Oddly enough, in the “country of meat” As Argentina was once known, there is no shortage of proposals from government entities to develop an “alternative diet” based on insects, in line with global agendas that have been promoting this type of exotic diet under the excuse of “fighting climate change.” This is supported by a research team made up of members of INTA and INTI, who enjoyed on January 24 having made puddings, breads and pastas from “powdered cricket” (1).
The specialists, in the note entitled “They evaluate the use of insects as a feeding alternative”, They also highlighted the “high nutritional value” and the significant protein content of this new “sustainable source.” A very striking proposal in a country that, according to data from the Center for Studies on Food Policies and Economics, generates food for 400 million people and that, according to the Fundación Agropecuaria para el Desarrollo de Argentina, produces meat for almost ten million of people more than its own population.
According to the article published by the official INTA website, “the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) promotes the inclusion of insects in diets for their nutritional, socioeconomic and environmental. In a report, he acknowledges that ‘one of the many ways to address food and feed safety is through insect farming’”. Based on this foundation, the research team developed “food prototypes” (sic) using between 10 and 20% “cricket powder”. gabriela gallardo, director of the work and researcher at the Institute of Food Technology of INTA, explained: “among these prototypes, we have already made baked goods, cereal bars, and we have managed to make pasta that has a high protein content, according to the nutritional labeling standards of the Argentine Food Code (CAA). Technologically it was possible to obtain a fresh pasta with a high protein content, using an alternative and sustainable source in accordance with the requirements of the FAO”.
Indeed, in a May 2013 report, the United Nations suggested that “entomophagy, or the eating of insects, would also help combat contamination. Insect farming has a positive environmental impact as it is less dependent on the land and produces fewer greenhouse gases” (2). In this highly speculative work, the nutritional virtues of beetles, ants, crickets, locusts, and caterpillars are compared, among other appetizing proposals, while lamenting the “cultural biases” that mean that such consumption is only accepted in some regions of Africa and Asia, and not of the West. It is worth wondering if those who prepare this type of report, and promote it, are fed on a daily basis with these succulent culinary recipes. It should be better investigated whether in some areas of the world they do not resort to this type of diet due to suffering from chronic hunger over several generations, an unfortunate situation that may be concealed under the label of “cultural biases”.
The 2030 Agenda proposed by the UN in 2015, with its “Sustainable Development Goals”, every day shows more than behind beautiful statements, which no one would question in principle, with objectives such as achieving the “end of poverty” (SDG number 1), and “zero hunger” (SDG 2), in practice they are proposed to governments actions that end up attacking the dignity of their peoples, in pursuit of a social reengineering and long-term strategic resources.
Not by chance, the intentions of the Davos Forum run along the same lines, where the president of Siemens, Jim Hagemann, claimed last January that a good part of humanity should stop eating meat in order to combat climate change: “ If a billion people stop eating meat, I tell you, it will have a huge impact. It will not only have a huge impact on today’s food system, but it will also inspire food system innovation. And I predict that in the future we will have protein that will not come from meat. they will probably taste better. Why do we try to imitate meat if we can taste better? They will have zero carbon emissions and be much healthier than the kind of food we eat today. It is a mission that we have to achieve, ”said the manager to the Forum attendees, without specifying what alternative and “innovative” proteins he was referring to. However, in an article published on the official website of the same forum on February 9, 2022, entitled “5 reasons why eating insects could reduce climate change” (4), two specialists from the University of Indiana, USA. , they explained could be these dietary novelties: “Crickets, certain species of ants, and mealworms are known to be high in protein and calories in the world of insect consumption. An easy way to integrate protein from insects in their diet would be through cricket protein powder, used instead of the typical protein powder supplement.” And they added the supposed benefits: “its production uses considerably fewer resources (less land, less feed, less water, less fuel for transportation and less human labor) than animal livestock, while at the same time having a carbon footprint much smaller.”
We have already seen that the sources of these striking vernacular dietary proposals are adequate. Coinciding with Davos, Gallardo felt from INTA that progress was made in the production of insects for human consumption, given their “low environmental impact and high protein level”, while complaining that “in our country there is still no regulatory framework that regulates the breeding or the production and commercialization of insects and their derivatives”.
Strictly speaking, INTI had already ventured into the subject. On December 18, 2020, he published the novelty in an article with the title: “Insect-based food, the food of the future that has already arrived in Argentina” (3), where he stated: “Although in the country the consumption of insects is not is allowed by the Argentine Food Code, from the INTI together with other state entities —such as the National Food Institute, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the National Agri-Food Health and Quality Service— and private —Universidad Argentina de la Empresa and Grillos Capos— work is being done to promote its incorporation as a new chapter in the code”, so that, once approved, the state body “will be able to accompany the industry to develop products that contain edible insects and thus join the global trend in the search for new alternative protein sources”. Translated, it is a matter of time before we have a variety of insects for everyone on the shelves, based on productions subsidized with everyone’s taxes. Very convenient to lower the costs of a political-social system that is more and more assistentialist every day.
If, after the sanction in Argentina of the Frontal Labeling Law, food products have begun to be labeled making explicit the “excess fat” or “excess sugar”, perhaps in time the legends will also have to be added of “excess interference with global agendas” and “excess cynicism disguised as good intentions”.
References:
(1) https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/evaluan-el-uso-de-insectos-como-alternativa-de-alimentacion
(2) https://elpais.com/sociedad/2013/05/13/actualidad/1368457967_724617.html
(3)
* FaJusto Frank is a journalist, director of the site for international news and geopolitics, kontrainfo.com
You may also like
