Our friend Justin Butner recently interviewed our other friend (we make a lot of friends) Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) over at his blog Entomo Central.
Very interesting read and as always, Dr. Ramaswamy is a fabulous person to talk to when it comes to eating bugs. Click here to listen to the Cricket Man’s interview with Dr. Ramaswamy on the Ento Nation podcast.
The specific role that NIFA plays, and that Dr. Ramaswamy directs, is with food and agricultural research and advancement. “It’s about ensuring the nutritional security of America, as well as the rest of the world… Doing it in the most effective and efficient manner for the lowest cost. Reduce the ecological footprint, the amount of water we use, the amount of land we use, the amount of labor we use, the amount of fertilizers.”
NIFA welcomes everyone to help generate and expand the national knowledge base that spans across the topics of food, agriculture, and nutrition. “Edible insects are one part of this vast toolkit… [They] offer a very interesting profile of nutrients.” Aside from containing all essential amino acids and an impressive list of other vitamins and minerals, insects boast protein content ranging from 51% to 71% by weight depending on the species. “Proteins are a critically important component” for everyone, Dr. Ramaswamy noted, and are especially so for children in the first 1,000 days of life.
Moving beyond the research that he oversees at NIFA, I asked Dr. Ramaswamy’s advice for the field of insect agriculture in America. “Get together, work together,” he offered. “It’s the rising tide approach.” In a young industry such as this, gains made by any company in raising public awareness and knowledge benefit all companies. “Take a page out of what has happened in the organic community.”
Justin also has more interesting articles to read at his blog Entomo Central, some of which you may see here from time to time.
