I’ve eaten my fair share of insects, though mostly by mistake—up my nose and ears, in my mouth while planting trees in blackfly-infested swamps in Northern Ontario.
Now, the United Nations has come out with a policy paper suggesting that eating insects may be the key to feeding our growing world. They’re rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and according to new research, farming insects produces far less greenhouse gas than livestock.
It’s hard to imagine convincing most Canadian kids of the merits of crunching on a handful of crickets at lunch, but 80% of the world’s countries already eat insects—locusts, crickets, ants, grubs and beetles.
Now if we could just come up with a way to harness the vitamin power of the black fly.