The Problem: A plague of locusts is decimating crops in East Africa and there is not enough funds or equipment made available to stop it.
The Solution: Work with food companies to capture and sell locusts as food products as part of a nationwide or global campaign to eat locusts to save lives.
Although the main item on the news of late has been the coronavirus, there has also been coverage of the locust plague sweeping through East Africa and threatening millions of people with famine.
Locusts can eat their own bodyweight in a day, and the current swarm is so massive it can consume enough crops in a single day to feed over 30,000 people.
There is a lack of funding and resources available to prevent the plague from spreading, threatening millions of people with famine.
I propose a form of market-based solution to the problem, in this case working with food companies to create a whole range of locust products, such as locust burgers, bolognaise, samosas and crisps, and market them to international consumers as healthy sources of protein that will save lives.
Insects have proven a difficult sell in the western world to date, but this famine offers a chance to change that. By marketing products under the message of “eat a locust, save a life”, we can appeal to people’s compassion and care for other people to overcome the ‘grossness’ we often feel about eating locusts.
Even people who had not eaten insects before could be convinced to purchase these products and try them, because it is helping save millions of lives in Africa. By creating the demand for such products, it would provide the monetary incentives to mobilise the financial and technical resources to capture the plagues of locusts and stop them from spreading, then turn them into food.
Not only would this offer a profitable solution to solve the problem, and a quickly deployable methodology to prevent future plagues spreading, it would also help the global fight against climate change by getting people used to eating insects, a far more climate-friendly source of protein than the livestock we currently buy, such as cows.
Instead of trying to mobilise donations for emergency funding to end the plague, which is always difficult to do, people would be able simply to opt for a locust sandwich at lunch to help end the crisis and save lives. A great example of how consumption can be a positive thing for the world, when it is done right – in this case, a simple certification scheme confirming the locusts came from East Africa and the purchase would help end the plague.
Here’s looking forward to a locust burger, fries and slaw sometime soon…
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