Like It Or Not, Here’s Why We’ll All Be Eating Insects In The Future To Stay Alive
Eating insects in the future
As the population rises, depleting our current sustainable food sources seems less like just a doomsday fantasy. At this point, it’s all but inevitable. And eating insects instead of a juicy burger may seem like a Fear Factor challenge, not a reasonable diet. But experts claim diets rich in caterpillars and silkworms offer a healthy, sustainable alternative to current food habits. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN), insects “contain high quality protein, vitamins and amino acids for humans.” So put down the can of bug spray and pick up the frying pan. Because we’re all going to be eating insects in the future when our current food sources run dry.Population Growth
By the year 2050, experts project that the global population will expand to a staggering 9 billion people.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, this increase will result in a shortage of agricultural land, water, forest, fishery and biodiversity resources. With farmable land and livestock growing thin, humans will need to turn to other food sources for energy.
Practical Benefits
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The farming and harvesting of insects for food places much less of a drain on natural resources. Along with using less land, insects require less food to produce the same or even more product and also emit fewer dangerous greenhouse gases.
Incredibly, the global livestock industry “emits more greenhouse gases than planes, trains and automobiles COMBINED.”
Economic Stability
Agricultural and health benefits isn’t the only upside to farming and consuming insects. As more and more countries become entomophagous, the process of gathering/farming these creepy, crawly creatures will create new and unique employment opportunites in developing tropical countries that did not exist under the reign of the global livestock industry.
Common Practice
Surprisingly, insects are already consumed as a food source in 70 percent of countries worldwide. Shunned by Western culture, chomping down on winged creatures are often reserved for B-movie horror flicks.
“[Eating insects] still has that reputation,” said entomologist Arnold van Huis. “In the tropics they don’t talk about it, because they know that in the Western world people consider it primitive.”