History and Culture

History and Culture

The consumption of insects is unusual among many countries like the United States yet is very healthy and nutritious. However, the Asian countries like China and Thailand have been in the front line in eating them due to their nutritional value to human beings as compared to other sources of protein like meat, be it white or red meat. The Chinese market has opened doors for her citizens to freely trade all types of insects which have founded the culture of eating insects as well as forming the major part of history of becoming one of the largest consumers of insects. In Africa, the sub-Sahara states are reported to have an insect eating culture and are said to exhibit strong and enormous nutritional health which come as result of entomophagy.  Needless to say, there must be a number of reasons as to why the consumption of insects is profitable to human beings. This essay is aimed at discussing the merits and demerits of entomophagy in selected parts of Asian countries and these findings will be presented to the United Nations Foods and Agriculture Organization for considerations.

Edible insects

There are several types of insects that are commonly eaten by human and research has shown that there are over six million species of insects in the world. Although it may be difficult to scientifically describe them by their genetics, it is important to mention some of them. These several species of insects include wasps, locusts, leaf and plant-hoppers, termites, beetles, caterpillars, ants, crickets, glass-hoppers and bees. Most of these insects are eaten either in their larva form or the adult form. It is has been observed that either way, the nutritional content that is available is very beneficial to human beings. This explains the reason as to why most countries are now opting to produce insects commercially so that it can benefit as many individuals as possible. What are the reasons behind this decision?

The first reason is because commercial rearing of insects is incomparable to other animal farming. For instance, cattle farming would require the farmer to develop good infrastructure like pens, and be able to get the right breed that will pave way for high yields in the course of farming. Insects on the contrary do not require structures and much space since their habitat is easily available. The ease in which these insects are habited on the other hand makes it cost effective to such farming, meaning that it is cheap to start and run insect farming. This means that both the high and low income earners can comfortably start this kind of farming that will in turn lead to satisfaction of the market demands. Another reason for engaging in this kind of farming is because of the readily available market for insects.

Although not very many cultures are open for insect consumption, the number of people engaging in it has been on the rise and this can be interpreted to mean that the demand is low. This has made the individual cost of these insects to rise and thus, making them unaffordable for many who would like to eat them. Therefore, encouraging many people to farm them across the world will make the demand to go high as well its supply, which will in turn keep the prices of such commodities constant.  This is an important component of economy in that insect farming will in the future become a source of livelihood to many across the world and therefore it must be jealously guarded. Lastly, insect farming has been observed to be a strong pillar to all other types of farming. How is this possible?

Most insects are active agents in the production of dung that is directly deposited into the soil. This is one way in which soil for farming that makes it fertile for food production. In addition, insects are also pollination agents that are very instrumental in crop farming. They also act as pest controllers. This is possible because most insects prey on other pests. This means that the cost of production may be lowered and thus enable as many farmers to benefit from insect farming. Insects are real food for a both large and small animals and this can become a challenge

Merits of eating insects

The first advantage of insect consumption is the rich nutritional content in them. It is observed that China has been advocating for constituting insects in the diet. A recent talk that emphasized on eating insects has indicated that China is one of the cultures where you can find all kind of insects for food that are available in the major restaurants in the country. He also observes that there is a lot to choose from everyday (Dickel, 2013). This essay argues that such a mixture of insects in a single meal has far reaching nutritional content, mainly the proteins, which are drawn from all types of insects. This means that human race will benefit more as a result of resolving to eat insects. In Sub-Sahara Africa, insects form the constituent part of diet that cannot be found in other forms of meat. In addition, human health across the globe has been adversely affected by animal related diseases like swine flu and anthrax. This explains the reason why most nutritionists are always warning human beings to minimize the consumption of meat in all ways possible. Insects’ consumption is the better option to solving such problems.

One of the problems that doctors have diagnosed patients with in many parts of the world is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the body. It has been observed that insects have proficient body systems which prepare rich and healthy fats good for human consumption which cannot be compared with other fats that are found in other forms of meat (Raubenheimer & Rothman, 2012). This is another advantage of consuming insects. In other words, consumption of insects is a good source of hale and hearty for fat that cannot raise an alarm for heavy cholesterol in human beings. It can be noted that recent researches conducted across the globe have indicated that most people from different countries have been watching their diets and it can go out as a suggestion to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that a psycho-education is needed to educate people about the safety in consuming insects.

The other factor that has been considered by many nutritionists is the quality of the food that people are eating. The big quality question is what is the quality of meat that is produced by the insects? Research has shown that insect’s meat has been found to be a mixture of proteins, fat, and minerals, which are not available in other forms of meat (Banjo, Lawal & Songonuga, 2006). Therefore, the answer to this question is a big yes. This becomes the other advantage of eating insects. It means that an individual may get all the nutritional contents from a single meal rather than eating more than one type of food in order to eat a well balanced diet. It can therefore be argued that the determination to eat insects is very economical, that is, an individual may not need to buy fruits and other supplements in order to eat healthy. Insects’ consumption is enough to make the body happy.

The last advantage that is associated with this diet is the stumpy risk of transferrable diseases to human beings. Many diseases that affect human beings have been associated with animal meat. As a result, many have been diagnosed with meat diseases like anthrax which has continually claimed the lives of people in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Therefore, the introduction of this type of food in the human diet is a protective measure against these diseases and this can turn out to be a major relief to humans. This is because people around the globe have been spending huge amount of money in treatment of diseases and thus the need to put to an end this spending is salient.

Ease and Cost of raising insects for Consumption

As highlighted earlier in this report, rearing insects has been proved to be cost and environmental friendly. In other words, raising insects is cost effective in terms of food consumption. Insects eat very little but can cause huge damages to food crops like maize and kales. For instance, vegetable’s greatest enemies are grasshoppers and therefore it is important to consider such effects in raising insects. A farmer must then be able to put demarcations that clearly protect hazardous insects from tampering with other sectors of economy like cash crops. It can also be posited that most of these insects do not require medical treatment compared to other types of animal like goats and cattle. It must be noted that the cost of providing veterinary services to animal farmers has gone high and this is making this farming too expensive which in turn reduces the number of farmers who are venturing into it. Thus, comparing an insect farmer and a daily farmer, for instance, would mean that the former does not require huge capital to start farming than the latter, which will be forced to consider the breed type, geographical locations and animal husbandry factors.

The third factor that makes insect farming easy is their availability and numbers in a given region or field. Thousands and thousands of ants can live in a very small hole under the ground. One tree may host thousands of insects like bees. A small pond may be used to produce hundreds of water beetles. In a nut shell, an individual may be able to nurture thousands of insects in a very small area. This means that limited space will be enough to produce large amount of insects and this will in turn balance the equation between demand and supply. It can therefore be argued that insect farming is cheaper as compared with all other types of farming. This is why Sub Saharan African countries like Nigeria and Middle East countries like China have made several strides in encouraging the citizens to venture into this farming due to the fact that the output is greater than the input both in cost and space.

 

References

Banjo, A. D. et al. (2006). The nutritional value of fourteen species of edible insects in southwestern Nigeria. African Journal of Biotechnology , 5, 298-301.

Dickel, M. (Director). (2013). Why eat Insects? [Motion Picture].

Raubenheimer, D. & Rothman, J. (2012, September 04). Nutritional Ecology of Entomophagy in Humans and Other Primates. Reviews in Advance , pp. 141-164.

 

 

 

 

 

Latest Assignments