Missing The Point: Westerners and Insects as Food
Edible insects are oft presented as a panacea for the food system. With strong food conversion ratios and drastically reduced land requirement compared to traditional livestock, insects are marketed to the western consumer as a responsible choice, both environmentally and socially. This article gives a perspective on the social potential of insects as food.
A widely cited FAO report states:
‘insect rearing and harvesting can contribute positively to equal participation and involvement in economic growth, especially for marginalised groups such as the landless’.
While this may be entirely true, it is not consistently pursued, nor is its mechanism properly explained [1]. The current article does not argue that insects cannot aid inequality but that western insect based food companies must incorporate this into their strategy lest the potential benefits for the wider world remain a marketing promise.
This quote is an example of a recent trend in literature of turning a blind eye to the social complexities of these solutions and towards “one world” reasoning based on technical perspectives. The logic seems to follow that if technology improves, living standards will improve. This does a disservice to the insect industry by simplifying the discourse to technical and economic feasibility as opposed to the arguably more important social, political and inequality based context.
Further illustrating the detachment of the modern insect movement from those it claims to help is the spacial origin of much research on the topic. Academic literature is typically from wealthier regions; Europe and North America. These publications lack reference to phrases like “poverty”, “world hunger” and “malnutrition”. These abundance phases are contrasted with heavy use of phrases like “easy way”, “feed-ratios” and “one of the only solutions”. These word choices further contrast the capitalist intent of the insects as food movement to it’s humanitarian facade.
The best place to look for an understanding of the humanitarian impact of insects as food is Indonesia. With the most developed market in the world, Indonesia is our best analogy for how the industry might look in other developing countries. Upwards mobility in this market is relatively strong, however those who benefit from the industry typically start with certain benefits, such as coming from a relatively well-off family, knowing the right people, access to capital or knowledge.
Further, labourers in the industry are subject to the same structural inequalities of many Asian workers; many reside illegally and are subject to precarious working conditions.
The point here is not that insects as food are bad, on the contrary; insects do have power to enrich the poor and potentially reinforce food security but this will not happen without concerted effort. Both the disadvantaged and the insect industry deserve better than simplified, one-world thinking for this is where techno-complacency thrives. If we hope to realise the humanitarian potential of insects as food the discourse needs to shift away from feed conversion ratios and towards rural micro-finance solutions, equitable supply chains and feeding the entrepreneurial efforts of wealthy nations to benefit those who need it most otherwise, insects as food, like a thousand other innovations will achieve nothing but further stratification.
Full credit for the academic basis of this article goes to, the ideas herein are almost entirely attributable to these excellent authors:
[1] Müller, A., et al. “Entomophagy and power.” Journal of Insects as Food and Feed 2.2 (2016): 121–136.
[2] Edible insects as an engine for improving livelihoods FAO 2015
