FAO
Report on Edible Insects
Invertebrates
at the ZooEdible Insects
by Alison Fromme
Can eating insects help fight hunger and promote biodiversity?
Yes, but only if Westerners can get over "the yuck factor," explains Gene DeFoliart, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and promoter of insects as food. Although people worldwide have been enjoying edible insects since ancient times, their value—in terms of both nutrition and conservation—is often overlooked by the modern Western world. And because Western tastes are so globally influential, people elsewhere may begin to shun insects as an important food source.
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| Would you eat these termites? In some areas of Africa, termites and other insects are fried and eaten as snacks. (Scott Bauer/ARS) |
An estimated 2,000 insect species are consumed around the world, and people do not just eat insects, they relish them as delicacies. In Africa, caterpillars and winged termites are fried and eaten as roadside snacks (after wings, legs, and bristles are removed, of course), and often considered tastier than meat. Grasshoppers and bee larvae seasoned with soy sauce are favorites in Japan, where pricey canned insects are also available. Papua New Guinea is known for its nutty-flavored sago grubs (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus papuanus or R. bilineatus), beetle larvae that inhabit dead sago palm trees and are honored at annual festivals.
Insects often contain more protein, fat, and carbohydrates than equal amounts of beef or fish, and a higher energy value than soybeans, maize, beef, fish, lentils, or other beans. According to a 2004 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, caterpillars of many species are rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron, as well as B-vitamins. In some African regions, children fight malnutrition by eating flour made out of dried caterpillars. Pregnant and nursing women as well as anemic people also eat caterpillar species high in protein, calcium, and iron.
Yet nutritionally important traditional foods such as insects have been ignored by agricultural aid efforts in Africa, wrote Jennifer Clover, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, in 2003. Dramatic increases in farming yields achieved through breeding programs during the Green Revolution between 1944 and 1975 helped to fill bellies in developing countries, but these crop plants alone did not provide a full complement of nutrients. Additionally, billions of dollars are spent worldwide to protect nutritionally inferior crops with chemicals that kill perfectly edible insect "pests," according to Julieta Ramos-Elorduy, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, pointing out one global effect of the modern Western bias against entomophagy, the eating of insects.
Ramos-Elorduy suggests there are no fewer than 34 reasons to explore insects as a food source, including their impressive nutritive value, easy breeding in captivity, and high biomass. She proposes enriching consumer foods with insect flour in order to make them more nutritious. "Finding an economic and nutritional use for insect species provides an important means to avoid species extinction," Ramos-Elorduy says.
In some cultures, edible insects are already a hot commodity. In northeastern India, for example, edible silkworm pupae (Bombyx mori) are prized more than the silk they produce, and some Mexican restaurants charge a hefty $25 for a plate of butterfly larvae. Chinese consumers spend about $100 million per year on edible ants alone.
Linking Caterpillars and Conservation
The availability of high-quality edible insects is closely
tied to healthy, intact forests. Without trees and foliage
to munch, insect populations plummet, so triggering
interest in preserving insects as food sources might
be one way to protect swaths of forests and the biodiversity
within them.
In many regions where forest degradation is acute, residents are too preoccupied with day-to-day survival to consider the luxury of protecting the environment. But wise management of natural resources could achieve two vital goals: raising living standards and conserving biodiversity.
In Malawi, a small country tucked between Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique, habitat conservation might seem at odds with the needs of citizens, the majority of whom subsist on less than $170 a year and will not live to see their 40th birthdays. Malawi's hilly woodland terrain provides habitat for elephants, antelopes, and other wildlife, as well as crucial resources, such as food and firewood, for human residents. A fifth of the country's land is set aside as parks and reserves, which helps protect precious biodiversity from the demands of a growing population.
But people on the outskirts of Kasungu National Park, which lies at the western edge of Malawi along the Zambian border, have trouble identifying how the park benefits their lives, although some residents are seasonally employed there. No one has lived on the park's lands since it was established in 1930, under British rule. When the park boundaries were drawn, people were forced to leave the land and their woodland lifestyle behind. Current entrance fees are unaffordable for the residents and money earned from tourists goes straight to the government, not the local people.
Some elders recall hunting antelope and collecting firewood, mushrooms, honey, wild fruit, roots, and edible caterpillars in the park's forest. Without access to the forest today, most people subsist on small plots of land where they farm maize and sometimes beans, groundnuts, and cassava. Some encroach onto park land to collect resources that they believe were theirs in the first place, but park officials view this behavior as a threat to the country's biodiversity.
Remarkably, caterpillars and some carefully crafted policies might be inching residents and park managers toward a more mutually beneficial relationship. Before the park's creation, everyone in the region collected, processed, and roasted two main caterpillar species—the orange-spiked, black-bodied Gonimbrasia belina, and the fleshy green Gynanisa maia, both known locally as Matondo—and served them fried or in stews.
Outside the current park boundaries, there are no caterpillars to collect because their preferred host tree (Julbernardia paniculata, a species important in an African woodland ecosystem called Miombo) has been chopped down by villagers who need firewood for cooking and heating.
In the early 1990s, Malawi's Department of National Parks recognized that caterpillars inside the park could help give people a reason to value the park and its protection. The department began allowing locals to harvest caterpillars, which they either eat or process and sell for additional income. The program has since expanded into other protected areas in Malawi where caterpillars are abundant.
The endeavor is not without difficulties, however, according to former Senior Parks and Wildlife Officer Simon Munthali, who helped initiate the program as one of the park's management strategies. Now head of the African Wildlife Foundation's (AWF) Conservation Service Center, Munthali says that caterpillar populations fluctuate extensively from year to year, "making it quite difficult to predict yields and set sustainable harvest quotas." Lack of funds in recent years has also jeopardized the success of the program. Munthali suggests creating local institutions that could effectively manage the program.
Nonetheless, Munthali sees promise in caterpillar harvesting within the park. "The potential to benefit local communities is higher than in subsistence agriculture, which is being further constrained by frequent drought in Malawi," he says. Additionally, caterpillar season begins just as other sources of food, such as maize, dwindle.
Despite its imperfections, Malawi's program represents an innovative move toward protecting biodiversity while providing people with vital income and food. In the future, Munthali plans to begin a new caterpillar harvesting project in Mozambique's Banhine National Park, as part of AWF's efforts to support Mozambique's government in rehabilitating the isolated park.
"There is no formal economy for the people living in the area, agriculture is unsustainable, there are no employment opportunities, no markets of any kind. Poverty is rife," Munthali says. Caterpillars just might provide much-needed revenue, and in turn bring higher living standards, better nutrition, and a tangible reason for community members to protect the local biodiversity.
From the Forest to the Feast
In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, edible caterpillars
can be quite abundant—averaging as many as seven
pounds of processed insects per tree. The sight of caterpillar
frass on the ground and chomped leaves on trees are
clues commonly used to track the insects. In the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, people call out to Minsangula
caterpillars (family Saturniidae), saying "hey,
hey" until the caterpillars respond to the noise
by jerking from side to side, revealing themselves to
their hunters.
Women and children are the primary caterpillar collectors. When some caterpillar species mature, they form large processions and descend down the tree trunks, so harvesters simply pluck them off the trees. Caterpillars are so important to the local diet and income in the Central African Republic that women move to the best harvesting areas with their children and set up huts for two months each year.
Some people even "farm" their own caterpillars. Paul Latham, a retired Salvation Army agriculturist who has been interested in edible insects for over 20 years, met one man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has cultivated a backyard population of the black, red, and yellow Ngala caterpillar (Cirina forda) from caterpillars he purchased in the village market. Villagers there plant Ricinodendron heudeloti trees to attract Mvinsu moths (Imbrasia epimethea) to lay their eggs for easier harvesting later on.
Traditionally, some cultures have observed strict societal rules surrounding caterpillar gathering to make sure populations survive from year to year. A Bas Congo custom directed people to harvest only one of two annual caterpillar generations, leaving the second "for the birds," according to Latham, and caterpillars on high branches were generally left alone. But some people cut whole branches or trees down to collect heaps of caterpillars at once. This practice could ultimately lead to the decimation of the forest and may become a bigger threat if human populations and poverty increase.
In the Zambian district of Mpika, where the Bisa people have collected Chipumi (Gynanisa maja), Mumpa (Gonimbrasia zambesina), and other caterpillar species for centuries, the Kopa region's senior chief ensures that caterpillar harvesters follow traditional rules. In September, village scouts notify the chief when eggs are found. The chief ceremonially thanks the Bisa ancestors for the caterpillars by placing a white cloth over a shrine. He rips the cloth, leaving a portion with the shrine and tearing the rest into small strips that he distributes to his grandsons, who use the cloth to mark the trees with the highest egg densities. Later, when the caterpillars reach their first developmental stage (known as the first instar), some are brought to the chief, whose senior wife offers them to the shrine, asking the ancestors to protect the people during the harvest. When the caterpillars mature, several are again presented to the chief and his wife, who makes a second offering. At this point, the chief's top officials establish the price of the caterpillars ($4.29 per gallon in 2000) and the length of the harvesting season, considering current densities and the previous year's demand in the decision.
Harvesting immature caterpillars or allowing the harvest season to last indefinitely could hamper the success of the next generation—which this traditional system prevents.
Not all communities follow such rigid harvesting procedures, but caterpillar processing is relatively consistent across cultures. The first step for species such as Ngala and Mvinsu, which feed on bitter or toxic plants, requires removing the gut, either by using a stick to turn the caterpillar's body inside-out, or puncturing then squeezing its body. Particularly hairy or spiny species are boiled in salted water to remove these undesirable parts before the caterpillars are dried in the sun and smoked on a grate over a fire. For a snack, the caterpillars are sometimes fried in palm oil and seasoned with salt. They're also commonly eaten in sauces with meat, fish, or vegetables such as mushrooms or manioc.
All this work pays off in terms of nutritional value and actual income, according to the 2004 FAO report. In some sub-Saharan African countries, up to 30 percent of all the protein in a person's diet comes from insects. Because caterpillars are a favorite food, selling them there can also be quite lucrative. Throughout the region, collectors can earn an average of about $0.80 per pound of dried caterpillars, while retailers earn about twice that. Wholesale business is most profitable, netting almost $600 per year on average—more than 3.5 times the average Malawian salary.
The Forgotten Crop
"Insects are really the forgotten food crop, particularly
because of the Western world's dominance on judging
foods," according to FAO researcher Paul Vantomme,
who echoes DeFoliart's sentiments. The FAO reported
that edible insects contribute significantly to the
livelihoods of the poorest and most disadvantaged people
in central Africa, although the organization has not
historically kept data on insects as crops.
The origins of cultural bias against entomophagy in the modern Western world are unclear, according to Ronald Taylor, author of Butterflies in My Stomach: Insects in Human Nutrition. In the Bible, Moses says that eating locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers is acceptable under Jewish law. King Solomon is rumored to have fed locusts to his wives. In the New Testament, John is portrayed eating honey and locusts. Roman and Greek scholars such as Pliny the Elder, Herodotus, and Diodorus also recorded instances of insect-eating. According to Taylor, modern Westerners' fear of entomophagy contradicts the popularity of honey, which he describes as "bee vomit."
But insect appeal is growing among all kinds of people, worldwide. Wittchety grubs—moth and beetle larvae that can be up to five inches long and taste like nuts when cooked—were once eaten only by Australian Aborigines, but are now a favorite among tourists. Wasps, bamboo caterpillars, crickets, and locusts are enjoyed in Thailand's rural regions and in upscale restaurants. Leafcutter ants are a delicacy eaten by the upper class in Colombia, where they are sometimes compared to French truffles or Russian caviar in cachet. Specialty food shops in Europe have started to sell insects imported from Africa. Even a U.S. company, Hotlix, sells various lollipops with embedded insects, chocolate-covered cockroaches, grubs, slugs, and grasshoppers, and mealworms in barbeque, cheddar cheese, and Mexican flavors.
This trend toward reducing the bias against insects as food is promising, according to DeFoliart, who promotes adding nutritional value to staple diets and maximizing ecological benefits with edible insects. He contends that modernization has led indigenous populations around the world away from traditional food sources including insects, without providing nutritionally equivalent substitutes.
Insects link biodiversity conservation and human nutrition in a way that many other food sources do not. Edible insects are generally abundant, nutrient-dense, marketable, and economically valuable. For people who have traditionally relied on insects for food, sustainable use of insect resources could lower nutritional deficiencies and raise living standards. Safeguarding forest habitats for edible insects also prevents erosion, preserves water resources, and protects countless other forest species.
According to DeFoliart, increasing food and income for poor families can decrease the pressure for land clearing, intensive monoculture agriculture, and pesticides—and therefore preserve biodiversity.
—Alison Fromme is a freelance science writer
living in Berkeley, California. Despite her adventurous
eating habits, she has not had the opportunity to try
entomophagy.
ZooGoer
34(4) 2005. Copyright 2005 Friends of the National Zoo.
All rights reserved.
