are packed with protein, but not from soy or gelatine. They are instead made from an edible, jumping insect - locusts, which are a type of grasshopper.

"Grasshoppers taste like pecans, mushrooms, coffee and chocolate," adds Mr Tamir. "But with our range of food we can add in different flavours… the gummies come in orange and strawberry flavour."
Dror Tamir
IMAGE SOURCE,HARGOL
image captionDror Tamir has had a passion for grasshoppers since his childhood

The Israeli entrepreneur says he became fascinated with grasshoppers as a child, after hearing stories from his grandmother, who was the cook on a kibbutz, or collective farm.

"I learned about the 1950s, when Israel suffered from both food insecurity as well as locust swarms flying in from Africa and destroying the crops," he says.

"While most kibbutz members ran to the fields to scare the grasshoppers away, the Yemenite and Moroccan Jewish members collected tons of them to eat.
A Hargol sweet
IMAGE SOURCE,HARGOL
image captionHargol's sweets don't taste of grasshoppers
"That's when I learned that grasshoppers are food for billions around the globe."

The insects have long been eaten by communities across Africa, Asia, Central America and the Middle East, but for many people in Europe and North America it remains an unwelcome thought.

Mr Tamir hopes to change all that, and his firm is about to introduce a range of products. In addition to the sweets there will be energy bars, burgers and falafel balls.

If you are still not convinced that insects will ever become part of the Western diet, some experts believe there may be eventually no choice due to environmental concerns and projected global population growth.

By 2050 the world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion, up from the current 7.7 billion.

A locust at Hargol's facility
IMAGE SOURCE,HARGOL
image captionWould you be tempted to try eating locusts?

With another two billion people to feed, some say that traditional farming will not be able to keep pace. And that, at the same time, switching to insect protein will be far better for the environment than rearing cows, sheep and other mammals.

"Protein is essential in our diets," says Prof Robin May, chief scientific advisor to the UK's Food Standards Agency. "But often some of our most protein-rich foods come with significant environmental or ethical footprints - meat or dairy products, for instance.

"Some insect proteins, such as ground crickets or freeze-dried mealworms, are cheap, easy to farm, low fat and have a lower environmental impact than meat.

"And sometimes they may even provide a valuable 'recycling' service, by consuming waste products as their primary feedstuff, so the potential advantages to society are significant."
Mealworms
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
image captionIn addition to grasshoppers, food products containing mealworms can now also be purchased in the UK and EU
Yet Prof May also cautions that some questions remain regarding the eating of farmed insects.

"The way that insects are farmed and the relatively short time in which they have been used as agricultural animals means that we know far less about insect-derived foods than we do for, say, beef," he says.

A key question at this stage, he adds, is whether some insect proteins may prove to be allergenic or to have significant impact on the human microbiome - the bacteria and other microbes that live inside our bodies.
Mr Tamir is convinced that the environmental and health benefits are enough of a reason to make insects part of the diet.
Fried locusts on a plate in China
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
image captionInsects are already eaten in many countries around the world
His firm farms its locusts at an indoor, solar-powered facility in northern Israel. The main species that it breeds is the migratory locust, but it also farms the desert locust, and a bush cricket called nsenene.

"We can breed 400 million locusts a year in our facilities," says Mr Tamir, who adds that the insect takes just 29 days to become fully grown.

He claims that compared with beef production, locust farming reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 99%, water consumption by 1,000 times and arable land usage 1,500-fold.

Mr Tamir is also keen to point out that locusts are both kosher and halal, meaning that they can be eaten by both dietary observant Jews and Muslims.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
My concern is not about people who want to eat locusts as people have done for thousands of years, it is sneaking it into foods including candy as a "meat" replacement.

Since I am probably deadly allergic to the things, it is extremely scary, especially if it like those packages of "beef" I reported on another thread that was in the meat section, looked just like regular ground beef, but were in fact 40 percent either cooked lentils or white beans (two different packages).

Again, bean-burgers are fine for those who want to make or eat them, but deceptively packaging them exactly like regular meat so you have to really read the label hints at a meat shortage and/or prices too high for lower-income people to even buy burger meat.
 
Seeker22

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The hypocrisy of those insisting you eat bugs whilst they dine on Steak and Lobster is enough for me to never consider bugs as a food source.

I am buying flour and meal, adding an O2 absorber and a moisture absorber pack and sealing in Quart Mylars for the long haul. May be better ways to keep the kitchen weevils out, but I am not eating bug flour.

The intentional mislabeling of products is concerning.
 
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