December 22, 1995
Pesticides Endanger Culinary Insects
Many people of European origin ignore or have forgotten the
role of insects in human diets around the world, according to
Florence Dunkel, at Montana State University. In fact,
grasshoppers and silk moth pupae (a by-product of silk
production) are the most common insect foods in the world.
Silk moth pupae have 150% more protein and 16 times more iron
than an equivalent amount of beefsteak. A three ounce serving
of grasshoppers has 300% more protein than a three ounce
broiled steak, says Dunkel, noting that seasoned rice
grasshoppers were a valued economic foodstuff widely sold in
Korea before the days of spraying rice fields with
pesticides. Grasshoppers were also harvested by Utah settlers
in the 1800s to avoid famine when grain crops failed, and
were sometimes sold as a cash crop. The Ute Indians of North
America had a recipe using grasshopper flour and currants to
make fish stick-size fruitcakes. In much of Africa,
grasshoppers are high-protein snacks for children. In
Algeria, grasshoppers are gathered, dried in the sun and
eaten like dates.
According to Dunkel, though little documentation on insects
as food exists, this use has declined with the use of
pesticides, as the insect food sources have become scarce and
concerns grow about pesticide contamination. In a series of
interviews with village elders, women and young men in the
African nation of Mali in 1994, Dunkel noted that all
interviewees claimed that they ate fewer grasshoppers since a
recent increase in pesticide use. In Zambia, warnings have
been issued not to eat invading locusts because of pesticide
contamination. Similarly, in Bali, where dragonflies were
once widely eaten, consumption has declined with increased
pesticide use. Interestingly, in the Phillipines, recent
pesticide-induced locust infestations have stimulated a
revival of locust recipes. In Korea, another researcher has
documented that the declining consumption of rice field
grasshoppers in the 1950s to 1970s has been reversed by
public demands for pesticide-free rice which in turn allowed
a resurgence of the grasshopper food industry. In Botswana,
for-profit insect game ranches produce fresh and dried mopane
worms, which are processed in canning factories.
Dunkel suggests that use of insects as food should be
considered in formulating integrated pest management policies
for developing countries. Instead of asking farmers whether
they use insects as food, for example, researchers should ask
farmers and communities how they use insects as food,
medicine or income sources, and follow up with sociological
studies based on the responses. Collection of reliable data
on use of insects as food, medicine and cash crops could
suggest actions different from those promoted under past
policies, including continent-wide pesticide-spray programs.
More beneficial alternate uses of foreign aid funds could
include encouraging the collection, salting and distribution
of migratory locusts as food.
Source: "Reduction in the use of insects as food in countries
where pesticides are used," by Florence Dunkel, as reported
by Joel Grossman in "IPM Highlights from 1994 Entomologists
Society of America," December 1994.
Contact: PANNA
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