Wales
British school children should be served insects in the canteen – for climate protection
School children eating in the canteen
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Producing mealworms or grasshoppers is far better for the environment than raising cows and pigs. A school project is now being started in Wales so that insect meat actually reaches people’s everyday lives.
Eating grasshoppers, maggots or grasshoppers – this is usually a test in a jungle camp or a test of courage for western tourists in Thai street markets, which is usually not repeated. Despite numerous attempts, eating insects has not caught on in most European countries. Although that would have many advantages that are also well known: the crawling and reptiles contain a lot of healthy protein and are much more climate-friendly to produce than normal farm animals. A kilo of mealworms, for example, produces only one percent of the greenhouse gases emitted by a kilo of beef.
However, as adults are still reluctant to include insect meat in their everyday diet, a project is now being launched in Wales that aims to familiarize a younger target group with the consumption of insects. At four primary schools, insect protein is to be put on the plates every day for several weeks when the school children eat their lunch in the canteen.
School children are served insects in Wales
“Children have mastered the power of whining and can therefore have a major influence on their families’ dietary habits,” says Dr. Verity Jones from Bristol University. She adds: “Everyone eats insects every day – in 100 grams of chocolate there are over 30 parts bugs. Bread, fruit juices, hops … whatever you tell me: they eat insects.” The animals are simply in almost every starting ingredient and can aren’t effectively filtered out during food production, which can be disgusting, but Verity Jones is delighted: “I’ve found that once kids know that insects are already in a lot of our food by the nature of processing, and have the peace of mind that they don’t get sick from it, they’re very open to trying.”
During the project, the children learn a lot about healthy nutrition and food production, including their influence on the environment and climate. The teachers from Wales report that they quickly grasp how things are connected and that their contribution to environmental protection is important to them. Christopher Bear, one of the project leaders, says: “We want children to think of this alternative protein as a real thing, not a product of the future. That’s why our research is focused on them trying it.”
Of course, this is voluntary for the entire duration of the project. No schoolchild in Wales is forced to eat beetles. And not eating meat at all is of course a climate-friendly option.
Source: “iNews UK”