Warm-up
- Describe in a few words your culture’s cuisine. What are main foods, flavours, and ways to prepare food where you come from?
- Is there anything that people in your country eat that other people might find strange?
- have you ever eaten something strange from another country? Describe the experience.
- Have you ever eaten an insect? Would you?
Vocabulary
- supplement
- barrier
- livestock
- environmental footprint
- undernourished
- emissions
- underutilised
- niche
- caterpillars
- greenhouse gases
- delicacies
- feasible
Article
UN urges people to eat insects to fight world hunger
Eating more insects could help fight world hunger, according to a new UN report.
The report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that eating insects could help boost nutrition and reduce pollution.
It notes than over 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diet with insects.
However it admits that "consumer disgust" remains a large barrier in many Western countries.
Wasps, beetles and other insects are currently "underutilised" as food for people and livestock, the report says. Insect farming is "one of the many ways to address food and feed security".
"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.
Nutritional value
The authors point out that insects are nutritious, with high protein, fat and mineral content.
They are "particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children".
Insects are also "extremely efficient" in converting feed into edible meat. Crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein, according to the report.
Most insects are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases than other livestock.
The ammonia emissions associated with insect-rearing are far lower than those linked to conventional livestock such as pigs, says the report.
Delicacies
Insects are regularly eaten by many of the world's population, but the thought may seem shocking to many Westerners.
The report suggests that the food industry could help in "raising the status of insects" by including them in new recipes and adding them to restaurant menus.
It goes on to note that in some places, certain insects are considered delicacies.
For example some caterpillars in southern Africa are seen as luxuries and command high prices.
Most edible insects are gathered in forests and serve niche markets, the report states.
It calls for improved regulation and production for using insects as feed.
"The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way," it adds.
Exercise
What are the main facts of this article? Write some notes in the Lesson Document about the What, Where, Whe, Who, Why.
Discussion
- How do you feel about eating insects if it would reduce hunger and be better for the environment?
- If we decide that insects are the future of food, how could we encourage people who think they are disgusting to eat them?
- What would you be willing to give up to help make the world healthier or safer?
Further Discussion
How do you think food is going to change in the future? With a group make some predictions on how food and food culture will change in the next 20 years.
According to this BBC article, in the future, these four things will be a big part of our diet in the future.
- Could you eat these things?
- Which sound good? Which sound disgusting?
With your group, Read one section and summarize it for the class in the Lesson Document.
- Insects
- Sonic-enhanced Food
- Lab-grown Meat
- Algae