PERSPECTIVES fact, it already is: vegetables, fruit, chocolate, and peanut butter usually contain insect fragments, not to mention the red food colourant cochineal made from crushed carcasses of a Latin American beetle. It is estimated that an adult person ingests about 700 gr/yr. of insects without even knowing it. A major reason for considering high-quality insect protein is the nutritional, economic and environmental impact, while the biggest advantage is that insects are also very efficient in converting agricultural food waste to useful animal protein. Still, many questions remain to be answered before insect protein becomes mainstream. One of these questions is ethical in nature and another is whether the genetic makeup of insects might negatively influence long-term human health. The World in Transition Diets high in dairy and meat are expected to rise exponentially because of the growing number of people that will have the means to afford these much-beloved foods as the primary source of nutrition. However, the enormous expected increase in animal protein consumption will mean a real setback in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The growing number of transformative changes, with increasing meat and dairy consumption, as well as the rising demand for food and nutritional quality, will put additional pressure on the agricultural eco-systems. To meet world needs by 2050, it is estimated that about 70 percent more food must be produced from less land and fewer inputs such as chemical pest control, less water, and less fertiliser. In addition, the inequities between developing and affluent societies must be solved in order to improve economic and societal imbalances. Agricultural productivity rates have failed to keep up with global population growth. The overuse of priceless fresh water poses not only serious environmental hazards but also a risk to social and political stability. It is inevitable that water scarcity will cause certain food shortages in the next decennia. In 2018 and beyond, water withdrawals will probably surpass sustainable supply and this discrepancy will only widen. Soybean cultivation can serve as an example of how difficult it will be to navigate the world of future requirements and their environmental impacts. The average EU citizen consumes 61 kg of soy yearly, 93 percent (57kg) of which is embedded as animal feed in the animal-derived foods that most consumers eat daily. By far the highest amount of embedded soy (109gr per 100gr) is present in chicken breast meat, closely followed by eggs (55gr. of soy per 100gr), pork chops (51gr. of soy per 100gr. of meat), hamburgers (46gr. of soy per 100 gr. of meat) and cheese (25gr. of soy per 100gr. of product). Although soy is an essential part of the global food supply, the high-protein crops have negative ecological and environmental impact if grown irresponsibly. There is no doubt that the explosive growth of the soy crop has come at the expense of millions of hectares of grassland, forest, savannah and wilderness, taken away and converted to agriculture harvest land around the world. South America in particular has been affected, destroying valuable eco-systems such as the Amazon. But also Africa is catching up rapidly by destroying wildlife and habitat land, and turn it into agricultural land and/ or urbanisation projects. About the author: Henk Hoogenkamp Former President DMV USA (a Friesland Campina company), Senior Director Strategic Technology Dupont Protein. Board member RIBT. Author and Publicist. 44 www.meatingpoint-mag.com | <strong>2017</strong>
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