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“By 2050, the world will host 9 billion people. To accommodate this number, current food production will need to almost double. Land is scarce, and expanding the area devoted to farming is rarely a viable or sustainable option. Oceans are overfished, and climate change and related water shortages could have profound implications for food production. To meet the food and nutrition challenges of today – there are nearly one billion chronically hungry people worldwide – and tomorrow, what we eat and how we produce it needs to be re-evaluated. We need to find new ways of growing food,” the report’s authors urge.
Human Nutrition
Contending that insects are highly nutritious and are a healthy source of food, the report notes that they possess high fat, protein, vitamin, fibre and mineral content.
The nutritional content of insects can rival that of conventional food sources, such as mammals, meat and fish, the report states.
“For example, the composition of unsaturated omega-3 and six fatty acids in mealworms is comparable with that in fish (and higher than in cattle and pigs),” the report highlights, adding: “The protein, vitamin and mineral content of mealworms is similar to that in fish and meat.”
The FAO report notes that the nutritional value of edible insects is highly variable because of the wide range of edible insect species – more than 1900 species of insects have been scientifically documented as edible. It adds that even within the same group of species, nutritional value may differ, depending on the metamorphic stage of the insect, its habitat and its diet.
The report posits that the nutritional importance of insects is magnified for the disadvantaged segments of society, and for people trapped in areas afflicted by social conflict and natural disasters, among whom protein and other nutritional deficiencies are typically widespread.
“Because of their nutritional composition, accessibility, simple rearing techniques and quick growth rates, insects can offer a cheap and efficient opportunity to counter nutritional insecurity, by providing emergency food and by improving livelihoods and the quality of traditional diets among vulnerable people,” the report informs.
Economic Benefits
In addition to satisfying nutritional requirements, the report advises, insect gathering and rearing as mini-livestock, whether at the household level or on an industrial scale, can serve as an important means of earning a livelihood.
“In developing countries, some of the poorest members of society, such as women and landless dwellers in urban and rural areas, can easily become involved in the gathering, cultivation, processing and sale of insects,” the report suggests, adding: “These activities provide cash income through the selling of excess production as street foods.”
Enunciating the economic feasibility of insect-rearing endeavours, the FAO report notes that insects can be directly and easily collected from nature, or farmed with minimal technical or capital expenditure on basic harvesting and rearing equipment.
It adds that rearing insects may also require minimal land or market introduction efforts, as insects already form part of some local food cultures.
For example, the report notes, “In developing countries in Southern and Central Africa and Southeast Asia, where demand for edible insects exists, and where it is relatively easy to bring insects to market, the process of insect gathering, rearing and processing into street foods, or for sale as chicken and fish feed is easily within reach of small-scale enterprises.”
Though small, international trade in insects for food to developed countries does exist, the report points out, adding that it is driven by demand from immigrant communities and the development of niche markets that sell exotic foods.
“Border trade in edible insects is significant, mainly in Southeast Asia and Central Africa,” the report states.
Culture
The act of entomophagy is “heavily influenced by cultural and religious practices”, the report observes. It acknowledges that while insects produce such items for human use as honey and silk — and are even used in medical applications, such as maggot therapy, “people [in Western societies] view entomophagy with disgust, and associate eating insects with primitive behaviour.”
“This attitude has resulted in the neglect of insects in agricultural research, [leaving] farming insects for food and feed largely [sic] absent from the great agricultural innovations in livestock farming that emerged in past centuries,” the report laments.
The report notes, though, that eating insects is already practised regularly by two billion people worldwide. Despite Western aversion to the notion, insects are eaten in many parts of the world, as far away as Australia and Africa, where tribes eat beetle larvae; and in Thailand, where crispy-fried locusts are a popular delicacy.
“Contrary to popular belief, insects are not merely ‘famine foods’ eaten in times of food scarcity or when purchasing and harvesting ‘conventional foods’ becomes difficult,” the report asserts, adding: “Many people around the world eat insects out of choice, largely because of the palatability of the insects and their established place in local food cultures.”
