UNN got in touch with Dr Christopher Bear of Cardiff University in relation to the reports yesterday and Dr Bear kindly responded with the below that we publish for you to read:
Hi Simon,
Thanks for getting in touch about this. Just to make you aware, the research was widely misreported yesterday following an article that appeared in the i newspaper. Most importantly, while we’ll be talking with children in schools about edible insects, it’s fairly unlikely that we’ll actually be offering them any to taste – not least because they’re still under review by the Food Standards Agency and aren’t currently available for purchase in the UK (though prior to Brexit, they were increasingly widely available, including in shops such as Sainsbury’s).
The purpose of the research is really to explore how children make sense of – and act on – the ethical and environmental implications of the food that they eat. We’re facilitating workshops and discussions with children about what are promoted as the environmental/nutritional benefits of particular types of food: what do they make of the claims, and what questions do they have about them? We’ll be focusing on alternative proteins – things already widely available like plant-based meat alternatives, but also less widely-available things like edible insects and cultured meat. As part of the in-school workshops, we hope to be able to offer a range of alternative proteins to try, if children wish to do so (and only with written parental consent). These will include plant-based foods and may involve edible insects, depending on whether they have received Novel Foods approval by the Food Standards Agency by that point. This will take place next Spring at the earliest.
The research is funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust and is entirely independent. It will not be promoting or advocating any particular diets (in fact, almost the opposite, as we want to encourage children to ask critical questions).
Here is the press release, for further information: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2627488-edible-insects-and-plant-based-proteins-to-be-the-subject-of-classroom-debates
I also wrote a short thread on Twitter to clarify some of the points made in the I’s article: https://twitter.com/bear_chris/status/1531190415923286016
Best wishes
Chris
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