Singapore has approved 16 insects as food for humans — becoming the latest country to authorize insect products for human consumption, in what The Guardian described as a move that “paves the way for plates to become wrigglier, leggier and more sustainable” and as “a sign of things to come.”
In a July 8 announcement, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) approved the 16 insects, which include silkworm pupa and mealworm, “With immediate effect.”
“These insects and insect products can be used for human consumption or as animal feed for food producing animals,” the SFA stated.
Countries and entities such as the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia and the European Union (EU) have already approved some insects for human consumption. However, in the U.S. existing regulations contain few references specifically addressing insects.
This regulatory gap has enabled an ecosystem of “alternative protein” startups to enter the insect food market — with the backing of figures such as Bill Gates and government agencies including the United Nations (U.N.) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation.
“The United Nations Food And Agricultural Organisation (FAO) continues to promote insect consumption as an environmentally friendly way to get protein in your diet — for both humans and their livestock,” The Guardian reported.
Proponents of insects as food for humans, including the FAO, argue this will help combat climate change, as insects produce a smaller carbon footprint than traditional livestock. But critics challenge this view.
“The justification for insects is to produce protein using fewer inputs: to save the planet by reducing climate change, methane from cows, less pollution,” internist Dr. Meryl Nass, founder of Door to Freedom, told The Defender. “But just because it is protein doesn’t mean it’s good for us.”
Nass cited parasites that could be spread by insects, difficulties in digesting insects, and common allergies to chitin — commonly found on the exoskeleton of insects.
According to Nass, lax U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, under which many insects can be classified as “Generally Regarded as Safe” (GRAS), “means they don’t require testing” and enables the FDA to “look the other way.” This has opened the door for insect foods to reach consumers.
“How long will it take before we learn whether these foods are safe? It could take generations,” Nass said.
“Advocates for mass consumption of insect-based foods would like you to believe that bugs have been a reliable source of protein for thousands of years,” said Seamus Bruner, author of “Controligarchs: Exposing the Billionaire Class, their Secret Deals, and the Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life.”
Bruner, who also is director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, told The Defender:
“While that is true, malnutrition and disease were also endemic and life expectancies were dramatically lower than they are today. The truth is that beef, pork, poultry and other animal-based foods are the most efficient and healthy sources of protein. These climate fanatics pushing insect-based foods are scaring people into adopting less healthy diets.”
Dutch journalist Elze van Hamelen told The Defender that using insect ingredients for pet food also poses a risk to public health, citing a 2019 study that found parasites in 244 of 300 insect farms and pet stores that were investigated.
“Feeding pets with parasite-infested insects, especially pets that do not have the physiology to digest bugs, may not be such a good idea,” van Hamelen said.
Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., author of “The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda,” told The Defender, “The insect craze is intimately connected to the U.N.’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
Rectenwald cited two SDGs: SDG 2, “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” and SDG 12, “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”
“’Sustainability’ is code language for coerced reductions in consumption and forced behavioral modifications,” Rectenwald said.
Nass said the U.N., along with the World Economic Forum (WEF), “promote the so-called SDGs, which can supposedly be met if we change our diet.” Yet, “We don’t see the WEF or U.N. attendees eating insects at their meetings.”
Nass suggested that one reason behind the shift to insects as food is “to cause emotional harm: to degrade, debase, downgrade human beings” and that beef is “being demonized,” potentially to “weaken the species.”
“The idea seems to be to get rid of small producers and create a fully industrialized system of food production that Cargill, ConAgra, PepsiCo will profit from,” she added.
“Bill Gates claims his investments in alternative proteins are to save the planet,” Bruner said. “What he does not say is that they are part of a strategy to monopolize the protein industry — for profit — as he lobbies to ban animal-based competition.”
Insect Firms in Singapore ‘Educating’ Children About Insects as a Food Source
The 16 insects Singapore’s SFA has approved include “various species of crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, mealworms and silkworms,” The Straits Times reported. According to The Guardian, foods containing insects must clearly label this on the packaging, “to indicate the true nature of the product.”
The Straits Times reported that local restaurant chain House of Seafood is already “cooking up a menu of 30 insect-infused dishes to give customers more choice,” while other firms have begun “educating consumers” — including children — about insects as a food source for humans.
The report cited the example of Altimate Nutrition which, “While waiting for SFA’s regulatory approval … conducted workshops and educational sessions at almost a hundred schools, from pre-schools to institutes of higher learning.”
Surveys conducted after the program found that about 80% of students would be willing to try the insects after they are approved, The Straits Times reported.
But Bruner said other factors are likely at play in Singapore.
“The WEF — perhaps the largest driving force behind so-called ‘alternative proteins’ — frequently touts Singapore’s compliance with Agenda 2030, so the decision to prioritize insect-based foods is not surprising,” he said.
EU, U.K., Australia and Other Countries Approve Insects for Consumption
Authorities in the EU, U.K. and Australia, among other countries, have also approved certain insects for human consumption.
Brussels Signal cited Ermolaos Ververis, scientific officer for the European Food Safety Authority Novel Foods Team, who said the EU has authorized six insects: “Alphitobius diaperinus larvae products, dried mealworms, whole and ground yellow mealworms, whole and ground Grasshoppers, whole and ground crickets, and partially defatted Whole Cricket Powder.”
Eight applications are still pending in the EU, where according to EU regulations, foods containing insects must be clearly labeled.
Brussels Signal reported that under Horizon Europe, a European Commission — the executive branch of the EU funding program for research and innovation — “insect-based proteins are considered one of the key areas of research.”
U.K. authorities have approved four insects for human consumption — yellow mealworm, house cricket, banded cricket and black soldier fly, as “novel foods,” while Australia has approved three species: two varieties of mealworm and a cricket.
According to the FAO, there are more than 1,900 “edible insect species.” However, insects don’t appear to be included in the FAO’s Codex Alimentarius — its international food safety guidelines.
‘Nudging’ the Public Toward Acceptance
Several studies, including a 2020 report by the European Consumer Organisation, a 2021 YouGov poll and a 2022 report by UBA, Germany’s environmental agency, suggest low demand among the public for consuming foods containing insects.
Other studies in 2020 and 2022 suggested people would be more willing to shift their attitudes after being told about the “environmental benefits” of eating insects.
The 2020 study suggested that “nudging” — a behavioral science concept supported by the National Science Foundation — could be used to this end. “As humans are a particularly social species, leveraging the social nature may prove particularly useful,” the study said.
In a 2021 European Food Safety Authority report, Giovanni Sogari, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Food and Drug at the University of Parma in Italy, suggested, “There are cognitive reasons derived from our social and cultural experiences, the so-called ‘yuck factor’, that make the thought of eating insects repellent to many Europeans. With time and exposure such attitudes can change.”
And Lies Hackelbracht, the owner of TOR Royal, an insect production company in Belgium, told Euronews in 2021, “When we are 9 billion people, it won’t be possible to let everybody eat meat, so we have to search for other possibilities with a lot of protein and it can be in plants, but it can also be in insects.”
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Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and part of the rotation of hosts for CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD.”
Featured image is from CHD
