Since the beginning of humanity, food has been essential to our life. While this may be quite obvious to some people, the obviousness of that statement is not our reality.
There are billions of people walking this planet that are absolutely unaware of the forces that threaten the sustainability of humanity.
I'll repeat, food is essential to life. There are reasons there are food shortages when things hit the fan. People need food, and the urgency of that is above all.
For the past 3000 years, food has taken a massive shift. We are no longer sitting in the woods waiting for nature to muster up something for us to eat. We have spent countless hours learning new ways to consume and process foods. Today we literally have burgers that are made out of plants.
Humanity has thrived for hundreds of years, and that can be partially credited to the fact that we've had a food supply to sustain our growth. With proper nutrition and sustenance, our minds can keep growing.
Things change, and they will continue and always change. We try something, we make mistakes, we keep going, we fail, we succeed. That's what we do, and that's what we will continue to do. It's all right.
Them rich folk
As of writing this, there seems to be a conspiracy going around on the Internet, that there is an agenda to start getting people to eat bugs. The stigma is that insects are a lower quality food source and that rich people are trying to get poor people to convert to eating them.
The reality is quite the opposite. In places like Thailand, both wealthy and poor people consume insects. Grab some chapulines in a flour tortilla and you have an absolutely delicious dish. In places like China, edible insects can easily be considered something of a delicacy. It's a bit like how we treat lobster as a delicacy. Our ancestors would have laughed in our faces watching us eat lobsters, yet today we treat them as a delicacy.
Rich people are already eating bugs. Everyone needs food, and the amount of money in your pocket will not change the fact that your body needs sustenance.
Food Shortages
In Elementary school, we learn about other cultures and countries. One of the first things we learn is the fact that there are people currently starving. Why? The sustainability of our food supply. How many hands would go up if you asked a room full of people if they know what it's like to be hungry?
We have been suffering from food sustainability problems for a long time. Did you know mac and cheese was a product that was created during the great depression? Yeah, people ate a whole lot of mac and cheese during the great depression. You can find boxes of mac and cheese in almost every food pantry in the USA. Let's not talk about the nutritional value either.
We still consume a product that was created to help aid food shortages. The sad part is, it's not that good for us at all. We are still suffering from food shortages
So why would rich people be trying to get poor people to eat bugs? They're not.
Then what?
We need more sustainable food options. Edible insects can provide a buffer in our diet, and give us a boost in sustainability. It's not going to solve world hunger, but it can definitely help.
I'm not telling you to go eat yourself some bugs. It's okay if you never eat an insect a day in your life. Open yourself to new options, grow some food, share with your neighbors. We can solve problems by simply trying.
If we can come up with solutions to feed this population in a way that benefits us all, then not only do we solve the population problem, but we start solving other problems as well.