To open the can of worms…

Sorry about that terrible pun but after meeting with Fred McVittie from Cornish Edible Insects I have insects on the brain (and my toast, if you follow my Instagram).

I met Fred at the Porthleven Food and Music Festival the other weekend and was so intrigued by his business that I just had to meet up  with him and chat some more about edible insects.  I’m going to be honest – it’s not something I’d have thought to have found in Cornwall! So, I thought up a few questions and we sat down for a cup of tea and a chat.

How do you get into farming and selling insects as food?

Once I’d gotten over the excitement of finding such an unusual food source in Cornwall this was the bring question – how on earth would you start something like Cornish Edible Insects? For Fred McVittie it seems as though it was an easy choice.  Having worked in higher education with an interest in food sourcing and sustainability he read the UN Food and Agriculture’s 2013 report on Edible Insects – Future prospects for food and feed security and was inspired to start Cornish Edible Insects (one of over 20 start ups as a direct response to the report.  I’ve linked to it here, if you’re interested in finding out more). It’s obvious to anyone talking to him that this is his passion and I had a very enjoyable and informative hour talking about this.

Is the cultural attitude towards eating insects changing?

I know when I’ve been talking to people about this blog post people have initially been a bit grossed out by the idea of eating insects (ewww, yuck and *shudder* being the most common). But is that just an English thing, perhaps fuelled by programs like ‘I’m a Celebrity’? Fred seems to think so, having been at a few trade shows now he feels that people almost have to go through the squeamish stage to get it out of their system and then will actually try the insects.  He’s noted that young families in particular are up for trying the mealworms and crickets he brings along. In many places in the world eating insects is the norm (I’m sure we all know of someone who boasts about eating a cricket on their gap year to Thailand every game of ‘I have never’).

Cornish Edible Insects has a novel idea to help combat this though; by mixing insects into otherwise normally accepted food such as Falafel. (I’ve been given a packet of this to try so if anyone wants to help I’m having a Falafel party!) I think this is a great idea – no longer are you battling with your eyes (I have to admit eating a cricket that looks like a cricket takes a certain amount of guts) you’re eating something normal, just with all the added bonuses of the nutritional values of insects.

What about the nutrition values?

We’ve all heard the joke when someone thinks they’ve accidentally eaten a fly that they shouldn’t worry, ‘it’s just extra protein,’ but are insects actually full of protein or is that just an old wives tale? Well, yes they are as it turns out.  They have between 25% and 50% more protein than beef, and 25% more Iron.  As well as this they are full of vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy diet including B12, Zinc and Potassium.

The environmental impact

This is where it gets interesting, insects have a very small environmental impact; they take 1000x less water than cattle to grow and produce 0% methane as they are not warm blooded mammals. (Which if you think about the amount of protein they produce is a pretty strong argument to help overcome the ‘ew’ factor). They also need a lot less space to grow, an insect farm that would output 10kg a week would be roughly the size of a shipping container and manageable for one person to run!

Fred farms mealworms in the UK as they are an indigenous species and grow well in our climate (check out the Cornish Edible Insects Facebook page to find out more about their farm). However they don’t just sell mealworms. They import crickets from Thailand. As the business was started to provide a more environmentally friendly food form and as these edible crickets are not indigenous to the UK they would have to be grown under heat lamps. As Frank explained to me, they would actually use more energy to grow them in the UK than have them imported from Thailand by boat.

At the moment insects feed on specially grown cereals (Frank uses wheat bran) as food for human consumption has to meet certain regulations, however in the future they may be fed waste animal feed so even their food is potentially environmentally friendly!

Are insects Vegetarian / Vegan?

Apparently this is an area of debate, the official word from the Vegetarian Society is no. However people are vegetarian or vegan for many different reasons. If you are vegan or vegetarian because of the environmental impact the meat and dairy industry is having on our planet insects may be an environmentally friendly way of getting all the protein and B12 needed for a healthy diet.  Fred also told me that more insects are killed to produce 1lb of soya protein than are killed to produce 1lb of insects. Which blew my mind.

How does an insect farm work?

Well, you’ll have to wait and see.  I’m hoping to visit the Cornish Edible Insect farm but it’s not the right season yet, so hopefully when it is I’ll be able to post about it then!

What do you think? Having read this would you want to try an insect falafel for your dinner, or a post work out snack of crickets? Let me know in the comments!