These Kenyan farmers are preparing for the future - by rearing crickets


It used to be that two sorts of people in this part of western Kenya ate crickets: the hungry, and singers who believed consuming the chirping insects would improve their voice.

Times have changed. In recent years the business of rearing insects for human consumption - known as entomophagy - has begun to take off in Kenya.

That's in part because there is more interest in alternative, sustainable sources of protein as climate change, population growth, and intensive farming and grazing increase pressure on land and water, according to experts at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), a Kenyan-based research body.

Ex-motorbike-taxi-driver Rogers Oduli is a former six-legged food sceptic. Now he works at one of the largest bug farms in Kisumu, the region's main city.

"These are the pinheads," he said, lifting the lid on a plastic box of baby crickets to show hundreds of black dots bouncing around on green leaves.

"We give them kale, for vitamins," he said.....Read more

 

Source web page: World Economic Forum

 

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