Zambian trader Dorothy Chisa sells caterpillars, a popular high-protein delicacy in the southern African country. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
LUSAKA, Dec 17 2013 (IPS)

It is known as the land of copper to the outside world, but there’s another c-word that does a roaring trade in Zambia, albeit locally – caterpillars.

On a street corner in the capital Lusaka on a scorching hot day, Dorothy Chisa, 49, is selling the insects, a popular high-protein delicacy in the southern African country. They come raw in different sized pots starting at five Zambian Kwacha (less than one dollar)."They come from other countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, even South Africa to buy [the caterpillars]." -- Chris Siame

“[People] like them very much. They taste very nice, like fish meat. They have vitamins. You pound them and you make a porridge for babies,” the married mother of seven, who can earn 600 Kwacha a day selling caterpillars, tells IPS.

Found on the Mopane tree in Zambia’s north, the insects are called ‘Ifishimu’ in Bemba or ‘Ifinkubala’ in the Chewa language heard in the country’s east. The thorns on the black type are more visible than the brown, which vary in size.

After locals pick the living insects from the trees with their bare hands, the creatures are squeezed to discharge the leaves they’ve consumed and put on low heat to roast. In the sweltering Zambian weather, they normally dry within two days.

Locals mix them with nshima, a cornmeal dish and a staple in Zambia, as a snack with tomato and onion on top, and add them to stews. One Lusaka restaurant serves the insects, and at least one safari lodge at Victoria Falls, on the border with Zimbabwe, has them available to tempt mzungus (‘whites’).

Locals flock to the north from Lusaka and other parts of Zambia to buy them in bulk, selling the caterpillars across the country, all year round. This year, attendance in Northern Province schools dropped by more than 70 percent at one stage as students abandoned their lessons to catch the insects, a Zambian newspaper reported last month.

Demand by businessmen and women from urban areas is reported to have pushed up their price, with Kitwe and Lusaka residents camping in villages to snap them up. It was also claimed parents were forcing children to sell caterpillars.

According to a study published in May by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), entomophagy – the consumption of insects by humans – supplement the diets of approximately two billion people.

More than 1,900 species, found mostly in tropical countries, are edible. Given their high nutritional value, low emissions of greenhouse gases, low requirements for land and the high efficiency at which they convert feed into food, insects can contribute to food security and help with protein shortages, the report said.

In West Africa, the sheanut caterpillar is consumed, while the sapelli is lapped up in Central Africa (the species are the same as the Mopane but they feed off different trees).

“After buying from us they distribute in other provinces,” Chris Siame, surrounded by tall bags of caterpillars he bought in October and is now selling at bustling Soweto Market in Lusaka, tells IPS. “Some, they come from other countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, even South Africa to buy them.”

In South Africa, the caterpillars are on the menu of one Johannesburg restaurant.

Siame, 32, makes the journey of about 900 km to the north annually for three weeks to buy the insects.

“We use the barter system. You give them [traders] clothes,” he explains. “If they don’t want it, you just give them cash.”

He purchased two-kg bags of caterpillars for 40 Kwacha (less than a dollar) each. After trucking them back to Lusaka he’s now selling them for 60 Kwacha a bag.

“They taste like an egg yolk. I like them so much,” Siame says.

Their nutritional value is a bonus. According to the FAO, every 100 grammes of dried caterpillars contain about 53 grammes of protein, about 15 percent fat and about 17 percent carbohydrates. The insects are believed to have a higher proportion of protein and fat than beef and fish.

They’re also rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus and iron, among other vitamins and minerals.

“When we go for antenatals, we’re advised to eat them,” another seller, breastfeeding a baby at Soweto Market, tells IPS.

Dr. Francis Mupeta, the secretary general of Resident Doctors in Zambia, says he sees locals eating caterpillars in his professional and personal life.

“My wife is pregnant and trust me she has cravings for finkubala! That’s the reason we had to buy three months’ stock,” he tells IPS.

“I strongly advise pregnant women to eat finkubala. They improve their appetite, reduce nausea and contribute to their overall nutritional status,” Mupeta adds, noting that they are relatively cheap and readily available in rural areas.

Paul Vantomme, senior forestry officer at FAO, says there are three steps policy makers in Zambia’s food and health sectors can take to ensure future generations have access to the food.

“First, acknowledge that insects are part of the diet and help enrich these diets with valuable proteins,” he tells IPS.

“Secondly, provide institutional and legal support to ensure that caterpillars brought to the market are safe to eat for the consumers [and make sure] food inspections cover the quality of insects, just as this is done for meat, fish, milk etc.

“Thirdly, promote a sustainable supply,” he said.

According to FAO, commercalisation of the Mopane caterpillar has led to intense pressure to overharvest, resulting in unsustainable use. Since the 1990s, Mopane populations have waned, with poverty, food insecurity and environmental disasters making things worse.

Vantomme said levels of harvesting should be monitored. New Mopane trees could be planted to increase numbers.

The University of Alicante course “Researching Biodiversity: Present and Future” ended in May with a tasting of edible worms and arachnids. Credit: Courtesy of the University of Alicante/Jesús Ordoñez

By Inés Benítez
MÁLAGA, Spain, Jul 2 2013 (IPS)

A 280-square-metre warehouse in Coín, a municipality in the southern Spanish province of Málaga, is home to a unique type of farm, where insects are raised for human consumption and the production of animal feed. But despite FAO’s endorsement of insects as food, there are numerous obstacles holding back the development of this industry.

“We dehydrate the crickets and grasshoppers, then turn them into a flour that conserves almost all of their protein and other nutritional properties, which can be added to biscuits, cereal or energy bars,” explained Laetitia Giroud, a French national and the director of sales and product development at Insagri, the company that runs the farm.

Quality control systems have been established for each type of insect raised at the farm in Coín. Thousands of black soldier fly and mealworm larvae are bred for the production of feed for reptiles, fish and cattle, while the grasshoppers and crickets are processed for human consumption.

“Mealworms can also be dehydrated and used to make chips with a bit of salt added, and make an excellent snack,” Giroud told Tierramérica.

Insagri, which will begin to sell its products in August, has already found buyers for its insect flour for use in restaurants in the United Kingdom, France and Belgium, where interest has also been expressed by companies that specialise in the production of tomato sauce and other food products.

These three countries and the Netherlands are the only countries in Europe where there are regulations in place for the “sale of insects for human consumption,” explained Eduardo Galante, president of the Entomological Society of Spain and director of the Ibero-American Centre for Biodiversity at the University of Alicante, in southeast Spain.

In Spain, where Insagri is aiming at the cattle feed and dog and cat food markets, there is “a legal vacuum that permits the eating of insects in restaurants (which buy them from foreign suppliers) but not their sale for consumption,” Galante told Tierramérica.

Galante recalled that in 2008, health authorities vetoed an edible insect shop in La Boquería, a large public market and popular tourist attraction Barcelona.

These obstacles run counter to the recommendations from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regarding the consumption of insects and their byproducts as a means of fighting world hunger.

A FAO report released on May 13, “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security”, notes that insects are a “highly nutritious and healthy food source” due to their “high fat, protein, vitamin, fibre and mineral content.”

According to Giroud, in addition to the lack of appropriate regulation, there is a “cultural barrier” that acts as a deterrent to the human consumption of insects in Spain, unlike some countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia where it is a common practice.

“Eating insects is disgusting,” proclaimed Marisa, a resident of Málaga and mother of an eight-year-old daughter. She added, however, that the idea of eating them after they have been processed and turned into flour was “interesting”, because “at least that way you wouldn’t see them.”

FAO estimates that insects form part of the traditional diet of at least two billion people around the world, and that there are more than 1,900 edible species. The most commonly eaten include beetles, caterpillars, bees and wasps, ants, grasshoppers, crickets and locusts.

Southern Spain offers the “ideal weather conditions for raising insects, which need temperatures between 28 and 35 degrees,” said Giroud, who stressed that raising insects for food and feed is “cheaper and more environmentally friendly” than raising livestock, since they require less land and water and can be fed more sustainably.

“To obtain a kilogram of protein from cattle you need 13 kilograms of vegetation, while the same amount of protein can be obtained from grasshoppers with just 1.5 kilograms of feed,” she stressed.

In addition, she emphasised that Insagri is “the only company in Europe that uses organic feed for its insects.” For example, its mealworms are fed with organic flour supplied by a nearby producer.

Giroud also noted that eating insects is healthier “because they pose a much lower risk of transmitting diseases to humans,” which she attributes to the fact that they are cold-blooded and not hot-blooded like cows or pigs.

The concept of large-scale insect farming for food for humans is relatively new, although there are examples offered by cricket farms in Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam, notes the FAO report, which has sparked conflicting opinions in Spain.

“FAO’s proposal to fight world hunger by eating insects does not address the root of the problem,” said Esther Vivas, a researcher specialising in food and agricultural policies who insists that the solution “is not to find new inputs but rather to deal with the causes of hunger.”

Vivas, a journalist, sociologist and member of the Centre for the Study of Social Movements at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, told Tierramérica that “food must be made more accessible to the world’s population, because there is enough food produced to feed everyone.”

According to figures from FAO, while there are currently seven million people in the world, there is enough food produced every day to feed 12 billion.

Nevertheless, the UN agency notes in its report that overfishing, climate change and water shortages could have profound implications for food production for the nine billion people expected to live on the planet in 2050.

“It is precisely in these times of crisis, when responsible consumption and protecting the environment are needed more than ever, that it is easier to break down cultural barriers around the consumption of insects,” said Giroud, who launched her insect farm with Julien Foucher, another French national, for an initial investment of 24,000 euro (31,494 dollars); 5,000 euro (6,561 dollars) of this start-up capital was contributed by the non-profit Valle del Guadalhorce Rural Development Group, which is supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

“They are the best alternative for carrying out a change in diet,” added Giroud.

Galante, for his part, pointed out, “We eat crustaceans, and insects are related to them. We eat shrimp and lobster, which are similar to grasshoppers, as well as mussels, octopus and shrimp.”

The Spanish entomologist, who is also a professor in the zoology department at the University of Alicante, added that there are insects that have been part of our daily lives for years, although we are often not aware of it. This is the case, for example, with the cochineal, an insect used to produce the natural, deep-red dye known as carmine. It is commonly used in a wide range of food products as well as cosmetics, particularly lipstick, and is sometimes labelled as E120.

Galante said that he has eaten “all kinds of insects, some of which were very delicious,” although he recognises the aversion provoked by the idea in most European cultures.

He does not believe that the use of insects as a food source will help to end world hunger, but he does consider it “a way of opening up new markets.”

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.