Geo 200: World Geography

For one of the assignments in this course, we imagined that we had moved to a very different part of the world and were hosting a dinner party in our new home:

Cassava pudding video:  https://youtu.be/KT_YZxrrOd8

Sci 218: Natural Resources

This was my first SNHU course (summer of 2016). I wrote about a variety of topics, including insects as food, Malta, invasive bullfrogs, the history of paper recycling, Agent Orange bioremediation, and solid waste management in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

Mini Livestock:  Insects as Food

“What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?” the Gnat asks Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-glass (Carroll, Haughton & Carroll, 2009).  Like Alice, most American consumers “don’t rejoice in insects at all.”  We do rejoice in meat, but livestock raising is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases, and also has other environmental drawbacks (King, 2014; Oonincx et al, 2010).  As the world’s population grows and climate patterns shift, we will need more sustainable sources of protein.  Although many kinds of arthropods have been eaten by cultures around the world for millennia, consumers in the industrialized West – even those of us who adore aquatic arthropods like lobster, shrimp and crab – have tended to regard edible insects with squeamishness or, at best, the thrill of the “yuck factor.”  However, thanks to dedicated research and entrepreneurship, more and more American diners are trying insects, and this can potentially make a positive impact on the environment.

Pictured below are two similar dishes on the dinner menu of Oyamel Cocina Mexicana in Washington, DC.  Each features a meat taco made with a corn tortilla and assorted garnishes.  One of the meats is pork and the other is chapulines, or grasshoppers.  Each dish could be accompanied by a green salad, dessert and a beverage.  I used the calculator at foodemissions.com to estimate the CO₂ equivalent impact of production and transportation of a typical meal of corn tortillas with tomato salsa, romaine lettuce salad, ice cream, and beer as 1.12 kg (CleanMetrics, 2011).  From the same source, half a pound of (uncooked) pork would add 1.28 kg to that total. A Dutch study by Oonincx et al. (2010) found that the CO₂ equivalent impact of pork per kilogram of mass gain ranges from about 80 to 1130 grams, while for migratory locusts (a large grasshopper, but not the same species as chapulines) this figure is roughly 18 grams, and for the much smaller house cricket it is about 1.6 grams.  If it is reasonable to extrapolate from this comparison, then, substituting half a pound of some kind of grasshopper meat for pork in the taco meal could reduce the CO₂ equivalent impact of the meat filling by anywhere from 75 to 99 percent.  Since the pork accounts for over half of the CO₂ equivalent of the entire meal, this is a significant difference.  

There are additional, unquantified advantages:  edible insects are raised without antibiotics, and they do not incubate dangerous zoonotic diseases such as swine or avian flu (Oonincx et al., 2010). What is also clear from the menu, however, is that the chapulines taco costs 25 percent more than the pork taco. One of the changes that will need to happen to increase American consumers’ acceptance of insect meals is lower prices, or at least some way for insect foods’ retail prices to signal their lower environmental and health costs. Although insects can be naturally clean and wholesome, they are not risk-free: they can trigger some people’s seafood allergies; they can also spoil rapidly, and they must be raised in a pesticide-free environment (King, 2014). However, they use so much less land, water, and other resources per kilogram that the rising costs of beef and hog production will likely shift the relative prices without any intervention, and governments can also reexamine their tax and subsidy policies that now favor less sustainable farming. But a big part of lowering cost is simply increasing sales volume, and that will take some thoughtful marketing. Showcasing them in ethnic and “fusion” menus, highlighting insects’ positive features, and making more flours, ground meals, and other ingredients available at supermarkets are all ways to expand insects’ appeal – and encourage even more Americans to “rejoice in insects.”    

References

Carroll, L., Haughton, H. & Carroll, L. (2009). Alice's adventures in Wonderland; and, through the looking-glass and what Alice found there. New York: Penguin Classics.

CleanMetrics ™.  (2011).  Food carbon emissions calculator.  Retrieved from http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx

King, B.J.  (2014 April 3).  The joys and ethics of insect eating.  13.7 Cosmos & Culture:  Commentary on science and society.  Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/04/03/297853835/the-joys-and-ethics-of-insect-eating

Oonincx, D.G.A.B, van Itterbeeck, J., Heetkamp, M.J.W., van den Brand, H., van Loon, J.J.A. & van Huis, A.  (2010).  An exploration on greenhouse gas and ammonia production by insect species suitable for animal or human consumption.  PLoS One 5(12): e14445.  Published online 2010 December 29.  doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014445

Oyamel Cocina Mexicana.  (2011).  Menu: Dinner.  Retrieved from http://www.oyamel.com/images/uploads/Menu_Dinner.pdf