4.22.2012


Read the interesting blog which will convince you to at least try to eat something new
Insects are usually related to nature and dirt. Hoe surprising to hear that the Dutch Queen-to-be was recently handed-over an insect cook book.

The number of people on earth keeps growing while there also is an expansion of people which could afford to live a Western lifestyle. This means more cars, more travel, more meat on the plates and thus more CO2 emissions.

Researchers concluded that we cannot continue eating as much meat as we do now. It is too energy consuming to grow cows, pigs, chicken and any other four legged animal. Growing animals is not very efficient way of making food for humans. The animals need liters of water and kilo’s of food each day. And the food has to grow somewhere and transported to another. The more energy, water and soil we need for the animals, the less we have for ourselves.

Since this problem is expected already some years specialists started to look for alternatives. Food which helps us to get the right nutrients but avoids all the energy use. If you don’t want to eat meat you already have the choice to eat tofu, beans and eggs or (if you live in Holland) a piece of ‘meat’ from the Vegetarian Butcher. But now there is something different available: insects.  

In some cultures insects are not an unusual aspect of dinner at all; 80% of the world eats them as a delicacy. In Mexico people love to eat ants, in Japan wasps are favorites on the menu. But Europeans don’t really seem to be attracted to eat these. To convince us of the possibilities, two academics and a chef made a book full of information and of course delicious recipes with the sustainable meat substitutes.

If this book can really make us to eat less meat it could mean a big change in the way agriculture is organized now. At this moment farmers mainly seem to look for more efficient kinds of growing plants and animals to be sure we can all eat what we want. This leads to an unhealthy way of producing food in which landscapes are dominated with monotonous crops and animals never see daylight. The bug industry could change this into more traditional landscapes filled with cows and pigs and grown with a diversity of crops.

If you - like I - have never tried consciously y eat an insect, then this might be a reason to at least try it. Go to a specialty shop which sells grasshoppers, mealworms or black fungus worm and just order some. Then find a recipe which guarantees a good taste. Do you like it?