Insect pizza,' 'bug mac' foods of the future?

Maybe this is the future of our food,whatever we liked or not.Insect farming. Saving the planet one plateful at a time does not mean cutting back on meat, according to new research: the trick may be to switch our diet to insects and other creepy-crawlies.The raising of livestock such as cows, pigs and sheep occupies two-thirds of the world's farmland and generates 20% of all the greenhouse gases driving global warming. As a result, the United Nations and senior figures want to reduce the amount of meat we eat and the search is on for alternatives.

TextDutch student Walinka van Tol inspects the worm protruding from a half-eaten chocolate praline she's holding, steels herself with a shrug, then pops it into her mouth. "Tasty ... kind of nutty!" the 20-year-old assures her companions clutching an array of creepy crawly pastries at a seminar, which forecast that larvae and locusts will invade Western menus as the price of steak and chops skyrocket. Van Tol and about 200 other tasters were guinea pigs for a group of Dutch scientists doing groundbreaking research into insects replacing animal meat as a healthier, more environmentally friendly source of protein. "There will come a day when a Big Mac costs 120 euros ($163) and a Bug Mac 12 euros, when more people will eat insects than other meat," head researcher Arnold van Huis told a disbelieving audience at Wageningen University in the central Netherlands. "The best way to start is to try it once," the entomologist insisted. At break time, there is a sprint for the snack tables with a spread of Thai marinated grasshopper spring rolls, buffalo worm chocolate gnache, and a seemingly innocent pastry "just like a quiche lorraine, but with meal worms instead of bacon or ham", according to chef Henk van Gurp. PLANET GREEN: How Long Does It Take for a Happy Meal to Decompose? The snacks disappear quickly to the delight of the chef and organizers. But the university's head of entomology Marcel Dicke knows that changing Westerners' mindset will take more than disguising a worm in chocolate. "The problem is here," he says, pointing at his head while examining an exhibition featuring a handful of the world's more than 1,200 edible insect species including worms, gnats, wasps, termites and beetles

source(news.discovery.com...


source(www.insectexperts.com...

I have an even more "environmentally friendly" and permanent solution. Let have governments throw some 99% of 7 billion humans into a meat grinder and force us to become cannibals.

Originally posted by PoeteMaudit
I have an even more "environmentally friendly" and permanent solution. Let have governments throw some 99% of 7 billion humans into a meat grinder and force us to become cannibals.

edit on 21-11-2011 by PoeteMaudit because: (no reason given)

Man ...you are really angry!

Originally posted by PoeteMaudit
I have an even more "environmentally friendly" and permanent solution. Let have governments throw some 99% of 7 billion humans into a meat grinder and force us to become cannibals.

edit on 21-11-2011 by PoeteMaudit because: (no reason given)

we won't eat you ....

reply to post by diamondsmith
Honestly, we'd be just as fine off if we didn't worry about animals for food regardless, be they bug or beast. Humans can get by just fine on a vegetarian diet with all needed protein from plants and vitamin B from nutritious yeast or some other sources.

That being said, I would assume farming insects would mitigate most of the primary issues associated with meat production. We'll wait to see what the ethicists say about the involved morality and the suffering of insects (?).

I know it would take a sea change in thought and a paradigm shift to get there on a large scale, but I always wonder why (other than familiarity) societies that have the option to work around it continue to focus so much on eating meat. It's generally inefficient, unpleasant, and unnecessary...and that doesn't even look at the range of unintended consequences involved with large-scale production and the involved economics.

Synthetic lab produced meat will be the future, I would rather eat meat grown from stem cells than a slice of bug, if they get that right then no more methane or massive drain on our grain crops.

Originally posted by On the level
Synthetic lab produced meat will be the future, I would rather eat meat grown from stem cells than a slice of bug, if they get that right then no more methane or massive drain on our grain crops.

or unnecessary suffering of animals

now i'm craving tacos de chapulín T_T! (cricket tacos)
why you do this, ATS? chapulines are deliciooous!!! I'd eat bugs all my life if all of them taste like chapulines (it's like eating nuts, but more crispy)

Originally posted by PoeteMaudit
I have an even more "environmentally friendly" and permanent solution. Let have governments throw some 99% of 7 billion humans into a meat grinder and force us to become cannibals.

edit on 21-11-2011 by PoeteMaudit because: (no reason given)

At first I thought you were joking....but after reading your signature....and your apparent allegiance to Satan...I am not so sure.

I do not like cannibalism and will not be a part of it.

As for eating bugs....I won't be doing that either.

Vegetarianism is the way forward in my mind. I've been vegetarian for most of my life and I've got to the point that I find the thought of eating meat as repulsive as the average westerner finds the thought of eating bugs.

Most people only continue to eat meat these days out of cultural momentum.