Would you eat a stink bug? What about a dung beetle?
I have to admit, as adventurous as I am about food, I think I might have to be on the verge of starvation before I could buy in to a new report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday.
"It is widely accepted that by 2050 the world will host nine billion people," the document begins. "To accommodate this number, current food production will need to almost double. Land is scarce and expanding the area devoted to farming is rarely a viable or sustainable option. Oceans are overfished and climate change and related water shortages could have profound implications for food production. To meet the food and nutrition challenges of today-there are nearly one billion chronically hungry people worldwide-and tomorrow, what we eat and how we produce it needs to be re-evaluated. Inefficiencies need to be rectified and food waste reduced. We need to find new ways of growing food."
The FAO's plan? Consume more insects.
From a food security point of view, it is a really good strategy. Insects, from beetles to butterflies, bees to ants, even mosquitos and flies are high in protein, fibre, good fats and vital minerals.
And raising and harvesting insects is much less land-intensive, much more efficient and produces far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional livestock.
In short, they're good for us and they're good for the planet.
The FAO also suggests gathering and eating wild pest insects is a good way to reduce our reliance on pesticides.
Nearly two billion people already regularly incorporate insects in their diets.
Still, for me, and I'm guessing pretty much everyone who is reading this column, there is a certain 'yuck' factor when in comes to the idea of eating insects.
Intellectually, I know there are plenty of things I do like to eat that can be just as unappealing. At Lobsterfest Friday evening I sat next to a filmmaker from Toronto. While the rest of the people at the table were enthusiastically devouring lobsters, she was having lasagna. She couldn't eat lobster, she said, "because they just look too much like giant bugs."
If I think about it critically, there really is no reason why I couldn't acquire a taste for grasshopper stew or cricket curry.
Emotionally though, until I am actually faced with starvation, they're just not on the menu.
