Singapore Approves 16 Insect Species For Human Consumption To Meet Food Needs Goals By 2030

The following report is by Smithsonian Magazine:

The city-state in Southeast Asia recently approved 16 types of insects as food. On July 8, the Singapore Food Agency released a public document laying out newly established regulatory guidelines.

“Following the guidelines will help ensure that the insects and insect products sold in Singapore as food [are] safe and suitable for consumption,” per the agency.

Singaporeans and visitors may soon be chowing down on several species of crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms, beetles, moths and honeybees. The bugs may also be used to feed food-producing animals.

Insects must be raised on regulated farms rather than harvested from the wild. The agency also specifies the life stage at which each insect can be imported. For instance, mealworms can only be eaten in the larva stage, while American desert locusts can only be eaten in the adult stage.

“It’s really amazing to see that they have such a big list of species,” Skye Blackburn, an Australian entomologist and food scientist, tells the Guardian’s Helen Sullivan. “It’s really showing that Singapore is a little bit more open than we thought they were going to be to edible insects.”

The decision comes amid Singapore’s broader efforts to boost food security, diversify food sources and decrease its dependence on imports, which account for more than 90 percent of its food, according to Bloomberg’s Shikhar Gupta. By 2030, Singapore wants to be able to meet 30 percent of its food needs locally.

Only 1 percent of Singapore’s land is currently used for agriculture. That’s unlikely to change much in the future, given the city-state’s small footprint and the competing demands for land. But the government is encouraging farmers to boost their production by using innovative technologies and growing methods, such as “indoor multi-story LED lighting and recirculating aquaculture systems,” per the food agency.

Some chefs in Singapore are already putting insects on the menu, including Francis Ng at the restaurant House of Seafood, reports the Straits Times’ Cheryl Tan. He offers 30 dishes that feature insects, such as sushi topped with silkworms and salted egg crabs with superworms.

Many of our customers, especially young people who are under 30 years old, are very daring. They want to be able to see the whole insect in the dish.

Ng tells the publication.

Read the rest of the report here.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; [2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; [3] Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. [4] For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: [5] For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

The WinePress reported last year that Singapore was set to approve these insects for consumption. The country has also helped lead the way in introducing faux meat alternatives, such as lab-grown cell cultures, and other things such as beer made with recycled toilet water.

SEE: Singapore’s Tech-Utopia Dream Is Turning Into A Surveillance State Nightmare

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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