UK What are your opinions on edible insects?

carolinamachado

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Hi,

I am conducting a master’s research project on the acceptance of edible insects within the vegetarian/vegan community in the UK. This is a topic that interests me greatly and I would love to know your thoughts/opinions about it!

I would be very grateful if you could take 10 minutes of your time to complete an online survey:

https://cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3rDJa3yO4HUcZxP

Many thanks!! :grinning:
 
Welcome to the forum, Carolina!

In my opinion, insects are probably sentient and they have feelings (though this is hard to know for sure). However, since insects are tiny, 1 meal with edible insects will kill about 10 bugs and it would be preferable to kill 20% of a chicken by eating KFC than 10 bugs in just 1 meal. Thus, in my opinion, vegetarians and vegans should avoid eating insects.
 
The study references "...consumers in the UK"
Is this only for those in the UK? It isn't one of the qualifiers in the list of acceptances

Edit: It asks in the second question if you're in the UK, if not, doesn't continue.
I'm interested in the question though!
I'm not in favor of using insects for food for the general population. It would become farming, and so much could go wrong! Insects are severe allergans, particularly in asthmatics, as just one example
 
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This question seems to come up (in relation to vegans) often enough that I ended up doing a little research.

About the only valid reason to eat insects is that they are thought to be a more efficient source of protein than something like chicken. Well, they might be a little more efficient than chicken but they are still not as efficient as eating plants. One of the arguments in favor of insects is that you can feed them low-quality food, like farm waste. But it turns out if you feed them low-quality food you get low-quality food. (garbage in - garbage out).
If you feed them high-quality food (like chicken feed) you get high-quality protein (like chicken). But their efficiency of turning feed to food is about the same as it is for chickens. So as far as I can tell there is no reason to look any further into eating insects.
 
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If the intent is to increase the world's availability of affordable, consumer-acceptable, protein-dense foods, then you need to do a market survey of omnivorous consumers - they are the people who drive world food demand (and who drive the inefficiencies of meat production). We vegetarians are only a small % of the North American and UK population.

Why would I even consumer eating insects, when I've already got dozens of vegan burger and sausage options? Per this report from Harvard University School of Public Health, beans and lentils (and foods made from them) are already excellent protein food choices for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Protein

Yes, it's possible to raise insects on waste. It's also possible to raise pigs on sh*t - the ultimate recycling! (Pig toilet - Wikipedia). However, I don't think that the North American or UK omnivorous consumer is likely to accept such food. As a researcher, you need to go ask them.
 
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