Scientists promote insect eating

Monday Feb 25 15:04 AEDT

AP - Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, scientists say.

"I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist VB Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a UN-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 UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 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 organising small unregulated 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.

Prof 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 organisations 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 UN 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."

Uh, yum.... I think....

Although I must admit that I had some small fried chili grasshoppers a few years back that tasted just like shrimp... and crustaceans are only a cousinly distance away from spiders, scorpions, etc.....

ah great, just the topic i need.

can any of you tell me if possible what the Thai's add to grasshoppers when you buy them on the street. if i can make the same taste here, and now how to cook them Thai style, then maybe i can chip down to my local pet centre and buy some.

when i visited Hua Hin, i also eat flying ants with onion rings or something like that. again, is there anything added to the dish rather than deep frying the ants.

wouldn't mind, but in the grinded/crushed form - otherwise they are off putting for me

The way that we cook the grasshoppers in our moban is.Heat the oil in the wok, throw in the a hand full of keffer lime leaves, then the grasshoppers, fry until crispy, remove and let oil drain off, let cool, eat with beer Chang!!!!!

Oh well, germans love to smear lard on everything, americans like their pig rinds (fried pig skin), they have prairie oysters in canada (fried beef testicles), the english have their blood sausage, and the the odd european favours human flesh. If someone wants to eat bugs and such, who am I to judge? I'll just stick to my veggies thank you.

In my house my wife and family eat them, my nearly 4 year old son eats them and until it is compulsory I won't eat them. Never have and never will.

I am old enough now to say no to garden peas and brussel sprouts and bugs are also on my no way list. :D