"Bugs. It's What's For Dinner."
Posted on 02/24/2008 1:00:24 PM PST by LurkedLongEnough
CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists.
"I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.
Three dozen scientists from 15 countries gathered in this northern Thailand city, home to several dozen restaurants serving insects and other bugs. Some of their proposals were more down to earth than others.
A Japanese scientist proposed bug farms on spacecraft to feed astronauts, noting that it would be more practical than raising cows or pigs. Australian, Dutch and American researchers said more restaurants are serving the critters in their countries.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 1,400 species of insects and worms are eaten in almost 90 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Researchers at the conference detailed how crickets and silk worms are eaten in Thailand, grubs and grasshoppers in Africa and ants in South America.
"In certain places with certain cultures with a certain level of acceptance, then insects can very well be seen as part of the solution" to hunger, said Patrick Durst, a Bangkok-based senior forestry officer at the FAO.
The challenge, experts said, is organizing unregulated, small bug food operations in many countries so they can supplement the food that aid agencies provide. The infrastructure to raise, transport and market bugs is almost nonexistent in most countries.
Professor Arnold van Huis, a tropical entomologist known as "Mr. Edible Insect" in his native Netherlands, blamed a Western bias against eating insects for the failure of aid agencies to incorporate bugs into their mix.
"They are completely biased," van Huis said. "They really have to change. I would urge other donor organizations to take a different attitude toward this ... It's excellent food. It can be sustainable with precautions."
There are questions about the safety of eating bugs and potential dangers from over-harvesting them, said Durst, who became interested in the practice known scientifically as entomophagy during his years working in Bangkok, where crickets and bamboo worms are sold as food by street vendors.
Tina van den Briel, senior nutritionist at the World Food Program, the U.N. agency that provides food in emergencies, expressed doubt that insects can benefit large, vulnerable populations. Most bugs are seasonal and have a short shelf life, she said.
"They can be a very good complement to the diet," said van den Briel, not a conference participant. "But they do not lend themselves to programs like ours where you transport food over long distances and where you have to store food for a few months."
She suggested a more practical benefit might be adding insects to animal feed or crushing them into a meal powder that could be used to make cookies or cakes.
Meyer-Rochow said aid agencies might even find a way to harvest crop-destroying swarms of locusts and crickets.
"These mass outbreaks could be a valuable food source," he said. "If the technology is available, they could be ground up like a paste and added to the food humans eat."
According to this video all you have to do is catch one, rub his leg four times every five seconds for four hours and off he goes to socialize...
http://www.5min.com/Video/Why-do-locusts-swarm-11173
(””They are completely biased,” van Huis said. “They really have to change. I would urge other donor organizations to take a different attitude toward this ... It’s excellent food. It can be sustainable with precautions.” “)
Lead by example..?
Facinating!
Secret Tunnel Connects South Carolina To U.N.!
Reported November 23, 1997
Columbia, South Carolina USA
[I found this article in our local paper.]
A highly secret tunnel was found yesterday that connects the United Nations to a hitherto unknown UN sanctuary near Columbia, South Carolina.
The tunnel was discovered by a family that was enjoying a picnic lunch in the suburb town of Irmo. Irmo is four miles northwest of Columbia and has been suspected in the past of harboring U.N. fugitives. John Don Cooper and his family of nine stumbled across the camouflaged opening while foraging for branches to be used for their makeshift lean-to. Cooper said that his youngest son, Wayne Dwayne, crawled into the opening and started hollering for his daddy.
“I heard him yell, ‘Daddy! Daddy!’, Cooper said. “So I just followed his voice and the next thing you know, there we was inside this man-made cave! I never seen nothing like it, except at Disney World when we went there two years ago!”
The tunnel was located in the parking lot of the Irmo K-Mart. Police spokesman Ralph Hightower told reporters that the opening had never been found before because of the fact that “nobody ever goes to K-Mart anymore now that Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club have opened up”, Hightower said. “It don’t surprise me none ‘cause it’s been years since my family went to K-Mart.”
When the secret tunnel was found, Cooper immediately called 9-1-1 and the Irmo SWAT Team responded by storming K-Mart and the tunnel. The SWAT Team met little resistance and the battle lasted about four hours. Although the U.N. was forced out of Irmo, the tunnel branches out to many different, and still unknown, locations. The SWAT Team sealed the tunnel at the town limits of Irmo. Hightower said, “Well, the important thing is we got them out of our town. I don’t think they’ll be back ‘cause we kicked their butts real good.”
Officials at the U.N. refused to comment on the confrontation. They also denied knowledge of the tunnel.
Which will, of course, spawn a new cadre of activists: PETI.
I see the meat and fish budget will go bust then. Great effort. /sarc
"Bugs. It's What's For Dinner."
Let them eat grubs!
Eeeeewwwww!! That's just nasty. I don't even like to see bugs, so I'm sure not going to eat them.
hmm I’ve got a better idea: if feeding cow parts to other cows for the protein content is the vector for spreading the prion that causes BSE (mad cow), how about we feed them bug protein instead and all enjoy some nice steaks afterward..?
WHAT is that? Please don't tell me it's worms and that the person in the pic just ate them. LOL
Bangkok, where crickets and bamboo worms are sold as food by street vendors.....HMMM. Rats, yeah. But I’ve never seen this.
Reminds me of the plate of “spaghetti” I was served at a banquet in Spain. But each strand had two little black dots at the end, which I thought was rather peculiar. Turns out to have been a heaping pile of baby eels. I just couldn’t stomach the thought of shoveling those things into my mouth, but my colleagues loved them.
Which sounds tastier:
Soylent grub, Soylent worm, or Soylent maggot?
Banana slug on a bun!
Let them eat Big Macs.
I hate to agree with anything that the slugs at the UN think might be a good idea, but bugs are a good source of protein and having eaten a few myself, I don’t see where it would be a bad thing, especially if some way existed to make them into a paste or additive that was a shelf stable food source. I would probably try it at least once...couldn’t be any worse than vegemite.
Looks like Lo Mein to me and lo mein it shall stay no matter what the poster says.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.