Links Cricket Is Just a Better Chicken http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eZa Joel Salatin: Polyface Farm Small Scale Farming the Only Way Forward http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f1B UN Reports: Wake Up Before it’s Too Late UN report from 2010 **** This is the World Organic News for the week ending 8th of May 2017. Jon Moore reporting! From the blog ilkkataponen comes an infographic post: Cricket Is Just a Better Chicken. The premise of this infographic is industrial. The argument goes like this: insects use less water, pollute less and are a better form of protein for us than beef, pork, chevon, lamb or poultry. In a factory setting, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and poultry suffer unspeakably in factory farming situations. Part of the argument in favour of moving to crickets or locusts or whatever insect you might choose is that they will suffer less because their living requirements are far less demanding than the “higher”, in inverted commas, animals. This is a questionable starting point. These animals do have nervous systems and, therefore, can feel suffering. So let’s take a deeper look at this idea. Apart from the ick factor which is purely a consequence of most of us never having lived through a famine, the idea is has some merit. The idea isn’t that we sit down, necessarily, to a plate of barbecued crickets on sticks, although that is one option. My understanding is insects will be bred, grown out on some sort of “waste” product, killed, dried and milled. That’s milled as in wheat through a grain mill. The end product is a protein based powder, perfect for adding to manufactured foodstuffs. Hopefully you can see where this going. Feedlots or CAFOs as they are euphemistically called are not all that efficient. CAFO, of course, standing for confined animal feeding operations. So the “inefficient” in inverted commas, cattle are to be replaced with the far more industrially suited crickets. The cricket powder can then be combined with all sorts of things to create burgers, sausages, protein drinks and on and on. Under the banner of cruelty free efficiency, cows are out and crickets, locusts, maybe some sort of beetle will be the food source of the ever growing urban agglomerations. Indeed if we take this to it’s logical conclusion, the pupae state of the insect’s life cycle may hold sufficient protein to save even more time and resources. Imagine, powdered maggots! Now this will need the marketing types to put it through their magical processes but maggots raised on dog droppings. The efficiencies are truly mind blowing. I am reminded of a quote from Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms that goes something like this: We humans are really good at hitting any target we aim at. It’s just that we don’t seem to ask if the target was worth hitting. I hear you ask, could there, perhaps, be another way of feeding the world that doesn’t involve the incarceration of chickens, pigs and cattle or the mass raising and processing of insects? I’m glad you asked. The blog: TAUNTON FARMERS MARKET brings us an interesting post entitled: Small Scale Farming the Only Way Forward Longish Quote: The UN has commissioned several reports in recent years regarding climate change and the effect agriculture has on it and, as a consequence, world hunger. The reports make interesting reading, especially in regard to how changes in farming practices could have a profound impact on slowing global warming and alleviating poverty and hunger throughout the world.  ‘Wake Up Before it’s Too Late‘, an extensive report drawing from over 60 experts worldwide, and an earlier document, UN report from 2010, both show that the only realistic way to feed the world in the future is to use organic and sustainable methods. End Quote These reports seemed to have been euthanized by ignoring them. Promoting local sustainable production of healthy, poison free food is going to ruffle some feathers. Pretty big feathers that are receiving government subsidies, good profit margins and healthy future growth