Some Insects You’ll Be Eating in the Future
What’s the Latest Development?
A team of student researchers at McGill University in Montreal have won $1 million in seed money for developing a protein-rich flour made from grasshoppers. The students call their invention ‘Power Flour’, and their achievement underscores the nutritional challenges posed by an expanding world population. “Earlier this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released a report titled, ‘Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security.’ The document details the health and environmental benefits derived from a diet supplemented by insects, a diet also known as ‘entomophagy.'”
What’s the Big Idea?
As the human population continues to inch closer to 8 billion people, feeding all those hungry mouths will become increasingly difficult. A growing number of experts claim that people will soon have no choice but to consume insects. Mopane caterpillars, for example, which are harvested in Africa, “are traditionally boiled in salted water, then sun-dried; the dried form can last for several months without refrigeration, making them an important source of nutrition in lean times. And few bugs are more nutritious: Whereas the iron content of beef is 6 mg per 100 grams of dry weight, mopane caterpillars pack a whopping 31 mg of iron per 100 grams.”
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Read it at Scientific American
