In the news: insect meals, migrants and lessons from Covid-19

EU approves mealworms for dinner

 Mealworms could make their way into Europeans diets after The European Food Safety Authority approved dried yellow mealworm fit for human consumption.

Other bugs – crickets to grasshoppers – are pending approval. Why would Europeans want to eat insects? Well, I’m not sure they do, but apparently bugs could be a highly nutritious sustainable form of protein for snacks, protein bars, cookies and other foods, according to Bloomberg Green.

It seems the insect farming industry has a way to go before it’s fully up and running but holds lots of promise as a sustainable foodstuff, especially for providing feedstock for animals, which is already allowed. 

Landmark court ruling highlights climate change as a factor in mass migration

We know that the impacts of climate change – flooding, fire, droughts – results in the movement of people, although I always feel this cause of migration is not discussed nearly enough. 

However, a recent French court ruling really highlights the issue. A Bangladeshi man with asthma avoided deportation from France after his lawyer argued that he risked a severe deterioration in his condition, and possibly premature death, due to the dangerous levels of pollution in his homeland, report The Guardian. 

This is interesting especially in light of a UK coroner’s ruling very recently that pollution contributed to the death of a child living in London. 

The Guardian quote, Sailesh Mehta, a barrister specialising in environmental cases, who said: “As global warming makes parts of our planet uninhabitable, mass migration will become the norm. Air and water pollution do not respect national boundaries.”

The case shows that climate change and pollution is very much a global problem with wide ranging effects. 

If Covid has taught us anything it’s that we must listen to the scientists

I tuned into Reuters Next online conference this week and something Sean Kidney, Chief Executive Officer at the Climate Bonds Initiative struck a chord. He said: 

“If anything comes out of Covid, it must be that we know we must always listen to the scientists. Look at the mess the UK and the US have made by not listening to the scientists – this is the same mess climate change is shaping up to be if we don’t listen to the scientists.” 

Amen to that.