Scientists planning to feed school children insects to make the UK 'greener'

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A new plan drafted by "scientists" in a bid to educate children on "the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects" will see four primary schools in Wales provide insects for student consumption. The move is part of a school project to switch children's appetite toward "alternative protein" and to persuade parents to follow their lead.

This "alternative protein" includes crickets, locusts, mealworms, silkworms and grasshoppers as the alternative to meat consumption in schools.

Dr. Christopher Bear of Cardiff University, who is part of the trust-funded research on 'young people, alternative proteins and pedagogies for sustainable futures', stated:

"We want the children to think about alternative proteins as real things for now, rather than just as foods for the future, so trying some of these foods is central to the research, although edible insects are for now not sold widely in the UK, they form part of the diet of around 2 billion people worldwide. Much of this is in parts of the world where they are part of long-standing culinary traditions. And they are increasingly popular elsewhere".

According to The International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) (and yes, it's a real organization), they write:

Our planet faces huge challenges because of the growing population and increasing competition for scarce resources.

• Whereas the global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) estimates that the world needs to increase its food production by 70% by that time, mostly to feed such a growing population.
• Meat consumption and demand are forecasted to increase by 72% between 2000 & 2030, whilst 60 MT of proteins are forecasted to be missing by 2030 in order to meet the expected demand.
• Animal feed production is increasingly competing for resources (land, water & fertilisers) with human food and/or fuel production. This contributes to increasing the pressure on the environment (e.g. water supply, deforestation or soil decline in producing countries).

The World Economic Forum (WEF), which is involved in most of our lives through its corporate partners and global leaders who tout their message of "Agenda 2030" and climate sustainability, has been pushing for the public to switch to eating bugs for a while now as part of their "environmental reset".

To see more on the WEF, head on over to WEFreports.com.