Insects as food - Beef to get the chop?

IT is probably just as well that all of the predictions made by scientists did not come true or that we did not follow all of their suggestions.

In the 1960s we were assured that crouching under the kitchen table was an appropriate response to a nuclear attack. More recently we were offered iodine tablets to confront such an eventuality.

Dutch scientists have suggested that it will not be too long before meat becomes too expensive for most of us and propose insects as a healthier, more environmentally friendly source of protein.

If beef exports were not such a plank — almost an irreplaceable one — in our domestic economy we might shrug off this suggestion, but anyone who has watched food prices soar over the last year will not do so easily. Our beef exports are worth about €1.5 billion a year to the economy.

Some years ago it would have seemed insane to suggest that Ireland’s sugar beet industry would vanish in a season and, whatever about the insects, we must work to ensure that our beef and lamb sectors are strong enough to meet any challenge that might lie ahead.