Could insects become dinner?

Any of these dishes take your fancy? Well, start drooling, because these culinary insect delights could well be on your dinner plates in the future, according to Professor Arnold van Huis, speaking out from ENTO ’10 last week.

 

If you think about it, there is sense to this crazy notion. In a world of environmental instability and global climate issues, a lot of people are trying to cut down on their carbon emissions. Eating meat is one thing that’s contributing heavily to climate change. Raising livestock has a massive negative impact on the environment, by using up large amounts of carbon. A recent report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) urgently called for more vegan diets and less meat in our diets. Bad news for all meat lovers out there then. So why not give Professor Arnold van Huis’s suggestion of turning to insects a go?

 

Insects are abundant and make up 80 per cent of the Earth’s living population, so why not? Raising them is super easy and they have an extremely low impact on the environment. They could be the new eco-friendly, sustainable superfood, a more carbon-friendly alternative to eating meat. We could be saving the planet, one insect at a time.

 

Professor van Huis shared his insect culinary ideas at the Royal Entomological Society’s ENTO ’10 conference in Swansea. He said that most people would find the whole insect eating revolution a little hard to stomach. But eating insects is perfectly normal in other parts of the world and more than anything, it can be seen as a new exciting culinary experience…