Daily Mail
Maggots must be mass-farmed to combat malnutrition, study says
Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline 4 hrs ago
Humankind will have to eat maggots and other bizarre 'superfoods' to avoid malnutrition, according to a new report.
UK researchers say traditionally-eaten plant-source foods, like barley, maize, fruits and vegetables, and animal-source foods, like meat, fish and eggs, are 'innately exposed to various acute and chronic stresses'.
These include pests and disease, as well as environmental changes brought on by human-driven climate change.
The solution is to farm maggots (insect larvae) of the black soldier fly, house fly and mealworm beetle, at a mass scale for human consumption, they say.
Insects are well-known to be packed full of protein, nutrients, potassium, magnesium and three times more fatty acids than omega-3 in salmon.
They're already being sold in some supermarkets as a niche snack – but the scientists, from the University of Cambridge, say we'll have to bump up production to 'mitigate global malnutrition', one of the largest humanitarian crises.
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Two billion people experience food insecurity, including over 690 million people undernourished and 340 million children suffering micro-nutrient deficiencies.
The researchers believe maggots, as well as other future foods like kelp, can be more easily grown as distributed among isolated communities in remote regions with limited access to plant and animal-based foods.
'Our current food system is vulnerable,' said lead author Dr Asaf Tzachor at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge.
'It's exposed to a litany of risks – floods and frosts, droughts and dry spells, pathogens and parasites – which marginal improvements in productivity won't change.
'To future-proof our food supply we need to integrate completely new ways of farming into the current system.'
Dr Tzachor didn't give a rough date for exactly when we'll need to transform our food farming systems.
But he said 'the sooner we make the transition to future foods, the safer our diets will be' and the 'more lives we will be able to salvage from the tight grip of malnutrition'.
As well as maggots, the authors identify microalgae, including chlorella, spirulina and sugar kelp, as another promising food source.
Microalgae are tiny photosynthetic microorganisms found in both freshwater and marine aquatic systems, each only a few micrometres in size.
Already used as a a food supplement and as aquafeed for fish, they are an excellent source of amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Maggots must be mass-farmed to combat malnutrition, study says
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