Category: IELTS preparation

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have recently published a report on using insects as a protein source for animal feed and human consumption. It found that edible  (fit to be eaten as food) insects could contain biological (of or relating to the products and operations ofapplied biology) and chemical contaminants (something that contaminates (to make impure or unsuitable by contact or mixture with something unclean, bad, etc)), depending on how the large scale insect farms were managed.

With an estimated (to form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size, weight, etc.,of; calculate approximately) global population of 9 billion by 2050, using insects as a high quality source of protein as feed (for chickens, for example) could give a much needed food conversion rate (lower levels of initial energy and water required). Insect meat is also a quality source of fat, fibre, minerals and vitamins.

It is estimated that insects such as flies , moths, meal worms and crickets/locust

Insects

already form the diet of at least 2 billion people. There is still clearly a way to go until western cultures can adopt new foodstuffs (a substance used or capable of being used as nutriment) and a better understanding of the hazards  (an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable)of eating insects is required for the next step.

Source : http://pestsandpollinators.com/

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Pollinators ( an insect that carries pollen from one flower to another) contribute (to give to a common supply)to about 10% of the economic (involving or pertaining to one’s personal resources of money) value of crop production, but the contribution to human nutrition (the process by which organisms take in and utilize food material)by these pollinators is potentially much higher. This is because pollinators support the sexual reproduction (the state of being reproduced)(by transfer of gametes aka pollen) of crops high in essential nutrients that malnourished (poorly or improperly nourished)regions of the world rely on. This suggests that regions already facing food shortages and nutritional (providing nutrition) deficiencies (the quality or condition of being deficient; incompleteness or inadequacy)will suffer particularly hard from the global decline of bees and other pollinators.

Many of the crops dependent on animal vectors (In epidemiology, a vector is any agent (person,animal, or microorganism) that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism)to pollinate (convey pollen to or deposit pollen on (a stigma, ovule, flower, or plant) and so allow fertilization)(instead of wind) are the ones most rich in micro nutrients essential for human health. The recent decline of important pollinators, such as the domesticated (tame and kept as a pet or on a farm.)Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, has lead to concerns on the economic and now nutritional situation of crop production.  Dr Chaplin-Kramer and colleagues (a person with whom one works in a profession or business)set out to assess (the ​act of ​judging or ​deciding the ​amount, ​value, ​quality, or ​importance of something, or the ​judgment or ​decision that is made)the importance of pollinators to global health by determining which regions these crops are most critical for and what their micro-nutrient content is.

Source :http://pestsandpollinators.com/

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