Mary Brown writes in WUWT Tips and Notes:
No more steak for you earth hating skeptics. Time to learn to eat sustainable crickets… so says the Washington Post. Of course it mentions climate change.
The article also says this…
“The industry leapt forward following a 2013 United Nations report warning that with nine billion people on Earth in 2050, current food production will have to double. Between a lack of space and climate change concerns, we’ll need more sustainable solutions. Crickets happen to be a great option.”
Interesting statement since the earth currently has 7.2 billion people, many of whom are clearly overfed already. I’m not sure why a 25% increase in population would require a 100% increase in food.
Also, the USA already produces food for 1.2 billion Americans and we waste 75% of it. Worldwide, food production is enough for roughly 14 billion people with 50% waste. Zero waste is unrealistic, but I’ll bet the food waste ratio approached zero in Europe in winter of ’45.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I’ve always wondered why people are so averse to eating crickets, yet will pay a lot of money for prawns. I haven’t eaten crickets, predictably enough my Thai friends claim they taste like chicken.
bobl:
“Clearly math (sic) and research are not the warmists (sic) strong suit. I might also add that in Australia at least, more than 70% of arable land is not cultivated.” Define “arable”? I’ve covered a great part of this country and have noted that where land is capable of carrying a crop, it is cropped. Where it’s not, it’s used for grazing stock (at very low stocking rates) . Apart from the generally poor soil fertility across much of this continent, the limiting factor in agriculture is of course, water. Australia’s best soils are along the east coast, and much of it’s being covered by McMansions and associated infrastructure.
Can I get a grant for cricket farming? To reduce cow farts and save the world?
lee says:
August 20, 2014 at 7:05 pm
You would likely need to get a fart to weight ratio study done comparing cows to crickets before you apply for a grant
For all we know crickets might be some flatulent little fellows ;0)
Mike T, I live in Arizona the so call soil looks like hell but can grow just about anything if you add water. This was a revelation to some on who grew up in an area where gets plenty of water and when they started to grow wheat on it ran wheat for 25 years straight and had no lose of yield. The Red river valley of the north is where I grew up even the 1930 had a minimal affect on that land, but I digress.
The thing about desert soil if you pour water on it it will grow just about anything as long as it was not on the bottom of a dry lake, if it a dry lake the alkali will kill just about anything. The reason is the plant nutrients have not been washed out of it. In the desert the problem is general water as long as you are not talking sand dunes. The sad thing about the imperial valley in California an other semi arid ares, is not the lack of water if the lack of proper distribution.
the example I would use is the Missouri river system and it reservoirs are full to the brim again, Billions of acre feet have been flushed down the Missouri with major flooding in 2011, yet in the early 2000.s it was low on water, now the Colorado is low all though I expect that that is do to over optimistic projection on it ability to furnish water. I believe that the Glen canyon dam and Lake Powell should never been created unless those who did understood at time both Lake Powell and Lake Mead would be holding less than half their capacity at times. It is certain the the resident of the adjourn states and the media don not understand this.
The reality is if we were to use nuclear power and reverse osmosis water plants or set up system that could transport water over vast distances, the human race has the ability to make most desert bloom regardless of the rainfall. All can be done at a cost that is not prohibitive it only will take the political will to pull it of and an understanding at least half the time the plants and or canals will be not needed.
The reality is the greenies kill most of the projects, Their of the unknown is great or they just hate people take your pick. The killed a plan to move water from Missouri river to the Red River for municipal water and killed irrigation on the James river which is part of the Missouri river system on the fear of species being introduced into the red that do not exist there. The reality the species introduction happen anyway and now the Zebra mussel problem is in the Red river system and presently spreading regardless of canals or irrigation projects.
So the message i have is presently water and food are only a political problem not a technology problem and will remain that way for as long as their are humans on earth.
John ;0 I don’t know about crickets but i will never forgive the grasshopper that at the hole in my nylon window screens in the drought in western North Dakota in the 1980, I hope that nylon killed the (little, no he was not little he was about 2 inches long) bugger. I do know that the ground squirrels would eat them, I do not think I would want to even though I had ample opportunity to since I had to vacuum them out from under the hood of the car when they filled most of the voids in it, I missed the biggest void though about three years later the car was over heating and I replace the radiator the real problem was half of the space between the air condition condenser and the radiator was full of their carcasses.
As a child between 1968 and 1972 I lived in phoenix, and I remember a locust storm, kind of a big deal for an eight year old, I collected nearly a full brown paper bag of the little critters ;0)
Yeah, I used to ride a motorcycle for daily transportation. Bugs just seem to come out of nowhere during the 5 seconds one’s mouth is open. The bumble bee that hit my neckline and fell, rather angrily I thought, into my shirt caused me the most grief as I ripped off buttons and flapped.
Chocolate covered bugs, candy coated bugs, grasshoppers, crickets or scorpions speared on a stick and toasted over a fire.
I did once refuse to eat a juicy looking spider. My Brother told me my loss and scarfed it down, fresh and lively no less; it was some large prowling ambush spider in the American West, not a tarantula. I reminded my Brother about the time he pounced on a large Eastern spider and immediately skewered it on a fishing hook for bait. Without any success, no fish touched the hairy thing. Shuddering time.
@Newly Retired Engineer:
I didn’t think about slugs and snails and I wondered for several years why we had so few fireflies, (fireflies feed on slugs and snails). Nor did I see many slugs or snails. Time to buy another flush of ducks my favorites were the rouens, they look like large mallards, as I’m seeing too many of the slimy things on my orchids now. I wouldn’t mind trying to raise some wood ducks, but they’re harder to keep local to a residence.
Pekins are cool too, bland looking but great personalities. Our largest duck was a Pekin male who ostensibly ruled the flock. One day we noticed his alpha mate was limping so I caught the little hen and checked her leg carefully, no injury, and I let her go. she promptly raised holy heck with her leader drake. While she was berating her drake I noticed she was still limping, but seemed to favor the other leg; so I caught her again, same routine. The moment she got free she really started in on her old man, pecking at his head and buffeting him with her wings and quacking the whole time. She gave him a hard time every time she saw me for weeks; sorry lady, I’m just bringing water and food or collecting eggs.
A neighbor of mine kept a goose for several years; terrific guard beast, he was happy to bite or hit people if given the chance. Noisy too when he was upset.
People already eat plenty of arthropods, such as crab, lobster and shrimp – all related to the insect family. I don’t though. Mammalian meat is far better. Dolphins taste like chicken.. 😉
Mike T says:
August 20, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Sorry you don’t like my abreviated grammar ….
Anyway, Abare sends me reports. Also, you can look it up somewhere at x.gov.au 70 percent of arable land (mostly across the top end) is not under cultivation or is locked up in national or state forests. In many cases arable land that could be used for intensive farming is stocked with a few biological lawn mowers, rather than cultivated properly. Not to mention there are more than a few 100+ ac horse studs around. I do not accept that the occasional biological lawnmower at 1 per acre or horse properties, or even the ever present fallow fields, are “food production” in any practical sense of the word. We in Australia probably extract less than 5% of the possible food production from our land.
Back in college I decided to get over my fear of spiders by buying a tarantula. Named it Clarence, never did find out the actual sex. Then was told the university frowned on such pets so I took it home, and let my mother work on her fear of spiders.
Now there was a creature that was happy with a bag of crickets from the pet store.
Then I found out people eat tarantulas. Nowadays fried spider is a common food in some parts. The Internet has recipes and how-to videos!
Wow. Some years before my parents had bought a live lobster to see what the fuss was about. I “killed it with kindness” within hours trying to keep it alive in a large fishbowl. Didn’t cook up that great, still don’t like them.
I had that tarantula for years before it died. That makes it my worst case of playing with my food ever.
The problem is not in quantity of food but in the distribution: comparitively wealthy countries have too much & as a result waste most of it, poorer countries don’t have enough (largely due to the machinations of WWT, IMF & World Bank)
Also, the USA already produces food for 1.2 billion Americans and we waste 75% of it.
I always wonder where these numbers come from. Sometimes it’s 40%, now it’s 75%.
Then I think about how much of the chicken I made is bones, fat that’s left in the pan, giblets and skin. Banana peels. Cantaloupe seeds and rind. Apple cores.
Look at an ear of corn. Remove the husk and silk, save only the layer of kernels for eating, discard the cob. Then there’s pork ribs, you could leave 75% of the weight behind on the plate as bones.
How much of this “waste” is the difference between what is currently considered edible food and the original food item? Sure, there are many third-world countries with less food waste. They eat chicken feet and necks and tongues and eyes and brains!
Nice discussion from Ted Talks on food waste. Very informative. I don’t think there is any way to know how much, for sure.
http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal
The food that would be wasted by pre and post harvest fungus and molds is mostly averted by the use of fungicides.
For example, organic growers throw three out of four strawberries away by removing them when they show signs of fungus growth. Peach growers also routinely lost 75% of their crop in the past because of molds and mildews which we now control through fungicides.
It is organic growers that waste food as they are beginning to ban the use of fungicides.
The EPA is on a warpath regarding “food waste.” I had a chance to look into some of the programs, which right now are voluntary, used to supposedly avert all of this waste.
http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/
The government regulation of food portions is the ultimate goal of this “food waste” propaganda offensive, in my opinion. One of the solutions is a strictly regulated type of packaging, with government regulated, smaller daily portions. Yes there are already environmentally friendly packagers lined up who would no doubt benefit very greatly from new regulations on food packaging and sizes. That is usually the whole point of mandates, in my experience. Coerced customers.
Since the global warming scare is loosing its effectiveness, the “local only” and smaller, regulated portions which would have been introduced through AGW policies are now being shifted to a “food waste” program. We have many ways of keeping food, including flash freezing, freezing, canning, using preservatives, vacuum sealing, and dehydrating. This “food waste” hobby horse is an EPA power grab over the food supply in my estimation. I think every one here would benefit from limiting the EPA’s power or eliminating it altogether. You will have noticed the expansion of the Clean Water legislation to include any water on any one’s property. That is how the EPA roles.
I ate some salty roasted locusts (they were canned) at a student party in Stockholm. The taste was nutty but the bits of wings, armor plates, legs… were like unpeeled shrimp. I found I drank a lot more beer at this party. In Nigeria, I also ate fried termites. When they hatched, they flew out of holes in the ground in clouds. Locals had big wok like pans of water with a lantern over it to attract kilos of these things. They were like tiny sausages and weren’t bad at all – but I’ll wait until the butcher shops run out of renewable beef before I take to the habit.
Here’s a three-year-old thread on the same topic and advice:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/10/climate-craziness-of-the-week-eat-bugs-not-meat-to-save-the-planet/
BTW: A couple of years ago there was a thread on the announcement that Japanese researchers had managed to convert cow poop into hamburgers. I commented, “Want flies with that?”
Here is one of the EPA’s policies (voluntary at this point) for supermarkets, to reduce “food waste”:
“Source Reduction/Prevention
Hannaford Supermarkets is a full service grocer with 181 stores in the New England region. As a part of their commitment to sustainability and providing the best food to their customers, they implemented food waste prevention strategies to reduce the amount of surplus food generated. Strategies include fresh truck deliveries every day instead of forecasting out orders and a computer-assisted ordering system to order appropriately based on inventory and sales predictions. Learn more (PDF) (2 pp, 409 Kb)”
Excuse me, I do not think that daily truck deliveries are a good business model necessarily. I have already heard trendy local markets advertising that they get the food delivered daily from local producers. The use of a semi truck to deliver 40,000 pounds of freight from Florida to a distribution center, and then to the store close to you, enables you to eat oranges, for example; and nitpicking molecules by introducing daily delivery guidelines is not an improvement. It is a straightjacket. We also must support our growers, who use fungicides and pesticides, trucks, refrigeration, canning, and freezing, to sell their food all over the country and all over the world. This local only, “food waste” offensive is sheer and utter nonsense!
From the EPA’s Food Waste and Food Recovery Resource page, please take time to look at the Food Recovery Hierarchy graphic:
http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/
The largest base of the triangle diagram is “source reduction.”
Most supermarkets already donate food to the local food banks, or privately owned and operated thrift stores, or churches. Obviously all of you are so well-off you do not realize that people think of these things without the EPA telling Americans what to do with food that did not sell.
I really wish I hadn’t read your post, I had no idea that I was supposed to be tossing 3 out of 4 strawberries ;0)
As a 100% organic grower with a medium size hobby garden at 15000 sq ft I rarely toss anything
Making the switch to organic was a challenge though, it is a lot more work, I often think about the good old days, when all I had to do was hose my garden with petrochemicals every 15 days then stand back with crossed arms acting like I did something special ;0)
I actually get dirt under my fingernails now ;0)
That is interesting, John. You have not said whether you use fungicides or fumigants, or not, as an organic grower. Some of these are in the process of being needlessly eliminated by organic growers. Some of them still use the fungicides.
You also did not address the yield loss you experience due to verticillium wilt, grey mold, or fruit rot, which is the reason the commercial organic growers have to throw away the infected fruit. A little warm weather and moisture causes these to spread quickly in a strawberry field. Controlling these has resulted in a yield increase for strawberries of 5-6 fold. This means many more tons of strawberries produced on 1/3 the land in the UK, for example.
Folks, food waste must by definition include food that was destroyed by molds, mildews, wilts, spots, and all other pathogens. We also have come to reasonably expect that our food would not have worms or molds in it when we purchase it.
Ah ha, perhaps including insects in the human diet is the necessary “paradigm shift” for the organic-only lobby.
This would facilitate lifting the laws which forbid more than 2% bugs in your cans of tomatoes. Very convenient for the loud, NGO funded organic lobby.
Zeke, “Pure Food Laws” in place when I worked in the food industry four decades ago allowed for a percentage of insect parts (just in case a cockroach fell into a batch) and mineral oil (from the manufacturing process, obviously, machinery needed to be lubricated). In Australia, before GST, sales taxes were different on products containing cocoa, so some strange products, such as a stawberry-flavoured milk additive plus the ready- made flavoured milk contained cocoa.
John says, “As a 100% organic grower with a medium size hobby garden at 15000 sq ft I rarely toss anything”
What do you grow, John?