One of the problems humanity faces is food scarcity. Entomophagy is able to help reduce food scarcity. Entomophagy is the technical term for eating insects. It takes way less space to breed insects and to feed them compared to cattle such as cows or pigs. They are a great source for proteins, fats, and important minerals. (Chung)
About 805.3 millions (11.3% of the world) people were malnourished worldwide in 2012-2014.(CNN) Malnutrition is a general term that covers both undernutrition and and over nutrition. Insects need less food to eat so not only will insects give you nutrients to eat, they also leave more crops to feed people.
The first reason to why entomophagy will help with food scarcity is that it is significantly more efficient than cattle. A single kilogram of feed yields 12 times more edible cricket protein than beef protein. (BBC) Also another plus is that some species may not need as much water to survive, using less water than cows, pigs, or poultry. (BBC) A cow would need to eat 8 grams of food to gain 1 gram in weight. However insects only need less than 2 grams to gain the same amount. Also because insects don’t live for long they
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reproduce more. A house cricket can lay 1,200 to 1,500 eggs in a 3 to 4 week period. (Dossey) They also don’t produce as much greenhouse gases as cattle would. It could also possible lower the cost of livestock products if we were to feed them insects instead of more expensive things like soybeans or fishmeal. This can leave some more feed crops to human consumption. (BBC) Not only that, bugs can be reused for other things like waste. (BBC) Insects such as crickets, flies, grasshoppers, and beetles can consume animal manure or plants that humans and livestock that would not be able to. (Dossel) The next reason to why entomophagy would help improve food scarcity is that it will help improve the environment. The cattle we are growing is taking up most of the water, land, and feed. They use 8% total water and 70% of all agricultural land. (fao) Instead of using the dwindling resources on livestock that won’t even be able to produce as much as they consume, we should spend it on insects. Also because edible insects are found in a variety of locations they can be able to protect other natural resources.(fao) Seeing as though insects can convert organic waste for food for them this could help with water pollution. If there’s less water pollution then that means more water can go to things like crops for feeding people. Another big thing livestock cause is because they need so much space we have to cut down rainforest and is a big reason for deforestation. Insects don’t need as much space and don’t produce as much greenhouse gases so if we put less resources in raising livestock greenhouse gas emissions would go down a bit. As much as entomophagy seems to have a lot of pros to it, one of the biggest issues is that it doesn’t have that much data. There isn’t much information for mass producing insects or creating insect farms that will last long. (entomophagy eating insects) Another bad thing about insects is that they are at a higher risk of containing high levels of heavy metal because some insects are more tolerable to them. So feeding them to livestock could be risky. Some people may also be allergic to them. Insects are arthropods and some arthropods are known to cause serious allergic reactions. For example shrimp can cause allergic reactions. (BBC) There is also the factor that eating insects may not even become a thing in the western world or at the very least not as much to change anything. This can be because of several factors like the lack large abundant insects ready for harvesting or how there isn’t much of a strong cultural in the western world to eating bugs. (entomophagy eating insects) The pros for entomophagy outweighs the cons to it.
Entomophagy may be of the best ways to reducing food scarcity. If you make sure that your insects aren’t eating anything dangerous and keep them contained then there is very little chances of them containing heavy metals. As for the allergies, you should probably be weary of eating insects if you are allergic to some arthropods. But the best thing to do is to do your research on what type of bugs you eat. Not only could entomophagy possible lower livestock if we were to feed them insects, they would also leave us more food for people to eat. The insect won’t need as much water and that can also go to crops. Even though there are many things we do not know about entomophagy if we take care to keep risks at a minimum we can maximize the benefits to
entomophagy.
In the article “The Six-Legged Meat of the Future”, authors Marcel Dicke and Arnold Van Huis explain that due to the environmental effects that is caused by meat, people should begin to consume insects instead of meat. They also argue that due to the rise in production costs of livestock, the rise of human population and using insects in our food would solve some of the problems that are “associated with livestock” (Dicke and Van Huis 345. In addition, the article is not persuasive because even though both Dicke and Van Huis use statistics and evidence to establish their credibility and to build a bridge to their audience and make the audience emotionally involved, their argument is weakened by the use of fallacies.
Census Bureau, 2013) Based on a census in 2013, there are 7.125 billion people in the world. The world can hold much more than that. Which leads to the rest of the world occupied by the animal kingdom. Humans cannot live in this world without animals, off the simple fact of survival. If animals were not present, where would the food supply come from? It is recommended that a human needs 0.5-0.7 grams of protein per pound in the body. Not only are there mammals, like chickens, cows, pigs and other species like fish and shrimp but, the insects to consider also. These insects have a huge impact on the human race. Insects, like bees, provide the vegetation for humans. For example, a bee has to carry the pollen, which is produced by the flowers, to other flowers in order for this process of pollution to occur which has to happen in order for plants to grow and produce the fruits and vegetables for humans to eat in order to survive. Many of our medicine today comes from plants, so if there are no plants the human population will start to decline. If we rely on the Takers perspective, how would humans gain these proteins? One way could be resorting to eating other humans, which would lead to a decline in the population in the world to later extinction because everybody will resort in eating each other. Also we would run into ethical problems, like different people would have different perspectives on how we would choose our own practices and morals as to who and how people will be chosen to be eaten or in charge. Humans cannot survive without the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables, which are grown from the help of insects. The Leavers perspective backs up this point because they are saying every organism in the world serves a purpose and without one the others cannot
When raising cows, pigs, and chickens they take up a lot of land, food, and water. But what about crickets. Crickets take up a fraction of all those resources. Not only that but they also produce less greenhouse gas and ammonia. These gasses can be very harmful for the planet and us humans. Considering that crickets are one of earths untapped resources it can help preserve our world longer. In an article by NBC News they state “The world's population is creeping up on 7.5 billion, but estimates suggest we'll have a whopping 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050.”. But with crickets we could change that, unless you wanna be feeding ur students a fraction of their food or just salads every day, I would make the switch to
Bees are known throughout the world as dangerous threats and pests to humanity. Bees when left alone are very important to the growth of all the worlds’ crops and plants; they affect the growth of all the crops plant just as much as butterflies and other pollinators. Humans rely on bees for honey and pollination of plants, but what most agricultural workers don’t know is that they are working on the extinction of the common honey bee by doing simple things in their every day jobs on the farm. With the use of pesticides and other harmful things such as an unnatural diet and cramped living spaces, bees can go extinct and without a large group of pollinators our plants ...
Insects can survive in very hostile environments and they are difficult to completely eradicate without harming the environment. Studying their metabolic rate under stress might allow us to figure out better and more environmentally safe ways to kill them.
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
Different species differ widely in their duties and may be carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous. Members of some species eat honeydew from plants infested with aphids and certain other insects; others called dairying ants, feed and protect the aphids ad “milk” them by stroking. Harvester ants eat and store seeds; these sometimes spout around the nest, leading to the erroneous belief that these ants cultivate food.
== = Malnutrition is a dietary condition caused by a deficiency or excess of one or more essential nutrients in the diet. Malnutrition is characterised by a wide array of health problems, including extreme weight loss, stunted growth, weakened resistance to infection, and impairment of intellect. Severe cases of malnutrition can lead to death.
But there is always bad news: gathering an insect meal from your garden to make a decent lunch is just too difficult. You would need too many of them to make up your calorie intake. Our colder climate produces very few bugs compared to hotter countries like Thailand and China. You are probably more likely to burn more calories hunting and digesting your lunch than you would get in return form eating it. But will we really need to hunt our own food?
Imagine eating a plate full of insects, would you be totally grossed out? Or would you eat them? To begin with Around 20 million people eat bugs, instead of what most people call normal food. So what is the big deal? Though a lot of the other party would disagree, and believe that Insects should not be served on restaurant menus.
Ants and aphids are two highly common and successful insect groups that often occur in the same habitats which greatly increases their chances of interacting with one another (Stadler and Dixon 2005). The outcome of these interactions can be either negative (predatory) or positive (mutualistic) depending on what each partner can offer to the other (Stadler and Dixon 2005). Mutualism is defined as an interaction between two species that has a reciprocal positive effect on the overall fitness of both partners (Stadler and Dixon 2005), but can also be viewed as complementary exploitation that results in net benefits for each partner (Flatt and Weisser 2000).
Insects, instead of human, will succeed in the competition for survival due to their highly
“Malnourished children are 20% less literate than those with a healthier diet, says UK charity Save the Children” (The Information Daily). When parents become victims of poverty it can have some very unpleasing long and short term effects to their children. Parents in poverty have a lot on their plate and buying the best quality food or affording enough food can be a tumultuous task. Quality nutrition is essential for the development of the brain. At a young age, poor nutrition or not enough nutrition can seriously hinder “the brain 's development, a child’s ability to learn and has a devastating impact on a child’s future”(The Information Daily). “Malnutrition in the early developmental stages of the brain, by restricting the children’s cognitive growth, can lower a child 's IQ has much has 20 points”(The Information Daily). Long term effects of malnutrition leave permanent damage to the brain, however, malnutrition has short term effects as well. Malnourishment can greatly compromise a child’s immune system, making them more susceptible to infectious diseases. “Low counts of zinc, iron and vitamin A are commonly associated with weakened immune function” (Orphan Nutrition). A deadly infection can have a huge impact on a poverty stricken family leading to less affordability. Malnutrition negatively affects a student throughout their educational
Some of the serious environmental tribulations related to food production and consumption consist of “climate change, water pollution, water scarcity, soil degradation, eutrophication of water bodies, and loss of habitats and biodiversity (Reisch L., 2014).” ... ... middle of paper ... ... Works Cited APHA. 2014, February 28.
Even thou there is enough food to eat, but most people cannot afford because of poverty. Scientific research proves that every person needs roughly over 2000 calories in their body a day to obtain a normal healthy body (healthy eating). Individual affected by hunger and poverty suffers normal body function, physically or mentally which harm their abilities in their future. According to the recent Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) statistic, "most of the world 's hungry people live in developing nations. Hunger is approximately distributed among people as follows:578 million people in Asia and the Pacific, 239 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa,53 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean,37 million men and women in the Near East and North Africa. That compared to 19 million people in developed countries." Almost 50 to 75 percent of hunger in most African countries by the war that destroys most of the country 's natural resources; Somalia and D.R Congo are examples of