Entomophagy in Edinburgh Bakery

Bringing it back to the beginning of the semester when we read about entomophagy from extracts in Insect Lives, I stumbled across this article which reported on a new bakery in Edinburgh that serves insect based baked goods. In the video, the owner talked about various culinary advantages eating insects would bring.

Whereas in another BBC article, the act of eating insects is looked at upon from an environmental aspect, where the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation have proposed that eating insects instead of other animal proteins have the capability to help climate change. This goes back to our study on energy conservation through food chains earlier in the semester, where using the same amount of energy to produce e.g. 200 grams of beef, it could produce 2 kilograms of edible insects. Furthermore, the amount of greenhouse gases created by producing the same amount of beef would not be generated unless 20 kilograms of edible insects is produced. Due to the efficiency of producing insects in comparison to other protein sources, and the problems with supplying enough land and water for agriculture and food production (from overpopulation), it is proposed that incorporating insects in a general diet would contribute heavily to solving current environmental issues.


I think what interests me most about the phenomenon of entomophagy is the factors that people have to confront before this step could be taken. The obvious answer, the fear from the thought that insects are squirmy, 'gross' creatures that only a select few people eat, but also, whether the human body is still capable of processing and digesting all the valuable nutrients insects have to provide.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35061609

- Justin