Image courtesy of Ken Furuyama
What comes through your mind when you think about insects?
A few years ago I taught a course on Sustainability and Food. As I prepared one of the modules, I found some pretty amazing material on insect growing and eating from many different cultures. I also explored a variety of nutritional benefits of consuming insects. A few of my friends have been recently talking about this topic, I thought you’d enjoy exploring it too.
My today’s guest is Ken Furuyama. Working as a volunteer at the New England Aquarium for 14 years in conservation education (learning about ways in which our food is caught, farmed, grown and the global costs of this process) Ken recognized the need to change the equation of how food is grown and consumed.
His company Sustainable Food Solutions was born to bring the highest quality protein with the smallest ecological footprint to the conservation-based sustainably-oriented consumer. Ken’s goal is to motivate people and to talk about conservation.
By the end of this episode, I hope you’ll become curious about alternative forms of protein, where they come from, how to learn more about them and why this field has a potentially great future.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. How Ken got interested in conservation and eventually in the insect products, how old is the field and why it is more important today than ever
2. What are some of the environmental and nutritional benefits of consuming insects
3. What place does entomophagy (insect eating) industry takes in the global green economy
4. What does an average consumer needs to know about farming of the insects and what’s likely to bring insect eating mainstream
5. What do insects taste like, where and how can you try them, what are the best ways to incorporate into your diet
CONTACTING OUR GUEST:
- Ken’s Facebook Page Sustainable Food Solutions Bug Bite Farm
”We have an untapped resource, an answer to food security, green house gas, pollution and over-fishing. But farming and eating of insects has been absent from great agricultural innovation that dominate our food culture.
We’ve been harvesting insects from the beginning of time. Two of seven billion people on this planet today eat insects regularly. From the food security perspective, it really is the future of food. ”
Ken Furuyama
WEB RESOURCES:
- Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations – Edible Insects, Future prospects for food and feed security
- Brooklyn Bugs
- Tufts University – Is it time we all ate bugs?
BOOKS:
Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet
”Two tablespoons of cricket powder has 14 grams of protein, (more than soy, whey or beef), the calcium level of milk, potassium of a banana, omega profile of fish, more iron than spinach, and complete B6 and B12 and more.”
Ken Furuyama
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