Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan has suggested in an interview with The Guardian, that people should switch to eating insects, to reduce the need for traditional cattle farming.
According to The Guardian;
Should we be encouraged to reduce their meat consumption?
The global livestock industry is indeed a major threat to the climate as it represents 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A growing population and a rapidly growing middle class are increasing pressure on the traditional protein sources, beef and poultry meat, making it more difficult to meet demand. We cannot continue the way we are producing and consuming meat. Obviously, this should not go as far as governments telling people what to eat. However, keeping meat consumption to levels recommended by health authorities would lower emissions and reduce heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. And of course there are alternative sources of protein. For example, raising insects as an animal protein source. Insects have a very good conversion rate from feed to meat. They make up part of the diet of two billion people and are commonly eaten in many parts of the world. Eating insects is good for the environment and balanced diets.
It is nice to know the UN has a plan, to ensure we all have something to eat, after they decommission the world’s fossil fuel infrastructure.
Eat insects and save the world from Global Warming:
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/eat-insects-and-save-earth-from-global.html
And I assume that Kofi and friends are going to be the first to line up for those Beetle Burgers?
If you have been to places in the Far East, you see insect food at the markets and along the streets. But I have never seen a MacBeetle Burger for sale. There’s a thought, maybe they might taste better than the beef patties they use.
Oh no! His Precious would never follow rules for the ordinary people.
That’s precisely the bottom line, Aussiebear .
When the leaders of the first world live on a diet of insects and when, following their lead, the citizens of the first world live on a diet based on insects, then they would be in a position to tell the world to eat the freaking insects.
While these fools tell their private chefs to “upgrade” their menus, I suggest halting the burning food for fuel in the first world and providing developing countries with the infrastructure to produce energy as cheap as the one the first world has.
I sure hope so and I want to see a video of them practicing what they preach too. Otherwise they are jsut hypocrites.
OMG I can see it now. The meat tax is coming, and insect subsidies. Should I meet Kofi I will surely need to feed him some insects. Perhaps some live red ants. While I dine on a nice thick filet mignon.
The tax is already in Australia and it’s called Halal. I think it goes to the ISIS fighting fund. 😉
I volunteer the UN to go first. They should all have to eat bugs, and their vending machines should only sell roaches and worms.
This would be an interesting dietary supplement for most Americans. Including me. But it is an interesting idea.
dont insects produce 3x the CO2 that humans do?
Termites release more CH4 than all of human activity put together. It’s a non-issue as CH4 oxidizes to CO2 rather quickly. This is just another rich person thinking of solutions to a non-problem.
@Marcos
dont insects produce 3x the CO2 that humans do?
Good reason to eat them…?
This is where they get me questioning. That one can measure “The global livestock industry is indeed a major threat to the climate as it represents 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions “. 14.5%??? No one can convince me that anyone can measure all the livestock on this huge planet to that that kind of precision.
DAS
I would suggest that figure is based on a estimate, generated by a model.
I agree with you Patrick, but it is presented as a fact. That’s the problem.
Which one Tyra Banks?
I dispute these figures. I can say without even pulling out my calculator that it is wildly inflated.
The man is certifiable.
Surely the figure for animal green house gas emission is hugely inflatulated?
Prior to the arrival, the estimated population of buffaloes (bisons) was 50 million to 75 million. Did they produce methane and CO2? Yes. Now there are just a few 100’000 left. Do they produce less methane and CO2? Yes. So livestock may just be a compensation.
Even accepting that figure as true, would like to see the figure as per cent of total CO2 in the atmosphere, and as per cent of total atmosphere. Kofi and his ilk would never present those figures because it would make them and their claims look stupid.
Being stupid and sounding smart is what is now considered leadership, which historically will eventually be recorded as the era of “When the stupids were in charge”
Deep fried insects are supposed to be “fun” to eat where I live – personally? I am further UP the food chain…
cnxtim,
Some escargot, perhaps?
That’s the French. Around 1100 that area suffered major famines. Their culinary arts have never recovered. Give me pizza any day.
“…suffered major famines. Their culinary arts have never recovered”
Silly, but I often ponder; just who was the first person to try and eat certain things.
Something like octopus, crabs, lobster, snails, etc. That must have been one hungry guy. (and/or woman, Ms Moore). Now they want to throw insects into the mix (Hmm, insect Chex Mix, maybe?)
Are things really that bad and we First Worlders don’t have a clue, or is this all for effect? It’s certainly makes good crisis marketing material.
The second db picture reminds me of shrimp or even crawfish.
I think we ought to switch to cannibalism and start eating, Liberals, Progressives, Marxists, and journalists.
Yuck, With almost zero nutritional value, you’d have to eat a lot of them. If you really are what you eat, the consequences could be severe.
After you. They are a caustic and unsavory lot, although quite thin-skinned, which might be a plus if you like to peel them before frying.
I have a feeling that they would be very difficult to clean. You get my drift?
Nah — “Eat the Rich”. Makes you a fat slob.
Naw, let’s just feed them to the bugs instead.
“I think we ought to switch to cannibalism…”
Okaaaay, thanks for the “Soylent Green” flashback:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1
BTW, in the novel that inspired the film, the world was collapsing in 1999 with 7 billion people, 344 million of them in the USA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room!_Make_Room!
Yes, it was before Prince let us all know it would, instead, be a big raucous party.
http://www.themusichutch.com/listen-song-video/prince-1999/2038/
They, like their dogma, are indigestible.
Prawns and shrimps…aren’t they sea insects?
Lobsters are “sea insects”.
“Biggest bug I ever did et” – Tom Horn/Steve McQueen eats first lobster. Best western evah. GK
I’ll wait to observe the Guardian writers chow down on some bugs. They’re the ones who write:
The global livestock industry is indeed a major threat to the climate…
Surely they would want to set a good example. Wouldn’t they?
And of course there is the new UN edict that only insects shall be served at all UN functions…what no?
They’re not bugs. They’re features.
We’ll have to check the menu at the Paris meetings.
dbstealey, it’s all about ‘seeming’ and not ‘doing’, so that challenge will not happen.
Nah, they want us eating the insects so there will be enough available Chateaubriand left for them.
Up here we have an abundance of sea bugs. Lobsters. The season got delayed due to sea ice.
As an American, i can only see this as an introduction to French cuisine in preparation for the paris summit.
Escargot? Homard? Isn’t there a law in France, that all conferences are to be in French? Will COP 15?
Here is my attitude toward COP 15:
So just where the hell is this pile of insects that we are to eat ?
I mean, they must be piling up somewhere, unless of course something else is eating them now.
Naw, there couldn’t be birds and small animals eating those insects could there ? What about the bats; don’t they eat insects ?
What would happen to all those other animals (and plants too, that eat insects now, what would they eat if we eat the insects.
Would it go like the game fishes and food fishes in the ocean, that are extincticating, because we turn all the bait fishes in Omega 3 and 6 yuppie oils ??
I dunno : we could be messing around with something we just don’t understand.
I wonder if they taste just like chickin. Do Madagascar hissing cockroaches taste like chickin ?
If you try them, could you let us know.
Let’s see, I eat bee vomit, which reminds me, if humans become dependent on eating insect grubs in large volumes, we will have to somehow house them and feed them what they like, and then no doubt some small critter like a mite will come along and cause colony collapse, which in turn will cause a protein deficient diet, which will then cause the human population to decline … yeah, now I understand their designs. /sarcoff
Well, since we’re killing all the bats with windmills, something’s got to take over from them. Down the hatch.
Silly bee George.
So just where the hell is this pile of insects that we are to eat ?
Answer – Any pet store or Bait store.
Time to start investing in pet store or Bait store futures.
Just havin fun.
PS. I visited a worm farm in Taiwan 20 years ago and we were feed worms cook in 10 different ways it was OK but I haven’t adapted the habit.
“noaaprogrammer
May 6, 2015 at 5:42 pm”
Talking of bees and colony collapse, the Varoa bee mite springs to mind.
Here ya go, george:
http://www.infobarrel.com/media/image/78208_max.jpg
http://www.ekommerce.ro/upload/fck/Image/edible%20insects.jpg
http://freedomok.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/EDIBLE-INSECTS22.jpg
Dig in! Chow down! Yum!!
Reminds me of many episodes of Bear Grylls. At least these look cooked!
Just like chicken. And Crunchy!
Insect farming certainly appears to be viable.
http://www.firstpost.com/world/cost-effective-insect-farming-saves-poor-thai-farmers-1680049.html
As a means of reducing CO2 emissions, I’m not so sure that it’s viable, particularly given that cattle are CO2-neutral (http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/climate-breakthrough-cattle-carbon-neutral/1681718.aspx) or reduce CO2 (http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/cattle/general-news/us-grasslands-carbon-neutral/1840920.aspx).
Anyone wanting to farm grasshoppers will need to make sure that no spiders can get in …
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Grasshoppers-Influence-How-Soils-Release-Carbon-Dioxide-275761.shtml
… or the grasshoppers will start emitting CO2!
Pumbaa and Timon would approve.
Namibian Brahman beef cattle reach 1,200 kg in desert conditions
(youtube)
Something…. money, most likely…. is behind this weirdness….
{Aside: Is it the soy/tofu industry? “Oh, so ya don’t wanna eat bugs, do ya? (hyuck, hyuck) Well, here, then. Buy our tofu — it tastes like…. uh… {shake-shake-shakety shake — dumping chicken flavoring on…} CHICKEN! (ghastly grin).”}
No one is going to eat bugs instead of beef. If the statists manage to regulate beef out of the meat market, there is chicken …. fish…. wild game….
The only people eating bugs instead of beef (or what food they could have bought with the profits from selling beef products) will be those who were eating bugs before their cattle were stolen (call it what it is) from them:
poor Africans.
Kofi and his statist cronies (just take a little tour of his foundation’s site for evidence here: http://kofiannanfoundation.org/ ) care about the poor — NOT.
Good news from New Zealand! Our scientists have identified several compounds which reduce methane emissions in ruminants by up to 90%. They confidently expect to have a product ready within 5 years. Surprisingly the political left, who hope to make NZ ag the most highly taxed industry in the world, did not react to this breakthrough with joy. That ‘problem’ was never meant to be solved.
This reminds me of environmentalists who don’t want safe and effective disposal of nuclear waste. I remember posting on Usenet about the idea of dumping vitrified nuclear waste down a depleted oil well into a salt dome, then filling the borehole with concrete. An anti-nuker followed-up that this would be unacceptable, because the waste has to be monitorable and retrievable.
I kind of like the idea of burying the stuff in oceanic crust which is being subducted.
One of these days we are going to come to our senses and start recycling the stuff instead of throwing it away.
“One of these days we are going to come to our senses…”
Seriously?
Zeolite.
Suddenly, global warming doesn’t seem so bad…..
Science Officer,
That’s an excellent comment, among many others here.
future headline….
Scientists discover insect farming destroying the planet…
…film at 11
You first, Kofi. Show us plebeians how it’s supposed to be done. Be sure to send plenty of pictures.
I took care of it for him Dave. See the menu I have plan for the good Mr. Annan:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/06/un-we-should-switch-to-eating-insects/#comment-1927376
If God had not intended us to eat animals, He wouldn’t have made them out of meat.
True dat!
Funny
Very funny
That’s from “A Drop of the Hat”‘ Flanders and Swan, 1959. Only in their song it was “people” instead of “animals” and “us” instead of “them”.
PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals
Throw another maggot on the barbecue ?
Your meal doesn’t have to be maggot on a stick but dried pulverised maggots could be used as protein supplements in a lot of products …..though we already use soy for the same thing.
“…dried pulverised maggots could be used as protein supplements in a lot of products”
Yea, I love hotdogs too. Tube steaks on a stick over on open fire, the best!
Well, lobsters, crabs and shrimp are arthropoda – the same family as insects. I could go a long time on a sacrifice like that. They’re not going to tell us what insects we have to eat are they? In Nigeria 50 years ago, I did eat some deep fried termites. I was invited to a wedding and these little critters were offered around as appetizers- it was traditional and one didn’t want to be impolite at such a happy gathering. I didn’t go out of my way to saver them – a crunch and washed down with a drink.
Before the rainy season, the termites fly out of the ground in clouds and the locals hang a lantern on a branch with a large pan of water underneath to catch the critters attracted to the light at night. Their wings fall off in a short time after leaving the ground. I also ate a grasshopper in Sweden at a student party – they had cans of these dried out little delicacies. Anyway, I’ve stuck to domestic meats, game, fish and fowl since. I did swallow a lot of black flies involuntarily in northern Canada on geological surveys.
With 40+ years of motorcycling I have ingested more than my share of bugs, so no thank you on the insect tray as it passes by.
At work on a water treatment site there are huge swarms of flies at this time of year so the golden rule is “Keep your mouth shut if you don’t want a snack”.
I’m sure I’ve ingested loads already and there will probably more in the future and they haven’t killed me yet, although I haven’t tried this method of getting rid of the fly.
James Bull
Ludicrous insanity – the world is truly mad….
Save the environment;Disband and incarcerate the United Nations staff.
Leadership first.
In return for Mr. Annan’s kind thoughts regarding my, and everyone else’s, dining choices, I am going to respond in kind and invite, no…INSIST that Mr. Annan immediately take the lead on this wonderful plan of his. Furthermore, I will forthwith adopt his apparently (in his mind at least) appropriate initiative to plan other peoples lives, and not only call for him to immediately take the lead in adopting an insects only diet, but I will plan his meals for him as well.
For breakfast each and every day, Mr. Annan will dine sumptuously on cold maggot paste (which he can use to brush his teeth as well), which he can spread on his cockroach castings-flour brioche.
He may wash that down with a large glass of blowfly squeezings.
For lunch, he can choose between a second breakfast, or just keep it simple with a on-the-go helping of fermented dung beetles with a spider-web slurry seasoning, and nice bed bug and flea parfait.
I will have to plan his dinner later, as I am becoming quite suddenly hungry myself.
I am having steak, a fresh garden salad, and an olive oil vinaigrette. Crispy chicken wing appetizer, and fresh homemade ice cream (strawberry) for desert.
He can thank me later, after I get back from buying a pair of the biggest steel toed boots I can find, with which to kick some old mountain goat of a disgusting busybody right in his rude @ur momisugly$$