BI/ENT 300 PESTS, PLAGUES AND POLITICS

student edition - 2002

WHY NOT!!!!?????? You already do and with great Regularity.

     Class Crustacea: Lobsters - Shrimp - Crabs

          Arthropods from the SEA = O.K.

          Arthropods from the LAND = non appetizing!!!

   A CURIOUS attitude, BECAUSE the Bible tells you otherwise:

     Leviticus XI: 12

"Everything in the water that has not fins and scales is an abomination to you."

     FDA Allowable Insect Parts

          Cherries - 4% by count insect infested (fresh, canned or frozen)

          Citrus fruit - Drosophila & other fly eggs,

                juices - eggs, 10 per 250 ml - larvae, 2 per 250 ml

          Peaches - 5% by count, wormy

          Wheat - 1% by weight of insect damaged kernels

          Apple butter - 5 insect or insect parts/100g (not counting mites, aphids, thrips or scale insects)

          Peanut Butter - 30 insect fragments/100g

          Tomatoes (canned) - 10 fruit fly eggs/500 g or 5 eggs & 1 larvae or 2 larvae

          Tomatoes (juice)      - five times the concentration of canned

Appetizing, 'eh???!!!!

     Dietary Aversions:

It has been Western (European) civilization alone that turns away from the

valuable nutritional resource represented by insects!!!!!

Many, many other cultures, PAST & PRESENT, relish insects in their diet.

     Biblical: Leviticus XI: 22

"Even these of them ye may eat: the LOCUST after his kind,

and the BALD LOCUST after his kind, and the BEETLE after

his kind, and the GRASSHOPPER after his kind."

     Mark I: 6

"And John (the Baptist) was clothed in camel's hair; and with a

girdle of skin about his loins; and he did eat LOCUST and wild honey."

{honey - the one insect product acceptable too nearly all. At an annual rate of one pound per capita (vs. 140 pounds of other forms of carbohydrate)}

[See Isman & Cohen (Kosher Insects) in American Entomologist Summer 1995 (p.100) about why Orthoptera were o.k.]

Pre-hominoid Apes & Early Homo sapiens

               Largely omnivorous - including ENTOMOPHAGIC

Ancient Greeks & Romans

  Herodotus, Aristotle & Pliny left written records of entomophagy among the highly civilized cultures of their day.

Today

Almost all non-European cultures, especially in: AFRICA, SOUTHERN AMERICAS & ASIA.

Insects Eaten:

Ants - usually winged sexuals - easily procured at colony swarming

the HONEY ANTS (replete forms)

immature forms (larvae & pupae) - WEAVER ANTS

Termites - particularly the queens & males at swarming time

Beetles - especially the bigger, JUICIER larvae.

Locusts & Grasshoppers - the MOST FREQUENTLY eaten "bug"

Abundant in extremis. A medium sized swarm of ca. 25 sq. mi. would contain 5 billion insects or 10,000 tons.

Flies - Indians of the American West: Pupae of Ephydra hians - mass emergence in brackish lakes.

------------------------------------

Rationale for ENTOMOPHAGY

World Protein Crisis (ultimate cause = Population Crisis)

1850 - one billion humans (this took us 30,000 years)

1930 - two billion

1975 - four billion

1995 - five & one-half billion

2010 - eight billion (projected)

Hey' how many people can the earth support????

H.E. Evans says ca. 40 billion (WOW)

-----------------

Where will the food come to feed us all?????

• More land into agricultural production????

Probably, but the best agricultural lands are already in use or going out of use (Willamette Valley; 2,000 acres annually.)

Number ONE Problem in Today's U.S. Agriculture is: _____ _______!!!

• More efficient Agriculture?????

Hopefully, but at a cost!!!!

Potentially more energy intensive

Require further advances in increasing plant efficacy.

• Utilization of existing Protein????

V.G. Holt: "Philosophy bids us neglect no wholesome source of food."

Maybe???? INSECTS - and here are some reasons:

Efficiency of Energy Conversion to Protein

{i.e., pounds of live animal produced per 100 pounds of feed}

Traditional
Chicken 38-40%

Sheep & Lambs 5%

Tradition Beef cattle 10%

Hogs 20%

Fish 20%

Non-traditional

Grasshoppers 12%

Bed Bugs 40%      

Silkworm larva 31%

Beetles 40%

Screw worm fly larva 36%

Termites 68%

---------------------------------------

High Capacity for Reproduction & Short Life Cycle

Nutritional Value of Insects

% Protein % Fat % Carbohydrate

beef 17-19, 16-25, 0

pork 15-17, 23-31, 0

fish 19, 5, 0

eggs 13 ,12 ,1

milk 4, 4, 5

termite 33, 33, 0

grasshopper 15-46, 2-10, 7

fly pupae 63, 16, 0

=======================================

References:

Anon. 1993. Eat or be eaten. Entomol. Soc. Amer. Newsletter 16(4): 1,5.

Bodenheimer, F.S. 1951. Insects as Human Food. W. Junk Pub., The Hague.

Boyle, R.H. 1992. The joy of cooking insects. Audubon Sept./Oct. pp. 100-103.

DeFoliart, G. 1989. The human use of insects as food and animal feed. Bull. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 35: 22-35.

DeFoliart, G. 1992. Insects - an overlooked food resource. In: Insect Potpourri, (J. Adams, ed.) Sandhill Crane Press, Gainesville, Florida. pp. 44-48.

Fasoranti, J.O. and D.O. Ajiboye 1993. Some edible insects of Kwara state, Nigeria. Amer. Entomol. 39(2): 113-116.

Holt, V.M. 1885. Why Not Eat Insects. E.W. Classey, Ltd., Faringdon, U.K.

Isman, M.B. and M.S. Cohen Kosher insects. American Entomologist 41(2): 100-102.

Madsen, D.B. 1989. A grasshopper in every pot. Natural History 7: 22, 24-25.

Rennie, J. 1991. Entomophagy: a meal of cooked insects offers food for thought. Scientific American. Aug. pp. 20.

Sokolov, R. 1989. Insects, worms and other tidbits. Natural History 9: 84-88.

Sokolov, R. 1991. One man bites back. Natural History 11: 70-73.

Taylor, R.L. 1975. Butterflies in My Stomach or: Insects in Human Nutrition. Woodbridge Press. Santa Barbara, CA.

Taylor, R.L. and B.J. Carter. 1976. Entertaining with Insects. Woodbridge Press. Santa Barbara, CA.

Wagner, W. 1992. FDA keeps antennae out for insect fragments. FDA Consumer. (November) pp. 19-23.