Maggots and worms may be what our grandchildren call dinner if they are to avoid starvation, suggests a new study.
Cambridge University researchers say that maggots, mealworms, flies, seaweed and algae are among “future foods” that must be “mass-farmed” to combat malnutrition.
The researchers claim that reservations about eating new foods such as insects could be overcome by using them as ingredients rather than eating them whole.
They say current menu staples such as burgers, pasta and energy bars can all contain ground insect larvae and processed micro- and macro- algae.
Their new report calls for “radical changes” to safeguard our food supply and combat malnutrition in the face of climate change, environmental degradation and epidemics.
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They claim our future global food supply can’t be safeguarded by traditional approaches to improving food production.
Instead, they suggest state-of-the-art, controlled-environment systems, producing new foods, should be integrated into the current system to reduce vulnerability to environmental changes, pests and diseases.
The Cambridge research team, whose findings were published in the journal Nature Food, say that global malnutrition could be ‘eradicated’ by farming foods including larvae of insects such as the house fly, mycoprotein - protein derived from fungi, and macro-algae such as sugar kelp.
They say such foods have already attracted interest as “nutritious” and “more sustainable” alternatives to traditional plant and animal-based foods.
The ‘future foods’ can be easily grown on an industrial scale suitable for urban settings as well as isolated communities such as those on remote islands, according to the report.
In an approach the researchers call ‘polycentric food networks’, nutritional dishes could be produced locally and consistently by communities - reducing reliance on global supply chains.
The Cambridge team analysed around 500 published scientific papers on different future food production systems.
The most promising, including microalgae photo-bioreactors - devices that use a light source to grow microorganisms - and insect breeding greenhouses, reduce exposure to the hazards of the natural environment by farming in controlled environments.
Study first author Dr Asaf Tzachor, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at Cambridge University, said: “Foods like sugar kelp, flies, mealworm and single-celled algae such as chlorella, have the potential to provide healthy, risk-resilient diets that can address malnutrition around the world.
“Our current food system is vulnerable. 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.”
The report argues it is dangerous to rely on food produced through conventional farming and supply systems, which are at risk of serious disruption from several factors beyond human control.
The researchers say that the Covid pandemic highlighted the vulnerability with Government-imposed restrictions on travel disrupting food production and supply chains across the world.
Recent environmental challenges to food systems include wildfires and droughts in North America, outbreaks of African swine fever affecting pigs in Asia and Europe, and swarms of desert locust in East Africa.
Climate change is forecast to make such threats even worse.
Catherine Richards, a doctoral researcher at CSER, said: “Advances in technology open up many possibilities for alternative food supply systems that are more risk-resilient, and can efficiently supply sustainable nutrition to billions of people.”
She added: “The coronavirus pandemic is just one example of increasing threats to our globalised food system.
“Diversifying our diet with these future foods will be important in achieving food security for all.”
The report states that two billion people currently experience food insecurity, including more than 690 million people undernourished and 340 million children suffering micro-nutrient deficiencies.
