Eat Wisely! The Rise of Vegan, Flexitarian and Insect Eating

A change of eating habit is quite observed in recent years. People start consuming less meats and further seeking alternatives due to the concerns of negative impacts of meat production including massive greenhouse gases emission and resource utilisation — 2850 gram of emission for producing 1 kilogram protein of beef, 1130g for pork and 300g for chicken, whilst 200 square metres of cultivable land used for beef, 50 for pork and 45 for chicken. In the UK, going vegan or flexitarian has become a trendy lifestyle that is especially highly followed by younger generation.

I have never considered to become a vegan until this year, especially vegan food is deemed dull, distasteful and affiliated with religions particularly among young people back in my country, Taiwan, where even some people may still choose plant-based food instead of meat just for the reasons of health, environment or animal welfare. So, what changed my mind was firstly from a talk on an event for creative industry, D&AD, in London. Some topics were to discuss the issues about environment and accordingly highlight the necessity to alter human’s diet to avoid further damage to our planet. Secondly, I have experienced the diversity and fantastic taste of vegan food afterwards and realised that my previous negative perception was just stereotype. It is worthy to mention that most of Indian, Sri Lanka and Mediterranean cuisines are notably vegan-friendly and healthy due to the use of fresh ingredients and seasoning while still remaining incredibly delicious with multiple flavours — I must say these people are so creative about food! For instance, Indian cuisine is full of colours that suggests its nutrition-balanced content, containing considerable vegetable and fruits. Most of the ingredients used in staple Indian food are olive or coconut oil, with natural spices including sea salt, turmeric, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

However, it seems too extreme to convince everyone to immediately or completely give up meats. Instead, flexitarian could be a more humanistic and flexible initiative — you can try to minimise the portion of meat in each meal as a beginning, or to choose fish or chicken over pork or beef. On the other hand, some regard insect food as a delicious alternative to protein source that particularly benefits athletes and fitness professionals. Surprisingly, only 15 square metre cultivable land is required to produce 1 kg protein of cricket with 1g of greenhouse gases emission; 100g crickets could provide 69g protein, which is an approximately fourfold number of the other meats. With the understanding of these huge benefits from the normalisation of insect food, I decided on promoting it to Generation Z as my graduation project even though the challenges it may have.

But why Gen Z? Since early 20s are becoming the new forces in markets and workplaces, they will be leading the trends and determine our future. While they were born in a highly digitalised yet more exploited world, they are relatively more open-minded, resourceful and environmentally aware, which allows them to be more proactive and bolder for revolutionism. Since it is quite convincing that insect food could be a sustainable solution to food shortage caused by the explosive population in the future, this idea has potential to perfectly align with Gen Z’s value and attitude.

In terms of insect food, people from somewhere in Asia and Africa do eat insects of so many different kinds on daily basis. On the contrary, there are only few brands and products in western market, with relatively less diverse ingredients — mostly just cricket, grasshopper and mealworm. The biggest reason why insect food has yet to be prevalent is ‘ick factor’ of insects among public, which is possibly overcome due to taste remaining the priority of food choice. Another fun fact also as a supportive indication is the journey of lobster taken from deemed as a disturbing trash food to becoming a luxurious and tasty cuisine. Also, it could be a more acceptable approach to promote insect food with unrecognised form such as energy bars, spaghetti or protein powder.

Although it is an urge to take action against environmental exploitation, a long journey must be taken in light of the controversy and conflict between environmentalist appeals and a certain population doing farming and meat production for living. Plus, the psychological factors ought to be considered to influence the mainstream of eating habit from altering perception to attitudinal and behavioural change.