Marcel Dicke

Scientist

Marcel Dicke likes challenging preconceptions. He demonstrated that plants, far from being passive, send SOS signals by emitting volatile substances when under attack by pests, attracting carnivorous insects to eat their enemies. Dicke opened a new field of research and won the NWO-Spinoza award, the Dutch Nobel prize. Now he wants to change Western minds about insects – especially insects as food. “People generally do not like bugs, but without insects we might not even exist,” he says. Dicke’s PR crusade began in the 1990s, as a lecture series. Then his team made world headlines when they convinced 20,000 people to attend an insect-eating festival in Waginegen. Today, Dicke leads what he says is fast-growing research into insect agriculture, and predicts that insects will be on Dutch supermarket shelves this year. And does the former vegetarian eat bugs? “At least once a week. Locusts are nice cooked with garlic and herbs, served with rice or vegetables.” "People in the tropics don’t dare talk to Westerners about the importance of insects in their diets, because the typical response is disgust. So our goal has been to help the rest of the world acknowledge insect-eating. We didn’t foresee how important the issue would become, as we face a shortage of animal proteins due to population growth and the increase of wealth. Not only can we produce insects efficiently, but they are better for the environment and nutritionally comparable to meat. And there’s far more variety. If you eat meat, the variety of items is typically four to ten – maybe 20 at the most, if you live in China. But there are at least 1,400 species of insects that are eaten. They’re not all commercially produced, but as interest grows, so would diversity of choice. Then you could eat many different things – and why not?"

Insects Art Opera Science Piano Choirs Singing Travelling

There is no life for humans on earth without the presence of Insects.

Biology, entomology

I will tell that 80% of the human population eats insects consciously, that in fact every human on earth (yes, you too !) already eats insects and that insects are an excellent alternative to regular meat