United Nations urging people to eat insects "to fight world hunger"

[Durandro]

World Hunger has nothing to do with what the West is or isn't eating. Its what the rest of the world isn't eating due to the following factors:

1/ War. Growing crops when fighting is going on nearby isn't exactly viable.

2/ Drought. Lack of infrastructure (dams, reserviors, piping, etc) means if there's no rain for a while, your drops and herds die.

3/ Location. You can't farm from sand or rocks, nor raise much in the way of herds.

4/ Cash crops. This is a probably caused by the West - many farmers in poorer countries grow food purely to export, or grow things like tabbaco, coffee, etc. So they get a little (and I mean a little) money, but not enough food to feed everyone else.

5/ Wealth disparity. Some countries seem to be well off and full of bounty. But only because the rich are filthy rich and the poor are in miserible poverty. Doesn't matter how full the shelves in the markets are if you can't afford what's being sold.

6/ Commercialisation. Another Western and Middle Eastern caused problem. Specifically there are countries in eastern Africa that relied on fishing for their economy. They got pushed out of their own waters by bigger foreign fishing fleets. Its part of the reason why there are Somalian Pirates as well - they are mostly former fishermen who could no longer follow an honest trade.

Would eating bugs solve any of those problems? Nope. There is no food shortage globally, its localised to certain areas with huge surpluses being wasted elsewhere.

[aztr0]

Never say never. If your only source of food was insects, you'd be eating it. Until that is the case, I won't be though lol.

[Elegiac]

Never say never. If your only source of food was insects, you'd be eating it. Until that is the case, I won't be though lol.

It may be trite, but if my auntie had a cock and balls she'd be my uncle.

[Deleted]

I hate eating arthropods and mollusks (bugs and shellfish).
I also hate eating a fish's period (caviar).

[Merite]

Some food companies are saying we're like 80% of the way to a non-meat substitute created in a lab (that shouldn't be distinguishable to carnivores). They currently grow meat in a lab. They're selling a lot of genetically modified food.. Anything you get from a fast food restaurant might as well not be meat (or seafood), hell most cheese is less than 50% cheese. Food in our country is stupid. Most food labels are just lies, like 33% of all seafood you buy isn't what the label says much less completely unsustainable. Organic doesn't mean much in a lot of cases. All of the USDA beef type things are just marketing ploys as well.

Our current food system is just a marketing scheme and completely full of lies.


I'm sure if I was given some options, I could find insects that I very much like; I would far prefer something natural to my above examples.. I probably would dislike cooking with them, depending on the level of preparedness, but I cook live lobster / crab without issue.

[Ron Burgundy]

wtf crab is considered an insect?

[LocNess]

I am an extremely picky eater. I mean I could choke one down, but I would not go out of my way to start buying my weekly bag of grasshoppers. No thank you. Plus as an American, I have to fight years of culture saying "We don't eat insects because they are disgusting."

[muto]

I'm going to assume you mostly mean insects such as crickets, and grasshoppers? If so, no.

[inboundpaper]

With enough Tobasco and Beer I could probably eat anything short of a spider.

[Deleted]

Never say never. If your only source of food was insects, you'd be eating it. Until that is the case, I won't be though lol.

No, I'll never eat insects, spiders or similar creatures.

Beef, fish, chicken etc > vegetarian > cannabalism > suicide > insects.

[Deleted]

If it helps world hunger i'm all for other people to do so, me? no.

[Kaleredar]

No, I'll never eat insects, spiders or similar creatures.

Beef, fish, chicken etc > vegetarian > cannabalism > suicide > insects.

"Hunger can change everything you ever thought you knew about yourself"


Anyway... if I had to eat insects, I would. Like spiders, I never got people's phobias about things so small and harmless. I suppose some spiders are venomous, but things like grasshoppers, crickets, etc... they couldn't hurt you if they wanted to.

The prospect of farming insects would be interesting... Insects are easy enough to maintain, reproduce like crazy, you don't really need to give them water, and you can supply them with otherwise thoroughly inedible plant matter to eat. The only issues would be finding insects with a large enough protein return, and devising a method to contain them... they could either escape and wreak agricultural havoc, or be subject to easy predation by things like bats, lizards, mice, and such.

[Chirri]

With a full pantry and at home, no.

Out at an exotic foods event, possibly. More likely if they're seasoned. I've heard some standard insects have a "nutty" flavor, but I'm not a fan of nuts and I'm not willing to trust someone else's description (when they say some unusual meat tastes like chicken, they're LYING unless they don't have working tastebuds).

In the middle of nowhere with limited options, quite likely.

If they were available at a local market... I guess I'd just hope real hard that any stray legs or horns or antenna are removed or tucked in, because if I have a hard time getting it in my mouth I'm going to have second thoughts and not go through with it.

Dry and crunchy before any kind that might gush in my mouth. I think part of my aversion is that it's eating an ENTIRE CREATURE WHOLE. I don't even eat sardines.

[Deleted]

"Hunger can change everything you ever thought you knew about yourself"


Anyway... if I had to eat insects, I would. Like spiders, I never got people's phobias about things so small and harmless. I suppose some spiders are venomous, but things like grasshoppers, crickets, etc... they couldn't hurt you if they wanted to.

The prospect of farming insects would be interesting... Insects are easy enough to maintain, reproduce like crazy, you don't really need to give them water, and you can supply them with otherwise thoroughly inedible plant matter to eat. The only issues would be finding insects with a large enough protein return, and devising a method to contain them... they could either escape and wreak agricultural havoc, or be subject to easy predation by things like bats, lizards, mice, and such.

Which is why I included cannabalism in my list. But I doubt that I'll ever be in a such situation, where I'll actually consider it.

[Deleted]

and their appearance and their ability to sneak into my room at night and try to share the same bed 0o

Maybe they're interested in something from you? *wink* *wink*

[admeteora]

eating an insect might seem nasty, but nobody is asking you to eat it fresh from the ground lol. Everything you eat is quite nasty unprepared if you think about it, seafoods, fish, meat, all these are as nasty as insects unprepared imo. Im sure with the right preparation insects will taste perfectly delicious!

[Deleted]

Yeh... no. I'd rather be vegetarian.

[imabanana]

Anyway... if I had to eat insects, I would. Like spiders, I never got people's phobias about things so small and harmless. I suppose some spiders are venomous, but things like grasshoppers, crickets, etc... they couldn't hurt you if they wanted to.

I think what you're missing is that phobia has nothing to do with something being potentially harmful or not.

[ultimar235]

wtf crab is considered an insect?

Nah crab is a crustacean in the phylum Arthropod which also contains insects and arachnid.

Besides crabs have lungs whereas insects don't which is why they so small. Back when earth was different insects were bigger. Which begs the question what if we could create an environment like ancient times could we farm giant insects?

[Deleted]

I think what you're missing is that phobia has nothing to do with something being potentially harmful or not.

Maybe not in all cases, but in others it has everything to do with it. Do you know why fear of spiders is so common? It's because our ancient ancestors had to be careful of poisonous spiders in order to survive. We developed a fear for them in order to survive. Fear is often a sign of intelligence. Fear keeps you alive.

To a lesser extent I think fear of heights accomplished the same thing. It keeps people from getting into a dangerous situation.

Surely there are lots of phobias that aren't based on something being harmful, but are instead some psychological error or the brain messing up. But some phobias are perfectly explainable through evolution. If fear keeps you alive, then you are more likely to pass on your genes so more and more people have that same phobia.