The idea of eating bugs has, once again, found its way back into the news. NPR recently released a piece that suggested the pushback against eating bugs is founded on a baseless conspiracy theory that elites want the population to consume bugs. However, the evidence seems to suggest that elites do, in fact, want the population to consume the likes of grasshoppers and fly larvae.

“Including insects in human food has been an emerging,” NPR wrote, “but still marginal, idea among climate scientists and food security experts. In countries where insects have not been a part of the diet, it’s an idea that has long been met with hesitancy and occasional ridicule.

“In recent years, however,” they considered, “this aversion has fused with an amorphous and shapeshifting conspiracy theory in which a shadowy global elite conspires to control the world’s population. For those who espouse the theory, eating bugs isn’t just a matter of disgust, or questioning the impacts of climate change. It’s framed as a matter of individual freedom and government control.”

Though bug-eating is not a new development, world leaders have certainly encouraged the notion that those in the West ought to consider consuming bugs. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that there would be food shortages in early 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Eat the Bugs: EU has No Plan to Clearly Label Food Containing Insects, Official ConfirmsApril 7, 2023In “Warning”

Utah Teacher Has Kids Eat Bugs Because Cows Are Destroying the EnvironmentMarch 17, 2023In “Warning”

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If we want to save the planet, the future of food is insects

Fried crickets on the school menu, milk made from fly larvaeand mealworm bolognese for dinner? These are the environmentally friendly meals we can look forward to. Bon appetit!

Sat 8 May 2021; by Richard Godwin

My first attempts at feeding insects to friends and family did not go down well. “What the hell is wrong with you?” asked my wife when I revealed that the tomato and oregano-flavoured cracker bites we had been munching with our G&Ts were made from crickets. “Hang on, I’m vegetarian!” cried our friend – which prompted a slightly testy discussion on whether insects count as meat, how many thousand arthropods equate to one mammal and considering almost all industrial agriculture involves the mass slaughter of insects, what’s the difference?

I then tried some Crunchy Critters dried mealworms on my seven-year-old. “It doesn’t taste of much,” he said. His friend wasn’t wild about his grasshoppers either. “The legs are weird.” But connoisseurs insist that dried specimens from a packet simply cannot compare to free-range, seasonal arthropods roasted in their own oils. “The fresh ones are much tastier, of course,” says Dr Monica Ayieko, senior insect researcher from the western region of Kenya – and one of an estimated two billion people who regularly eat insects. “I love the smell of roasting lake flies or crickets. It’s a nice savoury smell. This is one thing we pride ourselves on in Africa – we always eat fresh food.”

The only unqualified success I had was with my nine-month-old, who seemed almost as keen on desiccated buffalo worms as he is on, well, just about anything he can shove into his mouth. And that’s just as well. If the evangelists for eating insects are to be believed, orthoptera, larvae and any number of the 900+ edible species of insects could form a regular part of his future diet. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has urged that we all make more of this “underutilised” resource. And given the issues of food supply sustainability, it may not be a question of choice.

It ought to be obvious to anyone with an appetite that the way we eat is not sustainable – and that something fundamental will have to shift if we do not want to end up with half the world obese and the other half under water. “Civilisation is in crisis,” was the verdict of theEAT-Lancet international commission into the global food chain in 2019, which contained a dire warning of 200,000 years of human history culminating in ecological disaster. Modern industrial agriculture, extractive capitalism, the profit motive, governments cowering before Big Food and our own greedy western appetitesall must take a share of the blame.  (you know they got to get that dig in,  got to reinforce the idea that everything that is wrong with the world should be laid at the feet of the whitefolk.)

It is in this context that “future food” – food that promises to be good for you and animals and the environment – has taken on the buzz that was once associated with Silicon Valley start-ups. (No surprise, since it is being shoved down our throat in the same way, by the same people.)  Younger consumers are increasingly anxious to make ethical, sustainable choices (due to all the indoctrination they have received in the education system, how could they think otherwise?)– and tech industry venture capitalists are increasingly keen to invest in them, too (as I said, the same money folks are behind it.  They will make a killing, while they are killing us.). The Californian “alternative meat” company Beyond Meat,valued at around $9bn, has now launched its products in 445 British supermarkets and its rival, Impossible Foods, is expected to follow soon. Cell-grown meat isn’t far off: in December, the Singapore Food Agency approved the world’s first fully synthetic chicken nugget. Still, recent history suggests that tech investor-backed American processed food companiesvying to dominate the protein market isn’t likely to lead to utopia.

Insect protein is not as “sexy” as the alternative meat companies, admits Leah Bessa of the South African start-up Gourmet Grubb, but she feels anyone interested in food security should be looking for multiple solutions. “I don’t think we should be expecting any one food to solve things,” she says. “The problem with our agriculture system is that we don’t have enough diversity to cater for different climates and landscapes. What’s great about insects is that you can farm them anywhere, in any environment. They don’t destroy land, you can grow them on by-products of the food industry and they’re full of nutrients.” But, she cautions: “It has taken the plant-based food movement decades to get to where it is now,” she says. “If insects can do the same, it will be a big win.”

First of all, sexy is not a term most people would apply to food.  Do you folks ever think of anything but sex?  FOOD is a matter of life and death.  Not only physically but spiritually.  Natural food which people have been eating since the world began, meat, vegetables, grains, nuts and fruits, provide the nourishment that our bodies required because they get them from the sun, earth and water.  God created this world to work perfectly and abundantly.  There is no lack with GOD, he created everything and HE is the one who provides for us.  We must eat what GOD said we should eat.  To do otherwise will not only bring about our physical death, it will bring about our SPIRITUAL DEATH which is forever!!

Currently, most of the investmentis heading towards insects-as-feed for other animals. Mars Petcare recently announced a new insect-based cat food range, Lovebug, and insects show great potential as feed in aquaculture and for livestock. The French firm Ÿnsect recently raised $225m to open the world’s largest insect farm in Amiens that will soon be producing 100,000 tonnes of protein per year. The British company, Entocycle, has, meanwhile, received a £10m government grantto build a black soldier fly larvae farm outside London. As a sustainable business model, it sounds almost too good to be true. Insects not only make a far more efficient feed – they can also be fed on waste and their “frass” (excrement) can be used as fertiliser. Currently, around 33% of cropland worldwide is used to feed livestock.

They say that the bugs whether for human or animal consumption can be fed on waste products (plant, animal and human) and that their waste products and excrement can be use for fertilizer.  So if you partake, you are not only eating the abominable insects, but you are eating excrement in multiple ways from multiple sources. While you are NOT getting the benefit of the sun, earth and water that God provides through HIS circle of life/photosythesis process.

Production line: mealworms are checked before being turned into protein powder. Photograph: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images

Dr Sarah Beynon, an entomologist who runs the Bug Farm, a working insect farm and visitor attraction in Pembrokeshire, believes we will have to get used to a different idea of farming: hi-tech, robot-operated vertical facilities devoted to maximising protein yield. As inhumane as that sounds, from the insect’s point of view, she stresses, it’s a good deal. “With insects, we can farm them intensively without compromising their welfare. They’re actually happier when they’re close to many other insects of the same species.” Insect lifecycles are also highly conducive to factory farming: at certain stages of their lives they produce heat and at other stages they need heat, so an indoor farm can be more efficient than an outdoor farm in a warmer climate.

Still, Beynon worries that using insects for livestock feed could end up serving to prop up a dysfunctional and wasteful food system. “It’s an important stepping stone, especially where it comes to replacing unsustainable fishmeal – but it’s not actually attacking the problem itself,” she says. The problem being our insane overconsumption of meat. “It’s slightly crazy to me to feed the by-products of plant-based farming to insects which are then fed into an animal-based farming system. The more extra steps you have in the food chain, the more energy and food you’re wasting. It’s always more efficient and sustainable to take a step out.”

In other words: if we don’t want to take the drastic step of simply eating more vegetables… we should probably get used to eating insects ourselves.

While western consumers are not ready for whole insects, Bessa believes they aren’t necessarily averse to innovations, such as her Entomilk, which is made from black soldier fly larvae(“BSFL” in industry parlance) which are rich in fats and minerals, including calcium. “People are starting to become more aware of what food does, not only to their bodies but to the environment – and they travel a lot now, their minds are much more open. They’re more willing to try what they might have considered gross before.”  (I am beginning to see that this is why GOD separated the RACES!!)

The edible insects market will grow to $6.3bn by 2030 according to a report by Barclays. Research by Sainsbury’s found 42% of British consumers are willing to try insects.

But it’s one thing persuading someone to try a novel insect product – and another making it part of their weekly shop. This is the challenge that Francesco Majno, the Italian entrepreneur behind the Small Giants cricket snacks that I attempted to foist on my house guests, is trying to meet. It’s not so surprising to find the insect start-up space littered with the husks of companies that barely emerged from pupal stage.
(NOT SURPRISING AT ALL SINCE MOST PEOPLE IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS ARE NOT INTERESTED IN EATING BUGS or ARTIFICIAL FOOD)

We shouldn’t hide the fact that they’re insects’: Dr Sarah Beynon’s bug farm in Wales. Photograph: David Curtis/Alamy

The first company to penetrate a British supermarket was Eat Grub, whose whole insects appeared in Sainsbury’s in 2018 – only to be quietly removed from shelves this year (though they are still available online). Majno believes that offering insects in “familiar” products such as crackers and tortilla chips is a surer route to acceptance: “I can say that we have a completely different approach compared to Eat Grub or other similar insect brands such as Crunchy Critters,”he says. “We believe that the only way to tackle the yuck factor is by giving insects a familiar form that can help anyone to try them the first time and to understand how tasty and nutritious they are.

”It’s not hard to convey that at a market stall, where Majno can go into salesman mode. Did you know crickets emit less than 0.1% of the greenhouse emissions of cows to produce the same amount of protein? They require vastly less water, too: it takes 112 litres of water to produce a single gram of beef but less than 23 litres for a gram of insect protein. (Insects also comfortably beat chickpeas in this regard.) But it’s hard to get all that across in the snack aisle of Sainsbury’s – where Small Giants now competes with Cool Original Doritos and Really Cheesy Giant Wotsits, foods with long histories, large marketing budgets and lower price points. Majno is encouraged by the number of repeat customers and the fact that he recently won a Great Taste Award. But in truth, I couldn’t really have distinguished the Small Giants snacks from cheaper rye crackers. And once you get over the oddness of biting into insects and insect products, you realise a more pressing problem: they’re actually quite bland.

There are further obstacles, too. Numerous species of insects are moving towards regulatory approval in the EU, but, post-Brexit, it is unclear whether Britain will adopt these European standards or start all over again, which would set British insect-farming back years. And while there is increased demand, seasonal insects are subject to numerous restrictions. Eduardo Gomez, who runs the Mexican food specialist MexGrocer, says he is prevented from importing Mexican delicacies such as escamoles (ant larvae and pupae), since meat and cheese products from Mexico are banned in Europe. “High-end restaurantshave been asking me for years – please can you bring insects in? The future is in insects. Eventually, people will realise this. It’s the best we can do right now if we want to save the planet.”

Glass sealing: insect flour, oil and fertiliser all made at Ÿnsect’s lab. Photograph: Reuters

For the moment, however, our insect future in the west feels rather beige: highly processed products enriched with insect protein powder– as opposed to grasshoppers with guacamole, or the lake fly dumpling stews that Dr Ayieko conjures. And it’s worth stressing that for all the talk of insects as a state-of-the-art protein for westerners, for many people, insects are a food of the present – and an endangered one, too.

Dr Monica Ayieko’s eyes were opened to the potential of insect protein when she married into a family who lived on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, near the city of Kisumu. Here, the tiny lake flies swarm so abundantly, they look like smoke rising from the lake. When they swarmed in her home, she set about them with insect spray before being upbraided by her mother-in-law, who showed her how to collect them in a sweep net and crush them into dumplings – which can then be dried, tossed into a stew or eaten raw. When she returned to her own village she found a neighbour’s child had died of malnutrition – and she feels such cases could be averted if only more use was made of this readily available source of protein. Now based at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University in Kenya, she has devoted her career to researching local traditions and developing insect farming as a route to food security.

“This is local, highly indigenous knowledge – it’s not something that has been imposed on us,” Ayieko says. “We now have 120 masters and PhD students here, studying sustainable agriculture and their research must be on insects for food and feed, which is very encouraging.” However, while insect-eating is becoming more accepted, insects are still widely seen as a food of the poor. “Some people in rural areas can now afford to buy chicken and fish, which means those who can’t feel shy about collecting insects – they don’t want to be seen as poor.”  (Ya, so let’s make ALL PEOPLE POOR and REMOVE ALL OTHER FOOD OPTIONS so NO ONE WILL BE EMBARRASSED TO EAT CRAP!)s

Meanwhile, habitat destruction means there are fewer insects to collect. “We are currently seeing a reduction in the lake-fly population because of climate change. When I published my first paper on lake flies, there was an abundance of insects. Now in my old age I am seeing less and less of it.”

One of Ayieko’s favourite types of ant, carebara vidua, can no longer be found. “This insect is a big delicacy in my community. But you don’t see it any more. Normally, it would emerge from wetlands – but we have chopped down trees and built roads and laid concrete and done all the things that human beings do.” There is a bitter irony to the idea that just as insects are being held up as novel solutions to the dysfunctions of the western food system, they are disappearing from the areas where they are genuinely relied upon – areas that are likely to see the worst effects of climate change.

Who are they kidding??  We know their CLIMATE CHANGE is created by those who want to destroy us.  We know that they are killing off all the food supply, and destroying all the farmlands.  We also KNOW there is no shortage of land and that the ELITE own all the forests and 90% of the land, which they are dedicating to WILDLIFE where NO HUMANS are allowed.

Most Famous Geoengineer: It’s Really Not a Moral Hazard; It’s More Like Free-Riding On Our Grandkids.

Tray bake: beetle feeding. Photograph: Reuters

Dr Sarah Beynon echoes the point – as western standards of affluence are held up as something to aspire to in the developing world, local traditions and expertise are being lost, perhaps irreversibly. But she, too, sees education as the route to a better future and has been working with local schools to introduce young children to issues of sustainability. “Young people will make their food choices around sustainability – so long as the product tastes good and has a texture they’re used to. They don’t want to see parts of insects – so it’s a case of using the protein and the nutrients.

How sad is it that people have become so foolish that they don’t even care if it is REAL or MEMOREX.  As long as it looks good, tastes good or resembles the real thing… whether that is food, the environment, people, etc.  HOW FOOLISH CAN THEY BE??  WHAT IS REAL AND TRUE is ALL THAT MATTERS.  THE DEVIL IS A LIAR and offers foolish humans imitation… that brings NO LIFE.

But we shouldn’t hide the fact that they’re insects.” She has helped to develop a product called VEXo mince, a plant- and insect-based mince that can be used in all mince contexts: burgers, meatballs, etc.As soon as Covid recedes, she hopes to put insects on school menus in Pembrokeshire and beyond. “That’s the key. If we can normalise them on school menus, it will be a huge step for the future.”

And I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch. We like to think we eat what we eat due to time-honoured traditions– that national dishes, such as roast chicken, are part of who we are. But it wasn’t so long ago that sushi and packet sandwiches were seen as outlandish and pointless – and a couple of generations back, roast chicken was an elite food. In the 1950s, only around 1m chickens were eaten in Britain each year. Now, that figure is closer to 1bn.

Majno tells me he felt an insect snack was the way to introduce the idea of entomophagy to consumers – much more manageable than an insect-based meal. But it’s worth stressing that snacking is itself a relatively new phenomenon. Doritos were invented in 1966; Wotsits in 1970. When I was a child in the 1980s, “eating between meals” was still the sort of thing your granny tutted at. And this cultural taboo has been obliterated mostly by the might of the food industry– which has always strived to create new moments for eating. The America obesity researcher Barry Popkin has compiled extensive evidence showing that obesity levels rise as developing countries adopt the western diet – of which snack foods are a key part.  (Ya, obesity is a relatively new phenomenon in the USA due to the MIGHT OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY.  THEY CREATED FOODS THAT DO NOT NOURISH AND YOUR BODY DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM, SO THEY GET STORED AS FAT!  THEY ARE HIGH IN UNNATURAL SUGARS THAT OUR BODIES CANNOT ASSIMULATE AND DIABETES IS THE RESULT.)

That could lead you to despair. But my point is: nothing about how we eat is fixed. If we can get our heads around factory-farmed chicken, Wotsits and the Impossible Burger, we can probably get our heads around cricket flour, BSFL milk and mealworm bolognese. And we can hopefully look at those cultures that eat insects regularly with admiration as opposed to disgust. Dr Ayieko tells me she is optimistic. “If we cannot figure out a sure way to sustain these insects, we are treading towards extinction.But if we can, we are safe. We will provide for them and they will provide for us.”
I PREFER EXTINCTION!!!

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Insects — a new nutritious ingredient for school lunches?

By Valerie Strauss

May 13, 2013 at 1:12 p.m. EDT

Gift Article

  

The report, published by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, was the first time that the FAO documented all aspects of the insect food and feed value chain, and includes original research from around the world.

The report lists the most commonly eaten insects today:

* beetles (Coleoptera) 31 percent of insects eaten
* caterpillars (Lepidoptera) 18 percent
* bees, wasps and ants (Hymenoptera) 14 percent
* grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (Orthoptera) 13 percent
* cicadas, leafhoppers, planthoppers, scale insects and true bugs (Hemiptera)10%
* termites (Isoptera) 3 percent
* dragonflies (Odonata) 3 percent
* flies (Diptera) 2 percent
* other orders 5 percent.  (scorpions, tarantulas, grub worms, mealworms, slugs)

It says:

The environmental benefits of rearing insects for food and feed are founded on the high feed conversion efficiency of insects. Crickets, for example, require only 2 kilograms of feed for every 1 kilogram of bodyweight gain. In addition, insects can be reared on organic side-streams (including human and animal waste) and can help reduce environmental contamination. Insects are reported to emit fewer greenhouse gases and less ammonia than cattle or pigs, and they require significantly less land and water than cattle rearing. Compared with mammals and birds, insects may also pose less risk of transmitting zoonotic infections to humans, livestock and wildlife, although this topic requires further research.

and

Insects are a highly nutritious and healthy food source with high fat, protein, vitamin, fibre and mineral content. The nutritional value of edible insects is highly variable because of  the wide range of edible insect species. Even within the same group of species, nutritional value may differ depending on the metamorphic stage of the insect, the habitat in which it lives, and its diet. 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), and the protein, vitamin and mineral content of mealworms is similar to that in fish and meat.

The report also says that governments should promote the creation of a new sector that develop insects as an alternative to conventional food and feed industries, including the creation of incentives aimed at the private sector for investment and technical development.

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1 Timothy 4

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, ³ who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Leviticus 11:1-47

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. …

Genesis 1:29

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.You shall have them for food.

Proverbs 25:16

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

1 Corinthians 9:7-10

[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

Matthew 6:25

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food,and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Luke 12:22-23

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

2 Corinthians 9:10

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Proverbs 13:25

The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want.

Philippians 4

¹⁹ But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Leviticus 11

41And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. 42Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination. 43Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. 44For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 45For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

46This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth: 47To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.

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Our Father God is SO AMAZING.  If one takes the time to really look at everything that HE has created and appreciate it they will be blessed.  God in HIS infinite wisdom created a world where everything is perfectly designed to function at optimum each tiny miniscule to each large part functioning together to make a whole that is sound and strong.  When something invades to cause dis-ease HE has provided that the body is prepared to heal itself.  The EARTH has ALL that it needs to HEAL itself, if we will submit to GOD.  THE EARTH is the LORD’s and the FULLNESS THERE OF, that means EVERYTHING IN IT!!

The earth as we know it is coming to an end.  THERE IS NOTHING humanity can do to stop or change that TRUTH.  No matter how many bugs you eat, no matter what you do.. the end is upon us.  BUT, while we are here, we can live in HIS abundance.  HE is our PROVIDER.  The reason the world is in a mess is because mankind has turned their back on GOD and his precious gift of SALVATION!

There is NOTHING we could ever do to improve on God’s Creation.  His Creation is ALWAYS in His control no matter how things may appear. Just like Jesus said:

Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?  Matthew 26:52-54

Take heart dear friends.  EVERYTHING is happening according to GOD’s plan.as HE laid it out in HIS WORD.  God is not surprised, threatened or taken back by anything that happening.  HE is well able to care for HIS CREATION!!
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