Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, and fish aren't very good for the environment, not as good as bugs. They also don't get treated as they should. For one, they need a lot of space for the farming of their food. Some cows don't even get the appropriate living conditions they need.
For example, some cows are just kept cooped up in really tight spaces, some are even grown in factories, as a way to avoid taking up large areas of land. Meaning their life is all indoors, and they are not able to graze on natural materials such as grass. Also if they are factory bred, they are often slaughtered in very cruel ways.
So, even if they are farmed in decent ways with fields and barns, that isn't very good for the environment as it takes up a very large amount of space for the area needed for grazing, crops, other animals, etc. The fact that they use so much space for farming, means that people must cut down a lot of trees, leading to the decrease of other animals' homes.
Cities like Hong Kong do not have sufficient space to raise cattle, sheep, goats, etc. and the cost of land and labour in Hong Kong makes it uneconomic to raise chickens or other animals for domestic consumption. As a result, Hong Kong imports all the meat products consumed here. The quality of the imported meat deteriorates due to its transportation to Hong Kong from various parts of the world. When meat stock is grown in Australia, it has to be imported to a supermarket here in Hong Kong on planes, ships or trucks. This creates air pollution with all the fuel used during the journey.
Pigs may have the same problem with living conditions, but there is an added problem in that some farmers put products in the pigs' food to make them grow faster so they can be sold at a younger age. These drugs and supplements can effect their hormones. When the farmers decide they are ready for shipping to supermarkets, they are purchased by consumers. The fact that the pigs were given drugs in their food may be bad for the people who eat the meat. For example, it is thought that the additives in the meat may cause children to reach puberty earlier.
Fish aren't always good for the environment, either. For one, there is a lot of overfishing now and with a lot of the fish population gone, the ocean's eco-system is unbalanced. The imbalance in the ocean's eco-system is partly due to the overfishing of sharks for shark finning and, in some cases, to extract their teeth for decorations, since sharks at the top of the ocean's food chain. Too many of the world's fish population die because of people throwing garbage into the sea. Other fish species have nothing to eat but their own species because the food they would normally eat has been destroyed or eliminated. In some places around the world dead fish are dumped back into the sea, some of which may even be poisoned, meaning that other fish that eat the dead fish may also have poison in their meat and could harm someone eating this meat. When fish are raised in fish farms, they live in tanks, which isn't their natural habitat.
In all these cases, and also for sheep and chickens, the animals are not treated properly or humanely, and the existence of additives or poisons in their meat may cause harm to the people who eat them.
You may ask "well, what do we eat now, if we can't eat meat?!"
Our answer for you is bugs. You may think "Ew! Just the thought of it makes me feel sick!" We can help to make you think otherwise. For one, a lot of different types of bugs contain a lot of protein and much less fat that the everyday food we eat now.
If you compare 100g of caterpillar with 100g of pork, caterpillar would have 5.6g less fat than the pork but 17g less protein. And compare 100g of grasshopper with 100g of steak sirloin, grasshopper has 0.9g less fat than steak but 2g less protein.
There are also many places in the world where people eat bugs and find them delicious, and nutritious, including Africa, Asia, North and South America, because they are cheap and plentiful. Importantly, importation is not necessary because bugs live all around the world, and exist naturally - there isn't a need for huge spaces to grow them, or a need to feed them. They feed themselves with a small amount of food, so there is no need for a huge area of farming space for them.
Many people probably don't want to eat them because of the feel of bugs in their mouth, or because they feel repulsed by the thought of eating them. People who have eaten fried bugs say that because of the high levels of protein, they taste like chicken, just a bit spicy and burnt, but that it was delicious. Most people find that taste matters more than touch.
So the thought may be gross, but the fact is that they are healthier for human beings and the environment.
Sources:
· List of Edible Insects
· Food Opinions
·Insects as food
·Article on Bugs as Food
·SCMP - Wednesday 15th of May 2013
