Let them eat cockroach bread. From the “ew! just ewwwww!” department of climate salvation, comes this idea that’s sure to catch on with people who are really concerned about reducing their carbon footprint. Forget steak, forget Soylent Green, it’s roach-bread!
Looking for an easy, affordable way to get a high protein diet? Researchers of the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) in Rio Grande do Sul may have come across a crunchy answer, although it might turn your stomach; cockroach-laced bread.
Just like peanuts: ‘Tasty’ cockroach bread may feed world’s population in climate change era
The threat of climate change looms large, providing a unique set of challenges for the future, including how we will feed an estimated 9 billion people by 2030. One group of researchers in Brazil has proposed a different, stomach-churning solution. Cockroaches made into bread.
“They remind us of ches[t]nut or peanut. They’re really good and tasty, and (their presence) does not affect the flavor of the bread,” said Myrian Melado, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande, as reported by AsiaOne.
The practice of eating insects, known as entomophagy, has existed for millennia but has been largely overlooked in the western world since the agricultural revolution.
However, as climate change continues to threaten the long-term viability of traditional livestock agriculture, scientists are once again turning to insects as a potential solution to world hunger both now and in the future.
“Insects don’t create waste. If we think of the amount of water we need to breed an insect, compared to the amount of it needed for cattle breeding, it’s infinitely less,” continued Melado.
Scientists have long played with the idea of switching to insects to meet our protein requirements but, so far, the market in the West has resisted the allure of fresh mealworms that taste like pumpkin seeds or protein bars made of crickets.
Source: RT
Re the classic statement “If we think of the amount of water we need to breed an insect, compared to the amount of it needed for cattle breeding, it’s infinitely less”,. Once again they are not comparing like with like. Yes a single cockroach will need “infinitely” less water than a cow, but how many roaches will be required to produce the equivalent food value of a cow and how much water will they use. One wonders are academics that thick or just bending the facts for their own ends
Cockroaches don’t require much water at all, even in large numbers. With 300+ hissers, I added maybe half a cup of water a day.
I would add that was only when the sponge dried out, not necessarily every day. Cockroaches can go days without water and still be fine. Cattle cannot.
How many cockroaches are needed to equal the protein in a cow, I don’t know. But water-wise, I’m sure the cockroaches win.
Also, wolves won’t eat your cockroach “crop” and you can go on vacation for a week and no supervision of the cockroaches is needed. The down side is many varieties will die if they get cold. They are a “warm weather crop”.
During the Second World War a Canadian Destroyer blew up and sank in the Clyde while taking on ammunition.
Many years later it was becomimg a hazard to navigation as ships got bigger, so it was broken up. Apparently cockroach colonies were found in some air spaces.
Sounds worst than it looks… I’m trying it! Who’s with me?
Maybe but don’t bug me about it.
Feed the cockroaches and kale to free range chickens and pigs…just sayin…pick your protein. Bacon and eggs, homemade ice cream, baby back ribs or bugs that taste like peanuts. (…and why not just grow more peanuts? good source of protein)
I wonder how much that cost the Brazilian taxpayers?
Many years ago I caught a large Japanese cockroach eating the dead skin on the sole of my foot. Had to get my back scrubbed at a different place the next time.
Seriously, I would give roach bread a try. It’s just a habit shift, really. Good protein is good protein.
Also in today’s newspaper, here’s a story about a climate saving veggie burger…
Can a veggie burger that bleeds and sizzles like meat help fight climate change?
The Impossible Burger isn’t your run-of-the-mill veggie burger. It’s a burger designed for meat lovers. It bleeds and sizzles like meat – but is made entirely from plants. Now, there’s a better chance you’ll be able to taste it for yourself.
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/food/veggie+burger+that+bleeds+sizzles+like+meat+help+fight+climate/12881859/story.html
As one of the world’s largest beef producers and a country of carnivores (as one may have noticed going to a Brazilian steakhouse) Brazil should be ashamed of financing such nonsense. Also, for a place containing some of the largest rivers in the world and *the* largest reserves of freshwater, the concern about “using infinitely less water” (whatever that means) sounds oddly misplaced.
The roachaphobe haters are out in force today…
I do not believe that cockroaches can be eliminated in this way,
so I will stick to my way of being green–eating beef to reduce
methane emissions.
Simples. Feed insects to insectivoreand omnivores. Put said insectivores and omnivores on the menu. Anyone for pangolin, aardvark, warthog, or just pork?
A slice of each please, with gravy!
This piece should have had a Trigger Warning for Roach-a-philes — who will be shocked at the sugestion of eating their little friends.
And a separate Trigger Warning for Roach-a-phobes, who are probably much more common, who are shocked at even the thought of eating roaches.
Disclosure: I have been a roach murderer — paid for a family vacation one year by killing roaches for profit.
The ones taste testing the “bread” drew the short straws.
What if this was a double-blind study? Could people tell the difference in the breads? If they didn’t know they were eating cockroaches, maybe they would actually like the bread.
Actually it’s not climate science. This is the cost of corruption in Brazil and the payback for massive corruption in socialist leadership in S. America.
Data (2013 & 2015) on edible insect composition has been compiled by B.A. Rumpold & O.K. Schluter in “Nutritional composition and safety aspects of edible insects” … & also … “Insect-based protein sources and their potential for human consumption: nutritional composition and processing”. Both are available on-line as free full pdf ((if your favorite search engine does not pull these up try using the yandex search engine)).
For anyone interested in rearing assorted insects for purposes like poultry supplemental feed ingredient, value added products, waste processing or even some human use (ex: cricket “flour”) the “Forum” at openbugfarm dot com has a “web” version you can select for with a search function bar (“mobile” version has no search box). I have no commercial interest there, nor is that Forum marketing anything.
In Thailand insects already are a delicacy. You can buy lots of well prepared insects at the market.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jMJR2Tt2Kjc/UA-oBB9maTI/AAAAAAAABVY/zsAIoJOuBrk/s1600/Insects-Market.jpg
No fried tarantulas? Those freak me out.
There’s already cricket protein powder sold in the USA. (I learned that on Judge Judy.)
unless already digested in my foods gastric system there is no such thing as well prepared insects
So we’re supposed to eat cock roaches to extinction? Lol.
My wife has severe allergies. In December, they did some more testing on her, and she is allergic to cockroaches, even though we don’t have them in this area, AFAIK.
This was the plot of the movie SnowPiercer, with elites living in luxury, while the rest eat bugs. However this was brought on by an attempt to stop global warming.
Sorry, I have a roach allergy. Also, I’m not crawling around in a cave starving to death.
Climate science is full of cockroaches. We should start there.
This may be the solution to the Venezuelan food crisis though.
Dammit, I did not want to see that first thing in the morning.
Boiled Silk worms are good. Dog is ok.
Maybe you haven’t seen how dogs are cooked, if you had you might feel a little different about that.
While briefly in the Highlands New Guinea the locals used to eat cans of dog food, available at the local grocer.
Cans of fish had fish on them, cans of dog food had a dog on them.
Cans of dog food in most countries I have lived also has pictures of dogs however, most dog food is vegetable based, except onions, and is safe for human consumption (In regulated countries).
Before wheat is ground into flour to make bread, samples are taken and analyzed. Virtually every sample has bug parts in them. Not a problem as long as the bug parts are below a certain level. White flour has been bleached with chlorine gas so that the bug parts become white powder that is indistinguishable from the bleached wheat flour.