McGill students win $1M prize with idea to feed bugs to the world

A team of five McGill University graduate students has just been awarded a $1 million prize for their idea to solve the problem of world hunger — feed the world with insects.

Often, insects are seen as a problem — pests that invade our homes, destroy our crops, spread disease and even feed on us — however, roughly 2 billion people around the world regularly include insects in their diet. McGill University's team 'Aspire' has come up with an idea to farm insects, not only as a way to help those who already eat insects to live better lives, but also to provide the world with an abundant food source.

Team Aspire's plans and ideas can be seen on their website: Insects Feed the World.

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The United Nations released a report back in May that said the world would probably benefit far more if we switched from raising and eating traditional livestock to doing so with insects. It would be easier, less expensive, and less damaging to the environment. Insects might even become the main source of protein on long space missions.

The idea of eating insects probably doesn't appeal to those of us in the western world, but Aspire's idea to fortify flour with ground-up insects brings up a good point. Even for those of us that would never, ever eat an insect — if they were ground up into your food, how would you even notice?

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