What is the REAL impact of eating meat?

Would you think twice about eating a burger if you realised that it was created using as much water as leaving your shower running for 2 months? 

Whether or not you believe every statistic used in the film, Cowspiracy is a challenging documentary on animal agriculture.

By rearing animals to provide us with products - from butter to ice cream, cheese to sausages and beefburgers - we commit ourselves to a huge undertaking of resources. In an age where we are told to cycle rather than drive to work, use energy-saving light bulbs and reduce, reuse, recycle, it is shocking to see some of the numbers that Cowspiracy throws at us regarding the meat we eat and the resources that have gone into it @cowspiracy facts:

• Around 15,000 litres of water are required to produce 1 kg of beef.
• The meat and dairy industries combined use nearly 1/3 (29%) of all the fresh water in the world today.
• Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transportation combined.
• Cows produce huge amounts of methane, a gas that has a much greater impact on global warming than CO2 and whose reduction would have an immediate impact on our environment.

These incredible numbers take into account a number of factors not always considered when we think about the real cost of our meat: 1-2 acres of rainforest are cleared every second, and up to 91% of the land cleared in the Amazon has been used for animal agriculture - either directly or for feed-crops. The pressure of our high-meat diets is directly reducing the size of our rainforests, and so this loss is included in the calculations.

The water required to grow the feed-crops and provide our animals with water (worldwide, cows drink 170 billion litres each day), means that we use a third of our resource for this purpose. By the time a burger ends up in your hands it has had as much water thrown at it as would be expended if you left your shower running endlessly for 2 months.

So what is the upshot of this, according to the film?

Clearly, while we continue to eat meat most days and worship fast-food joints spilling out beef and chicken meals every few seconds across the world, there is only so much that fitting energy-saving light-bulbs and cycling regularly will do. When considered alongside the growing demand for meat-heavy diets in the developing world, there will be a greater need for us to reduce our insatiable appetite in the developed world.

However, the demand of the film for anyone who considers themselves eco-friendly to become vegan is likely to cause some people running to their nearest burger joint. Some of us with the taste for meat find going cold turkey (or not as the case may be) as a terrifying prospect.
My wife and I have tried to make an effort by adopting a very low-meat diet, eating it only once or twice a week. We've also cut our dairy intake down by using milk alternatives (almond and soy), cutting out yoghurt and, with less success, cheese. And, of course, we have been looking at insects as an alternative answer that provides natural protein with a fraction of the energy input.

This is the challenging substance of the film and part of the reason entomophagy (the eating of insects) could prove to be the norm in the future. Cutting down dairy intake and cutting meat out of our diet is not something all of us fancy doing. But, in the long term, can we afford not to?

Toasted Tenebrio Molitor...or maybe some chocolate-covered mealworms?

Tenebrio molitor, earth-shrimp, protein-packed...mealworms

The thought of eating insects is anathema to many people. However, I am exploring ways of how this barrier can be broken down by rearing my own tenebrio molitor and getting friends, family and work colleagues (and in future the general public) hooked...one at a time.

Many of us love the taste of a nice steak, pulled pork sandwich, a prawn curry or 
BBQ chicken. For some, a meal isn't complete without meat but it may be important for this culture to change in future. Our reliance on forms of meat that are hungry for energy, water, space and that create environment issues of their own such as greenhouse gas emissions means that we have to think about how much of it we consume.

As greater numbers of people populate our planet, and millions join the privileged position of being able to buy more meat, we have to question how much of the Earth's surface we want to dedicate to the rearing of meat. It already stands at something in the region of 30% when including grains grown for animal feed. 

Refocussing our attention on the oceans has already caused visible strains on that ecosystem and so isn't an easy solution either.

I have been learning that the buggy alternative can be tasty as well as making sense.
Edible insects take up much less water, energy and space than do their more common counterparts cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. 

My own Tenebrio Molitor have given me a chance to test different ways that people may enjoy their protein-packed and nutritious offerings.

This week I tried a couple of approaches that I think may excite two different potential groups:

Chocolate-covered mealworms for kids and adventurous, sweet-toothed adults and...

Chocolate-covered mealworms

Ground, toasted mealworms for people that will enjoy the unique, yet familiar taste...akin to shrimp paste and toasted sesame seeds while also being completely indistinguishable as every having been an insect.

Toasted Tenebrio Molitor for grinding

Ground-mealworm powder: tastes like shrimp paste and sesame seeds

Both are easy to do:

Take your mealworms, wash them, put them onto a tray and stick them in the oven on a low heat (about 100 degrees C). Take out the ones for chocolate after an hour and leave the others for longer - I let them brown a little, which gave them a great toasted flavour.

Melt some chocolate over boiling water with a teaspoon of coconut oil, then dip in the mealworms that were taken out first and place on greaseproof paper. Cool in the fridge.

The toasted mealworms, I simply ground down in a pestle and mortar as shown. The taste was great but you could season. I'm going to use mine in anything you would normally use something like shrimp paste - so mostly Asian cooking. However, I will be able to enjoy knowing exactly where they came from and the nutritional boost they are giving me.

Friends have enjoyed both the chocolate-covered mealworms and the ground mealworms. The reassuring thing is that they have often tried to find the familiar taste that they have without being able to quite put a finger on it. The Tenebrio Molitor have a unique flavour that isn't dissimilar to a number of things we eat already...that's why I think they could appear on a plate near you soon - even if you don't recognise them.

Mealworm mince pies and the invasion of the flies...

Too excited to wait until I had harvested enough to use extensively, I fried up my first small harvest of mealworms and tasted them.

I would describe them as tasting akin to a peanut-flavoured popcorn. Very light with a distinct taste of their own and almost like a shrimp in terms of texture. I was very happy with how they taste on their own; I had expected them to be bland and require plenty of flavour to be added. However, the simple, lightly fried product was great. 

Fried mealworms - tasted like peanut popcorn

To get into the seasonal spirit though, I decided to add them into some mince pies. The recipe for these is below and is a great twist on the classic festive treat:

1¼ lb (560 g) mincemeat Handful of mealworms

12 oz (350 g) plain flour

6 oz (150 g) butter

pinch of salt

For the top:

a little milk

icing sugar

Preparing the mince pies

Beautiful mealworm mince pies, complete with pastry mealworm

These mince pies went down well at work and with friends as they tasted  great and the mealworms were largely unseen. I'm hoping that this introduction will make any future mealworm consumption less of a psychological hurdle. More recipes and response from people I test them on to come in future weeks...


Meanwhile, outside, in the box that I had let stay there to see what happened to the larvae in the cold, I found a disturbing scenario had evolved.

Looking into the box, I could see numerous small flies crawling over the oats and rotting veg. On closer inspection into the detritus I found alarming numbers of fly larvae. They are quite distinct from the mealworms - they start as pale, slightly fatter mealworms but are akin to a worm in the way they move (the mealworms move like beetles with a long body). The older fly larvae are redder and resemble a true worm even more.

The invasive fly larvae - younger white and older red specimens

Due to this invasion I have left this box to act as compost and will use it in the Spring for fertilising.

In the news, there was an interesting article in the Huffington Post about what the author thinks, for vegans, is the "obligation" to eat insects due to the impact of growing crops on animals.

Is it cold in here?

It is getting cold outside here in the UK and the mealworms resident in the couple of boxes that I have out there may struggle to develop outside of their comfort zone of circa 30 degrees. However, I will find it useful to see just how slowly they grow compared to the ones in the toasty airing cupboard.

I have actually taken great pleasure in watching the 'dust'-like larvae grow into the more familiar "worm" (they are still six-legged insects) stage. Some time-lapse footage helps show the different maturity of the larvae.

The less fortunate mealworms that I have started harvesting will be finding it exceptionally cold in the freezer.

In the next month I will be able to use those mealworms in recipes that I have been given by my work colleagues in the highly recommended 'The Insect Cookbook'. I will whip up such dishes as insect Dim Sum; Chili con (insect) Carne; insect vols-au-vent and mealworm cookies. I have been doing the groundwork with friends, family and work colleagues to prepare them for acting as my guinea pigs for which types of offerings are the easiest to get used to, taste the best, look the nicest and basically resemble most familiar meals.

I see it as my task to try and find some easily-accessible routes for the more squeamish side of us to explore eating insects. If you have any ideas of how you'd like to try mealworms then drop a comment below.

There have actually been good signs that the main barrier to the development of insects as a foodstuff in Europe - our psychological aversion - could be less of a problem than predicted. A recent survey shows that the population in parts of Western Europe (in Belgium) are receptive to the idea of eating insects if they are integrated with familiar flavours.

And recently in the US they held a Bugs and Beer  event in San Diego - a great way to try insects, while enjoying a tipple (or eight!).

Be the change that you want to see...

After a trip to Africa with work I have come home to find a thriving group of mealworms in one of my boxes. Although this box has been outside in increasingly cold weather, I think that the amount of food I have been dropping in there has allowed some of the multitude of mealies in there to mature to a decent size. There was even one that had reached chrysalis stage already - highlighting the level of attention they need for separation.

First Mealworm reared by my own hands

I have taken these larger larvae out of the bigger box and separated them into a smaller one in the hope that they can mature even more rapidly.

Within a week or so I will have enough to start using them as food!

My trip to Africa reinvigorated my belief in the need for everyone to live the changes that they believe are needed in society; whatever it may be. There is no use in waiting for others to take the lead, thinking about it but not acting on it, or simply forgetting about the issue for an easy life. We have to take responsibility for our actions and if we believe in something, set an example for others.

That is why I am doing this. I believe that the world will need to find alternative sources of protein in order to help provide everyone with it without irreparably damaging our natural environment. I'm just exploring one such way.

It's good to see other people in Bristol acting on their beliefs about food waste: SKIPCHEN has just opened serving only skip-salvaged food with a mission to put themselves out of business by highlighting the problem of wastage in our food system.

Slowly, slowly...

It has been a slow few weeks since I last posted. I have had to try a number of different things to try and work out how to get the mealworms to mature faster including putting in more food, keeping them in darker and warmer climes.

The mealworm life-cycle can be anything from 3 months to 6 months. However, I think that I may have too many in too small a place - they swarm any fruit/veg that I put in but I'm worried that they don't have enough space. I am breaking some smaller groups out to try and encourage growth.

Hundreds/thousands of mealworms swarm any fruit put in with them

Gallingly, I have seen some in my recycling bin (transferred there in vessels of old fruit that needed to be removed I think) that are even more mature than the ones that I am rearing directly and it goes to show that the environment and space might be key.

Lots of people ask me regularly about them - there is definitely public interest; more than I thought there might be. I think it is indicative of the fact that Bristol is especially fertile ground for new ideas and more sustainable ways of doing things.

As soon as I get some large worms I plan to develop some great-tasting food to share with everyone that has asked me about them and help turn people onto the idea of insects as a viable alternative to other protein sources.

Another great insect-focused caught my eye recently too - check it out. Entomophagy is the future: Insects Are Food.

The eggs, the dust and the mealworms

It appears that the beetles have been busy...

I have to say that I didn't really see the eggs that they had laid, but I started noticing dust on the side of my boxes that I had considered to be mould.

As I looked at it closely I realised that the dust was moving and that I had finally bred my first mealworms. 

What I thought was dust was actually the infant mealworms.

Over the next few days I started seeing more and more of them, moving like one large, swarming organism and surrounding any bits of veg in the box. Their movements are quite mesmerising:

However, soon after receiving these new arrivals, I noticed the level of condensation in the boxes getting worse and worse. One day there seemed to be very little movement in the box and, I think, a number of mealworms had died - most probably of suffocation.

To deal with this development I bought some hessian to cover the top of the box (and help keep out roaming infants who can climb up the side of the box) and allow more air flow. This has seemed to solve the problem.

I think that I will also need to monitor how well the infants develop in different-sized boxes as there may be too much competition for food.

So all-in-all an interesting few days. Recommendations are: its probably not dust that you see - they're mealworms, keep good ventilation - especially when their numbers increase, and the amount of space and food offered will determine the number that will mature.

The speed with which the mealworms mature will determine when I can start cooking with these protein packages. I also plan to split them up into groups to see how different foods, and environments may affect their growth and taste... all exciting stuff to come!

And when you think that 38% of the world’s total land area was used for agriculture in 2007, the idea of using these space and energy-efficient creatures becomes more and more appealing.