Australia, February 04: The day when restaurants will serve garlic grasshoppers or beetle larva skewers is getting closer in Costa Rica, where scientists are “growing” insects for human consumption.
Entomologist Manuel Zumbado’s research into this alternative food source is inspired by practices in Africa, where insects have long been part of people’s diet.
With its rainforests playing host to countless insect species, including thousands that have yet to be identified, Costa Rica is a perfect breeding ground for the work.
From leaf-cutting ants to rhinoceros beetles and a dizzying flurry of butterflies, the Central American nation is also a haven of ecotourism. But is it the next hotbed of mouth-watering bugs?
The food diversification programme at the National Biodiversity Institute in Santo Domingo de Heredia, a small city close to the capital San Jose, looks into indigenous insect species.
But it also examines mushrooms, inspired by their importance in diets from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
At the institute, Costa Rican scientists mingle with Bhutan mycology expert Ugyen Yangchen and Elisabeth Zannou, an entomologist from Benin.
—Agencies