At an international conference on May 13, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Secretary General Jose Graziano da Silva announced that by eating more insects, we could be able to solve the food shortage problem and even environmental problems.
Globally, at least two billion people are already eating insects. Insects contain a great amount of protein, fat and minerals. A hundred grams of caterpillar contains 28.2g of protein and 35.5mg of iron while a hundred grams of beef contains 27.4 grams of protein and 3.5 milligrams of iron. A hundred grams of grasshopper contains 20.6 g of protein and 5 mg of Iron.
Furthermore, insects emit less of the carbon dioxide and ammonia gas – two major causes of global warming – than cows and pigs. Also, raising cows for protein requires twelve times as much food as raising crickets.
Despite all these advantages of eating more insects, it is hard to popularize this because many people are not used to eating insects at all! To solve this problem, FAO has suggested that restaurants create new dishes using insects. According to FAO, the first thing we must do is to raise the status of insect foods.
