Can Insects Feed a Hungry Planet?

Earth’s population is ballooning every day, which increasingly presents a host of challenges, from housing to resource depletion to food.

The issue of feeding billions of people on a warming planet—along with related concerns such as food waste, water usage and greenhouse gas emissions—continues to be explored.

It has been widely established that factory farming contributes to climate change and even that eating less beef will benefit the environment. But what about eating … bugs. Bugs?

Two billion people around the globe eat insects. Major areas of consumption include Latin America, Southeast Asia and Central Africa. As new ways are examined to feed a rapidly expanding global population, and with a minimal environmental impact, will entomophagy—the consumption of insects as food—be taken seriously in other parts of the world?

Folks at Ensia—Anna Egelhoff, John Sisser and Todd Reubold—put together this infographic to address that very question:..............................http://ecowatch.com
15/8/14
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Related:

• Έκθεση του FAO: «Πεινάτε; Φάτε έντομα!» λέει ο Παγκόσμιος Οργανισμός Τροφίμων

• Empfehlung der UN ..... Mehr Insekten auf den Teller!....

• L'ONU encourage la consommation d'insectes pour lutter contre la faim...

• UN urges people to eat insects to fight world hunger....

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• Marine experts urge Australians to eat more sea urchins to save environment (is said to contain euphoria-causing chemicals similar to that found in cannabis)

• La FAO recomienda desarrollar alimentos a base de medusas....

• ΟΗΕ: Φάτε μέδουσες, να σώσουμε τα ψάρια!

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• ‘Shameful’: World loses up to third of produced food, World Bank says

• Παρά τη φτώχεια πετάμε φαγητό στα σκουπίδια 

• Στα σκουπίδια καταλήγει το 50% των τροφίμων / La moitié de la nourriture produite dans le monde gaspillée

Securing crop biodiversity is key to feeding world’s growing population – UN study

30 January 2014 – Seeking to ensure that the world can feed a fast growing population, expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, the United Nations today published voluntary international standards to improve conservation of the crops that are crucial to food security by preserving biodiversity in gene banks and in the field.
“As the world’s population grows and continues to face a wide range of climate, environmental and other challenges, maintaining a healthy variety of seeds and other plant genetic resources for the benefit of people in all countries will be essential to keeping agricultural and food systems sustainable and resilient, generation after generation,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Assistant Director-General Ren Wang said.

The FAO publication, Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, outlines voluntary, international standards for the many repositories – or genebanks - around the world that store seeds and other materials used to reproduce plants, as well as for living plants in the field.

• More than 7 million samples of seeds, tissues and other plant-propagating materials from food crops, along with their wild relatives, are safeguarded in about 1,750 genebanks.

“Plant genetic resources are a strategic resource at the heart of sustainable crop production,” Mr. Ren writes in a foreword. “Their efficient conservation and use is critical to safeguard food and nutrition security, now and in the future. Meeting this challenge will require a continued stream of improved crops and varieties adapted to particular agro-ecosystem conditions.
“The loss of genetic diversity reduces the options for sustainably managing resilient agriculture, in the face of adverse environments, and rapidly fluctuating meteorological conditions.”
The standards are designed to guide users in implementing the most appropriate technologies and procedures for the collection, conservation and documentation of crop diversity. Their wide application also supports research that could stem the loss of biodiversity and boost sustainability in agriculture, both necessary for feeding the world’s burgeoning population.
“Genebanks help bridge the past and the future by ensuring the continued availability of plant genetic resources for research and for breeding new varieties that meet the consumers’ continually evolving needs and a changing climate,” said Linda Collette, Secretary of FAO’s Intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
“They help us to conserve plant genetic resources and to improve them; they also help countries to share and exchange genetic resources with each other.”
The standards address a wide range of issues, including techniques for collecting samples; consistent labelling; protection from fungi, bacteria, pests and physical stress factors; viability and genetic integrity testing; and, developing strategies for the rapid multiplication of samples for distribution.
The world’s genebanks differ greatly in the size of their collections and the human and financial resources at their disposal. The Standards will help genebank managers strike a balance between scientific objectives, resources available, and the objective conditions under which they work, FAO says.

“Genebanks play a key role in the conservation, availability and use of a wide range of plant genetic diversity for crop improvement for food and nutrition security,” the publication stresses in its preface. “An efficient management of genebanks through application of standards and procedures is essential for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources.”

FAO experts consulted with a wide range of partners, including those at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global partnership whose research is carried out at 15 centres worldwide, in particular Bioversity International; genebank managers; relevant academic and research institutions; and national focal points for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
 un.org
30/1/14
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• Food safety: MEPs oppose authorising new genetically modified maize

• Πείνα για εκατομμύρια ανθρώπους - εκστρατεία από τον FAO. -Προβλήματα στην αγροτική παραγωγή, την οικονομία και πολιτική αστάθεια οι αιτίες

 

Les ressources de la Terre pour 2013 sont déjà épuisées.- Mardi 20 août

Selon le Fonds mondial pour la Nature (WWF), à compter de mardi, la population mondiale a consommé tout ce que notre planète est capable de renouveler en un an.....

"Nous entrons désormais en déficit écologique." Le Fonds mondial pour la Nature (WWF) indique, mardi 20 août, qu'à partir de ce jour la population mondiale a épuisé toutes les ressources naturelles que la Terre est capable de renouveler en un an. "Jusqu'à la fin de l'année, l'homme va répondre à ses besoins en épuisant des stocks des ressources naturelles et en accumulant des gaz à effet de serre dans l'atmosphère", explique l'organisation qui résume la situation avec cette phrase : "L'humanité vit au-dessus de ses moyens."

Ce "jour du dépassement" est calculé tous les ans par l'ONG Global Footprint Network (pdf en anglais). Et cette année, cette date survient deux jours plus tôt qu'en 2012. En 1987, première année où nous avons épuisé toutes nos ressources naturelles, le fameux jour est arrivé à le 19 décembre. Et au fil des ans, la date arrive plus en plus tôt dans le calendrier.
Cette année, nous aurions eu besoin de1,5 Terre pour subvenir à nos besoins, estime l'ONG. D'après ses calculs, deux seraient même nécessaires d'ici 2050. Mais tous les pays n'ont pas le même niveau de consommation. Il faudrait par exemple plus de 7 Japons pour répondre aux besoins des Japonais. Les Qataris, eux, consomment 5,7 fois ce que peut produire le pays. Les Français sont plus raisonnables : il faudrait 1,6 France pour couvrir leur consommation.
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/environnement/les-ressources-de-la-terre-pour-2013-sont-deja-epuisees_394064.html#xtor=RSS-3-[]
20/8/13