Consultation on transitional arrangements for edible insects in Great Britain

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
grenfell
Posts: 4014
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2013 7:55 pm

Re: Consultation on transitional arrangements for edible insects in Great Britain

Post by grenfell »

Vega-J wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 10:11 am I don't see the point in this at all. We dont need protein from insects as we can live well on plant based proteins. With climate change and new plant breeding we can now grow soy beans, lupins, a wide range of beans and peas in this country.

My opinion is that we need to change our agriculture in the UK to promote crops like hemp before we look at insect farming
I wouldn't totally disagree although I tend to feel there's milage in edible seaweed production. Looking at it pragmatically there probably are some advantages but I do feel one driving factor is commercial. Going back to the advantages insect farms can be set up on pretty marginal land or land unsuitable for any other agriculture. From what video I've seen of this the insects are "farmed" in large tubs , mi!lions of them all together. The amount of production for a given area must be a lot higher than "conventional" agriculture . I don't know exactly what they are fed but did wonder if they could be fed on human food waste ? Course seaweed takes up even less farmland. I suppose these farms could be set up within towns and cities to reduce food miles although I would expect opposition from those living nearby
But as I said I tend to think the commercial side is a driving factor. There will probably be a high end product for the gourmets as well as a lower end pie filling product but it will probably have some attraction for export. Insects might not be popular over here but they are eaten in some other countries and maybe British insect products could be seen across the world. I won't go into the obvious lunacy of us importing one food product from halfway around the world and exporting another the opposite way.