With the food industry scaling new heights everyday, cooking shows that excite and challenge and the reality of food shortage in the world, is it any wonder that man is turning to the humble insect to fulfil his hunger? No longer the object of shrieks and merciless swatting, the formerly reviled bug is in a starring role in leading Asia’s new food revolution.
It definitely isn’t for the faint-hearted. After all, most of us tend to swat a bug when we see it. We don’t usually pick one up, dip it in a sauce and eat it. Or don't we?
If you fancy some banana cricket bread, you’re in luck. Asia’s food revolution has rediscovered the usefulness of bugs. Our common garden insects, if you can imagine them on a fine porcelain plate. Packed with protein, available in abundance every place you go, there is a method to this madness for suggesting that we switch from beef to bugs for our daily dose of protein.
There will be 9 billion people to feed by the year 2050. How on earth are we going to produce so much food with such shortage of resources, namely water, and also rising inclement weather that wipes out crops on an annual basis in Asia, discouraging generations of farmers to come?
Entomophagy or in other words, eating insects is hardly a novel phenomenon. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) informs us that in about 80% of the world’s countries, people do actually consume about 1,900 different kinds of bugs. Bees and ants are commonly consumed across China and Japan. To meet the rising food requirement and nutrition components, scientists believe that insects provide perfect amounts of protein at less than one-fourth the cost it takes to raise a cow for a plate of steak.
Entomophagy or in other words, eating insects is hardly a novel phenomenon. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) informs us that in about 80% of the world’s countries, people do actually consume about 1,900 different kinds of bugs.
Eco-friendly, rich in protein, minerals, fatty acids and vitamins, from Vietnam to South America, bugs have formed part of the diet for a long time. Even as recently as 20 years, they came back in style and onto the plates of discerning and concerned citizens. The FAO throws up another reason to convince the squeamish public who have an unjust anti-bug phobia. Insect farms require very little arable land. Crickets need 12 times less feed than cattle, 4 times less feed than sheep and half as much feed as chickens, to produce the same amount of protein as these larger animals. So apart from the obvious land constraint, there’s cost to consider, as it is becoming increasingly expensive to feed the starving, displaced millions, especially in light of certain recent political unrest in parts of Asia and the Middle East, regions that are typically overpopulated. Also, feeding livestock with insect larvae is more eco-friendly than feeding them soybean meal which is commonly used as feed.
Thailand leads the world in insect production as a food source. At about 7500 tons each year, it is still no comparison to its chicken production which stands at 1.6 million tons per annum. The numbers favour the insects. One kilogram of edible crickets need only two kilograms of feed. Compare this to ten kilograms of feed for one kilogram of beef and it is abundantly clear that the impact of edible bugs is not a bugging thought for many farmers. Across the country there are about 20,000 insect farming enterprises with crickets, palm weevil, bamboo caterpillars and grasshoppers breeding on them.
China is another country welcoming insect farming which is still in its nascent stage. Many fly farm owners believe that this is the wave of the future and have started investing on a serious scale in this new agribusiness. If China’s insect industry helps to feed the world, it’s very likely that many Asian countries will follow suit in this pathbreaking alternative to traditional and expensive sources of protein.
With food shortages hitting the world everywhere, from Asia to the Americas, it is no wonder that scientists are engaged in leading the food revolution and providing viable, if at present unpalatable, solutions. Whether near or far in commercial reality, it is hard to ignore the gain that is to be had from a bug buffet.