Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

CrowdScience

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

CrowdScience: Should we eat Insects?

Discussion & Talk

Should we eat Insects?

07/04/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Should we eat Insects?

Should we eat more insects? CrowdScience meets the people turning caterpillars into food

Could eating more insects help reduce malnutrition? We head to Burkina Faso in West Africa to meet the people turning caterpillars into a sustainable food source.

For most people the idea of chewing on a caterpillar or tucking into a tarantula is pretty unpalatable. Yet according to the United Nations, some two billion people around the world consume insects regularly. This prompted World Service listener Saman from Pakistan to ask the BBC CrowdScience team “are insects a serious food source?”

To tackle this question, we head to Burkina Faso in West Africa where shea caterpillars are an important part of the local diet in a place where food security is low and malnutrition is high.

Here we follow scientist Charlotte Payne as she tries to crack the tricky science behind the caterpillar’s life cycle and see how local entrepreneur Kahitouo Hien is trying to change lives and reduce malnutrition with edible caterpillars.

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Louisa Field

(Image: Bowl of cooked Caterpillars. Credit: BBC/Anand Jagatia)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

CrowdScience

Should we eat Insects?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service