Posted on 04/03/2023 1:43:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Walking into Ÿnsect’s flagship manufacturing site in Dole, eastern France, the first thing that visitors are met with is a hot, earthy, composting smell. With it comes the realization that this is not a typical factory. At 17 metres high, this is the world’s largest vertical insect farm — home to at least 3 trillion mealworm beetles (Tenebrio molitor).
The company’s chief executive and co-founder, Antoine Hubert, says that the beetles have a good life, as far as being an insect goes. Each of their stacked plastic trays is kept at an optimal 60% humidity and a balmy 25–27 °C. Nutrition, growth and moisture levels are all recorded for analysis, and human visitors are allowed to inspect the trays only from a distance — to prevent contamination of this prized ecosystem.
The beetles are raised in this way from larvae to adult, at which point they meet a quick death in steam before being harvested into oil, protein and fertilizer.
Insects have come under the spotlight over the past few years, as scientists seek alternative sources of protein to feed the rapidly expanding global population. A direct nutritional comparison shows that edible insect species have greater protein potential than do conventional meat products — 100 grams of mealworm larvae produces 25 g of protein, whereas 100 g of beef contains 20 g of protein1. Insects also have a high food-conversion ratio when compared with livestock. To produce the same amount of protein, for example, crickets require around six times less feed than do cattle, four times less than sheep, and half that of pigs and chickens2. But various attempts by companies to market insects as a mainstream food source in Europe and North America have fallen flat and largely been dismissed as a fad. And some researchers have concerns about
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Just wait until someone leaves the door open.
Well, I’ll just have to remember the days when a French meal was very much desired.
The left can eat bugs, though I’d much rather watch them eat ***t.
I thought it was bad enough for the French to eat snails.
Yeah that’s how I like my food! Served with a hot, earthy, compost smell.
Mmmmmm good!
So much for french cuisine...
But America has all of the turd rolling Dung Beetles.
From 4chan to international politics, a bug-eating conspiracy theory goes mainstream
They already eat snails so I guess the move to bugs isn’t all that surprising.
Pairs nicely with a Bordeaux and escargot.
Always knew there was something weird about that French cooking…
Frogs eating bugs.
Then, they started eating bugs . . .
Just saw an article about how this is a conspiracy from NPR so I knew it was true.
They prefer to be called bug-eating surrender monkeys.
Insect protein is inferior and missing a couple key amino acids we need that beef provides. Further insect chitin is nondigestible and inflammatory, and many people are allergic to it. Think shellfish.
If anyone could make bugs taste good it would be the French...
The danger here is when they begin adding ‘other natural ingredients’ to our foods.
Eating bugs is as old as humans.
Japanese, Chinese and others enjoyed them for millennia.
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