Bug fries, Scorpion Sandwich, Worm Pastas…What do you like to eat???

             Angelina Jolie cooked up another storm while promoting her latest film ‘First they killed my Father’ in Cambodia by eating bugs with her kids. The actress has had a spider which she said had a ‘really good flavor’. In the video made by BBC, she was seen cooking insects with her cast members, kids and Channel reporter Yaida Hakim.

          Like their mother, Jolie’s kids too love eating bugs. They said that the bugs taste like dry, flavorless chips for them. Earlier in 2011, she made headlines by saying that her boys love fried crickets. For them, they taste like fried potato chips. But don’t think that she is so cool about it. She is worried of her kids eating too much of these fried insects. Actually she is afraid that they would get sick from eating too many of them.

    But should we all eat insects like Angelina Jolie?  The answer is a big yes. Each year around 70 Million  people are   

added to the world’s population. If growth continues at this rate, by 2050 the population is expected to reach a whopping 9 billion. To feed all these hungry mouths we will need to produce almost twice as much as we currently do. As the population grows there has been a real push to look at sources of food –particularly protein –other than your traditional meat and fish.

       Eating insects is said to be one way of meeting this challenge because they are environmentally sustainable, nutritious and can be harvested relatively cheaply and easily in the right conditions.

       The practice of consuming insects is called Entomophagy.  It is a common practice that has been taking place for tens of thousands of years. Around 2 billion people regularly eat insects as part of their diet, and over 1,900 species are edible. The most common eaten bugs are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps and ants.

      A report released by the U N Food and Agriculture Organization has produced an in depth report about edible insects. In 2013 the organization produced and published an exhaustive study on the subject of Entomophagy: “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security”. It says that Domesticating and rearing insects can help sustain insect populations while also helping counter nutritional insecurity and improve livelihoods. The production of greenhouse gases by insect farming would likely be lower than that of livestock. For example Pigs produce 10-100 times more greenhouse gases per kilogram than mealworms.

      Insects also feed on bio waste, use significantly less water than livestock, and can be farmed more easily. Insect farming could also offer important livelihoods to people in rural areas as minimal technical or capital expenditure is required for basic harvesting and rearing equipment.

       Currently 2 billion people eat insects around the world primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America where the practice has a thousand year precedent. Research carried out at the National Autonomous University of Mexico found that 1,700 species are eaten in at least 113 countries across the world, usually as a substitute for meat. 

       The report suggest us eat insects in order to live healthy. Because the bugs are rich in protein and some minerals and are lower in cholesterol than beef or pork. Grasshoppers have 20 grams of protein and just 6gm fat per 100gm while fire ants have 13.9 grams of protein and 3.5gm of fat. Crickets are sources of iron, calcium and zinc. House crickets contain 205gm/kg protein. Insects are also rich in essential amino acids and omega fatty acids mealworms contain as much unsaturated omega fatty acids as fish and even more than beef and pork some are also surprisingly high in iron locust contains up to 20 mg/100gm iron and mopane caterpillars contain a mighty 31mg/100gm whereas beef contains only around 6mg/gm. Eating insects also keep puts less strain on the environment because cultivating insects requires forest to be preserved rather than felled.

       Consumer disgust remains one of the largest barriers to the adoption of insects as viable sources of protein. A common misconception of insects as food is that they are only consumed in times of hunger. However in most instances where they are a staple in local diets, they are consumed because of their taste and not because there are no other food sources available. Another hurdle the industry faces is the cultural taboo against the idea of eating insects.

       As health food trend shifts and demands for eco-friendly food sources, we can’t tell for what we will be craving. Time will tell what we eat after a few years.                                                                                                                             - Sarika