What Foods Will We Eat 20 Years From Now? Luscious Food Reasonably Priced!
Future food production will impacted by a host of factors that committees in the United Nations and governments currently preoccupy themselves with. Global warming will have a continued influence on weather weirding, like the 2012 drought the US Midwest is experiencing. Such climate phenomena most likely will continue to cause rising food prices. The growing population projected to reach 8 billion by 2030 and 9 billion by 2050 and other environmental factors, for example, the diminishing supply of land for agricultural use are raising questions for scientists about what food sources can be used to sustain the planet's population.
Some futurists are grappling with the question and believe that meat prices will continue to rise until the once cheap staple that we have come to expect on our tables becomes a luxury item that the middle class cannot afford. According to food futurologist Morgaine Gaye, "Rising prices mean we are now starting to see the return of meat as a luxury and as a result we are looking for new ways to fill the meat gap."
Anthony Bourdain formerly of The Travel Channel's No Reservations and Andrew Zimmern of The Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods have courageously explored the cuisine of Asian countries which have not culturally embraced or had access to the luxury of beef. Many world cultures for centuries have sustained themselves on the richest of proteins without the excess of all that unwanted saturated fat. What are these luscious proteins? Insects!
With the exception of European food traditions, world cultures embrace insects. Toasted termites, scarab beetles, crickets or locusts are adored in the African countries. South American movie theaters offer snacks of roasted ants and aquatic insect larvae are amongst the delicacies sold in Japanese supermarkets. Depending upon continental taste palates, Brazilians prefer their ants salted, while the Thais like theirs seasoned with curry. In Thailand, too, crickets and grasshoppers are fried in banana leaves and devoured as a staple. Indonesians enjoy their dragonflies. Meanwhile, the Guarani Indians of Northern Argentina and the Australian Aborigines love their palm worms (beetle larvae) which are considered a delicacy. Bees, caterpillars and flies are eaten in many Asian countries and though silk worms in Europe were strictly for creating fabric, in Korea and Thailand they are made into delicious table fare. As a kid I remember hearing about the novelty of chocolate covered ants. As it turns out, other chocolate-covered insects like crickets are also common in some countries.
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