Posted on 02/24/2008 6:09:54 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Researchers Say Bugs Could Ease Famine
By MICHAEL CASEY – 7 hours ago
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
Don’t know about you, but I’d serve pulled pork and baked beans.
Motorcycle riders have been eating bugs for years...... at leat the happy ones have.
I've walked into a few restaurants that serve insects and other bugs. Usually I walk right out again, figuring I'm not in their targeted clientele. Wonder how the bugs pay...
I’m glad dinner has long since settled.
Somehow, I don’t see this catching on in the United States. But who knows?
Banana slug on a bun!
economic freedom should be on the menu
Recommend sending locusts to Gaza.
Perhaps if they’d quit promoting food as a petroleum substitute, they wouldn’t need to sound so foolish in promoting bugs as food.
More elitist, population control nonsense from the usual suspects.
Was close to catchin’ that thing for breakfast.
I think ethanol is mostly a boondoggle but happen to think eating bugs makes good sense. If it’s nutritious and healthy and will feed the poor then why not?
Always pick the lesser of the two weevils...
Is PETA protesting at the UN yet!...Someone call ‘em....qiuck!!!
They are Kosher, but are they halal?
An important food source is one you can actually keep down after eating it.
Thailand? Aren’t giant Water Beetles a delicacy there - the Southeast Asian version of crawdads?
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.