Future food production - a blast from the past

Have you ever considered what natural food is? Today, food that is ‘natural’ to us may be a hotdog, pizza or pasta. However, it is not that long ago, at least from a geological perspective, that humans primarily ate foods like roots, leaves, berries and insects. And for several hundred thousand years that was our diet - until we learned to cultivate the land and domesticate animal livestock. Over the last few thousand years our cultural evolution has diverged dramatically from our biological evolution - and our perception of ‘natural’ has changed accordingly. But why should we (re)consider e.g. insects as part of our diet again in Europe? Well, there are many good reasons for that such as protecting the environment and our climate. So, what keeps us from starting eating insects again then? Well, the reason is not simple, but to pinpoint one major factor, it is due to ‘neophobia’ – by nature we are skeptical! Luckily, recent research in psychology supports that not eating insects is only a ‘cultural anomaly’ in the so-called Western world, and not something deeply rooted in our biology – so there is hope! During this presentation, insects as food and feed will be outlined including benefits and challenges of taking these 'mini-livestock' to an industrial level in the 21st century.