There is a mine of resentment potential in the way the food of the world is channeled.
Half of all fresh water on the planet is used for livestock. It takes 1,500 gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk, and the water necessary for one pound of steak is double that. It takes fourteen pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef. The West eats about 200 pounds of meat per person per year. United Nations forecasts that the world's population will surpass nine billion by the year 2050. With increasing modernization and population growth one could conservatively imagine that by 2050 at least five billion people will expect to eat their 200 pounds of meat per year as well. In order to feed this many people this much meat, the world would need to produce one trillion pounds of beef and pork annually, and there is not enough land or nutrients on earth to support this kind of production.
Enter insect ranches. Thailand is the current world leader in insect farming, with about 15,000 farms raising locusts, grasshoppers, and mantises for human consumption. Insects also feature in the diets of rural Laos, Vietnam, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico.
It will be grand when this food and resource allocation crisis becomes popular, demonstration arise, and pious politicians begin the campaign, then the persuasion, then the laws to set this right.
Half of all fresh water on the planet is used for livestock. It takes 1,500 gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk, and the water necessary for one pound of steak is double that. It takes fourteen pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef. The West eats about 200 pounds of meat per person per year. United Nations forecasts that the world's population will surpass nine billion by the year 2050. With increasing modernization and population growth one could conservatively imagine that by 2050 at least five billion people will expect to eat their 200 pounds of meat per year as well. In order to feed this many people this much meat, the world would need to produce one trillion pounds of beef and pork annually, and there is not enough land or nutrients on earth to support this kind of production.
Enter insect ranches. Thailand is the current world leader in insect farming, with about 15,000 farms raising locusts, grasshoppers, and mantises for human consumption. Insects also feature in the diets of rural Laos, Vietnam, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico.
It will be grand when this food and resource allocation crisis becomes popular, demonstration arise, and pious politicians begin the campaign, then the persuasion, then the laws to set this right.
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