• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Humans will eat maggot sausages as a meat alternative: scientists

CyberPanda

Banned
One hot dog, please — heavy on the maggots.”

Food scientists at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia are incorporating insects such as maggots and locusts into a range of specialty foods, including sausage, as well as formulating sustainable insect-based feeds for the livestock themselves.

Hoffman says conventional livestock production will soon be unable to meet global demand for meat, so other fillers and alternatives will be needed to supplement the food supply with sufficient protein sources.

“An overpopulated world is going to struggle to find enough protein unless people are willing to open their minds, and stomachs, to a much broader notion of food,” says meat science professor Dr. Louwrens Hoffman. “Would you eat a commercial sausage made from maggots? What about other insect larvae and even whole insects like locusts? The biggest potential for sustainable protein production lies with insects and new plant sources.”

The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) team is focusing on pleasing Western palates by disguising insects in pre-prepared foods, says Hoffman, as studies have shown they shy away from eating whole insects.

“In other words, insect protein needs to be incorporated into existing food products as an ingredient, he says. “One of my students has created a very tasty insect ice cream.”

In terms of other sustainable sources of protein, Hoffman also brings up kangaroo meat — ideal because they don’t require grasslands for grazing. They are also supplementing chicken feed, which is currently made mostly of grains, with black fly larvae, with promising results.

“Poultry is a massive industry worldwide and the industry is under pressure to find alternative proteins that are more sustainable, ethical and green than the grain crops currently being used,” says Hoffman, and points out that wild chickens eat mostly insects.

“It’s all pretty logical if you think about it.”

Hoffman notes that while eating bugs might seem bonkers to Westerners, “for many millions of people around the world they are a familiar part of the diet.” He also calls for a “global reappraisal of what can constitute healthy, nutritional and safe food for all.”


Ewwwww
 

iconmaster

Banned
Scientists will keep saying this and we'll keep not eating them. A tale of milquetoasts and actual humans, eternally retold!
 
I don't see why we would accept -- let alone celebrate -- the degradation of our food supply. I understand that maggots can be used as a decent source of protein, but if they were so useful then I expect our previous generations of human cultures might've used them more prominently.

How about finding ways to improve the living conditions and quality of traditional cattle? Oh wait, farmers have been doing that year after year yet never seem to get credit for it...

Whether they're crying about how we shouldn't be powering our homes with coal and oil, or crying about how we obtain our meat, these doomsayers always want to warn us about the impending future destruction at the cost of the very infrastructure that supports their cushy lifestyle.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
This is like that scene in Battlefield Earth where they stick the guy in an empty cell with nothing to eat but a rat and the bad guys observing him think “this human loves to eat rat”
 

daveonezero

Banned
I really hate scientist thinking they can control populations with their "miracle" inventions. The same groups who gave us all the pesticides, pharmaceuticals and modern agricultural disaster waiting to happen.

They ruin the food supply and then come in with a ridiculous solution.

Also cricket protein is awesome.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
I'm 100% on board with trying new insect & plant based proteins.

Just mash it up into a sausage or patty and westerners will eat it. As opposed to frying up a spider and giving it to them on a stick which the average westerner will never eat.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
I really hate scientist thinking they can control populations with their "miracle" inventions. The same groups who gave us all the pesticides, pharmaceuticals and modern agricultural disaster waiting to happen.

They ruin the food supply and then come in with a ridiculous solution.

Also cricket protein is awesome.

Ruin the food supply? Google Norman Borlaug. He's one of the reasons your ancestors had enough to eat and didn't starve to death before giving birth to you.

You ready to give up the miracle inventions of these sneaky scientists like GPS, the internet, electricity, PCs, smart phones, vaccines, and pretty much all of modern society?
 

daveonezero

Banned
Ruin the food supply? Google Norman Borlaug. He's one of the reasons your ancestors had enough to eat and didn't starve to death before giving birth to you.

You ready to give up the miracle inventions of these sneaky scientists like GPS, the internet, electricity, PCs, smart phones, vaccines, and pretty much all of modern society?
I'm ready to give up their centrally controls and regulated versions. I think cities are obsolete and there is technology to make food without shipping it halfway across the world to feed people.

Most of these Industries are too reliant on subsidized fossil fuels and petroleum chemicals. Things that wouldn't be cheap unless the USA forced other economies into dealing with them and destroying their sovereignty as nations.
 
Last edited:
So? There's more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes.
Yeah, but cat-meat is gross and is susceptible to parasites, and on the same token there are sustainable ways to make "normal" meat without resorting to maggot-farming (or cat-skinning 😿).

I understand the spirit of what you're saying: why reject an option -- no matter how gross it might seem -- if it's viable? And I admit, that's a fair way of looking at it, so let's go down that trail of thought.

The reason why I mention "mass producing maggot protein" is because this idea is being proposed to handle future population growth. I'm not against forward-thinking ideas, but it is worth considering why this idea had almost no role in the ongoing population growth but will somehow be crucial to future population growth.

We know that there are tons of inefficiencies with modern cattle / poultry farming, right? We know that there are tons of problems with modern grain / vegetable production, right?

If traditional cattle and poultry farming have gotten us this far (historically accurate), and there are correctable problems with our modern methods of cattle / poultry farming (which the Foodpocalyptic scientists are pointing out), then the more logical course of action would be to first invest our time into improving existing methods before worrying about Hail Maggot Mary passes intended to save future humanity from starvation.

The same goes for vegetable / grain farming. This is an area I've learned a lot about in the past 5 years as a hobbyist / amateur, and you'd be amazed by the nifty farming techniques making their way into modern farms. Farmers are always trying to improve the way our food turns out, even the Big Ag ones that use Monsanto products.

So why not improve what we have instead of resorting to doomsday scenarios?

Or why not use the maggots for some other purpose? For instance, what if I farmed maggots and fed them to chickens or goats instead? What is the impetus for me to eat an inferior food source? You'll notice that is exactly what the central proponents for maggot (and insect) farming suggest doing.
 
How about no

I won't eat that crap even if there's no more animal meat left in the world, which of course will never happen. If it does I'd rather go vegan.

Even in the event that animal meat becomes super scarce, do you think people with money will settle for maggots? Of course not, they will still treat themselves to the delicious meat we know today. I bet these scientists who are pushing for maggot sausage won't eat it themselves. So fuck them.

Maggot food is meant for the have-not and oppressed, just like the "protein bars" in the movie Snowpiercer. Scientists can shove it up their ass.
 
Last edited:

mekes

Member
Looks tasty to me


1d6c2abc886908c16c8f9296425384ba.jpg
 

appaws

Banned
I actually ate a chocolate covered cicada once. It wasn't bad, tasted like a gritty french fry.
 

gamerMan

Member
I probably have already tried one of these. They add a bunch of unknown additives to sausages. Who knows what the hell is in them? What you don't know can't hurt you.
 

haxan7

Banned
Article feels misleading. Larvae like maggots are pretty damn different from bugs. For people who are hearing about this concept fresh, I don’t think it’s fair to base your opinion on the eating of maggots (that grow in corpses, and where flies come from). It’s difficult enough to wrap your head around eating crickets. Scientists have known for a while that these are viable and sustainable protein sources for people.
 
Top Bottom