Cricket Dreaming represents good fortune,
but Grasshopper Dreaming represents success.
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Grasshopper Amsterdam Cafe |
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A Two Dimensional Interlude |
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| Grasshopper Dreaming? |
" The thought of eating insects like maggots, beetles,
caterpillars and ants may give you the creeps, but a United Nations
report says they may be the food of the future.
More than 1,900
species of insects are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and
Asia, but people in the West generally turn up their noses at the often
crunchy fare.The authors of the study by the Forestry Department, part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), say Western consumers should open their minds.
They say insects are an environmentally friendly food source that could also help in the battle against obesity.
"Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint," the report said.
The report found the insects most commonly consumed by humans were beetles (31 per cent), caterpillars (18 per cent) and bees, wasps and ants (14 per cent), followed by grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (13 per cent).
It found that the bugs with most potential were larvae of the black soldier fly, the common housefly and the yellow mealworm.
"The main message is really, 'eat insects'," FAO forest economics director Eva Mueller told a press conference in Rome.
"Insects are abundant and they are a valuable source of protein and minerals.
"Two billion people - a third of the world's population - are already eating insects because they are delicious and nutritious."
She says restaurants in Europe are starting to offer insect-based dishes, presenting them to diners as exotic delicacies.
"Beetles, grasshoppers and other insects... are now showing up on the menus of some restaurants in some European capitals," she said, as she showed photo slides of crickets being used as decoration on top of high-end restaurant desserts.
But the authors of the report admit that "consumer disgust remains one of the largest barriers to the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein in many Western countries"."
UN report says insects could be food of the future
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| A toast to success!? |
Don't know if I could eat insects. But this is fascinating stuff here...Wait. If I eat a grasshopper, am I consuming success? :)
ReplyDelete@Trish
ReplyDeleteAccording to the lady on the news site link in the post,you already do,and vegetarians and vegans eat even more,because the insects are hiding in the food that they eat.
How ironic ?
Yea but if those insects are hiding in my veggie food I don't know it - so they don't count! Blimey, I've got to eat something :)
ReplyDeleteEating insects reminds me of that trashy television show "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" - don't know if there is an Aussie version - but so called celebs have to eat various horrible looking insects and animal body parts. The UK version is staged in Australia - you have the tastiest insects!
@ Mike
ReplyDeleteRe:
"Yea but if those insects are hiding in my veggie food I don't know it - so they don't count!"
Now you know.-)
P.S. If you go to the ABC News link there is a bowl of edible cockroaches in the film clip.I was wondering if they killed them using bug spray?-)