Curiosity
Eating insects could help fight obesity, and world hunger: report
Eating insects could help fight obesity, and world hunger: report
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has called for greater use of insects as food for humans and farm animals in a bid to reduce world hunger.
With more than two billion people around the world already supplementing their diet with insects the UN group claim higher insect use as food could reduce hunger and lower pollution associated with livestock farming.
Insects have a high nutritional value with high levels of protein, fat and minerals; some insects also have the ability to use less food to produce high levels of protein than traditional livestock.
“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,” according to the report.
Switching to insect use as a source of protein could provide a cheap option in the fight to halt hunger in children and adults around the world; in many western countries the main barrier against insect use as food is the feeling of disgust many consumers feel when eating insects is mentioned.
The authors of the study by the Forestry Department, part of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said many insects contained the same amount of protein and minerals as meat and more healthy fats doctors recommend in balanced diets.
“In the West we have a cultural bias, and think that because insects come from developing countries, they cannot be good,” said scientist Arnold van Huis from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, one of the authors of the report.
Around the world insects are seen as a delicacy in some countries, such as many southern African countries where caterpillar is a luxury food.
Alongside the fight against hunger farming insects for consumption is thought to reduce the amount of pollution associated with livestock farming by producing a significantly lower level of ammonia released into the atmosphere.
More than 1,900 species of insects are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia.
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UN urges people to eat insects to fight world hunger
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22508439