Year 11 Biology

Can insects feed a growing population?

By Tobias V

My initial ideas

ď ľ

I believe that before doing any research that insects can feed a growing population. This is as there is many insects in the wildlife and there are also many starving people and with the population being 7billion and rising we need to find a source of food quickly. What I would say the best food the human is food that are high in protein and food that are fibres and can sustain a human without needing other food.

ď ľ

Insets tick most of these boxes as I know that they are extremely protein high and have incredible amounts of fibre as well as this I know that insects such as crickets that like every animal carry B12. The B12 vitamin has become a vitamin that we as humans have slowly gained a reliance on and need from food, it supports the normal function of the of nerve cells and is needed for red blood cell formation. It is so important for the body that vegans and vegetarians must take B12 pills. In addition to what crickets have to offer is that they are high in iron and calcium which make the health benefits much better for the person eating them.

Ideas after my research

Over 2 billion people incorporate insects in their diet.

Insects produce less greenhouse gases compared to other animals like cows.

Insects are also much more easier to farm than farm animals

In South Africa they often viewed as a delicacy

Insects live undisturbed in the wild so by farming them and taking them out of there habitat, it could result in a disturbance in the wildlife.

Normal meat farming (cows, pigs, chickens) use up 70% of the planets cultivable land.

Insects require a fraction of land, water then other livestock but end up having a higher amount of protein

Main Benefits 

In an article published by the Natural History Museum (Eating insects can save the world). In the article the writer states “Superhero movies may be popular right now, but when it comes to saving the world you might be better off eating a spider than being bitten by one.”



The main benefits would be that insects are incredibly high in protein and extremely low in fat. Which is amazing compared to most meats.



The article explains that by 2050 the population is estimated to be around 9 billion and roughly 70% of the planets agricultural land will be livestock industry. This means that 70% of the empty fields on the earth will be used for livestock. This exemplifies the reasons why eating insects is so valuable and need to utilised so that we can keep pieces of land instead of turning it to eyesores.

There are no drawbacks to your health, but disadvantages include;

Are there any drawbacks?



They are not visually appealing and can also taste weird.



In order to get the normal amount of protein needed for a day you would have to eat quite a few bugs. This is as they are small.



In addition, they are hard to prepare due to the lack of shops selling the insects. Plus you must incorporate them into a meal instead of eating straight cricket powder or a couple spoons of bees.



Lastly, the mindset of most is that insects are disgusting, therefore impacting the person eating by making them fear the insects. It might make people feel sick as they have the mindset of insects being dirty and wiggly.

Which bugs can you eat and how? 

Beetles, butterflies, moths, bees and wasps, Ants, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, flies and mosquitoes.



This list demonstrates the wide variety of insets that are perfectly safe to eat.



https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=3f7I_HAm4d8. In this video the owner of this bug sweet shop makes food such as mill worm candy apples and bug lollipops.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, I believe that insects can feed a growing population and need to be utilised for land to become better inhabitable for the growing population.



In addition, insects are incredibly good for the human body and take up less land and time to farm. As well as that, insects do not produce green house gasses and contribute to global warming.



Also, the high levels of protein and low levels of fat means that the health benefits are great for a human and it would suggest to the idea that we should start eating then for these health benefits.



Lastly, 2 Billion people on the Earth already eat insects and are living to incredible ages, so with the growing population expanding to around 9 Billion in 2050 I believe it is necessary to follow in the 2 Billion people's footsteps and eat insects.

Sources 

https://www.eatgrub.co.uk/top-5



https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-disadvantages-of-eating-insectsreasons-for-edible-insects/



https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/eat-insects-save-theworld.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhZr1BRCLARIsALjRVQO6_EzYf5NnmH6Oy88MT9z6b O0tpNlPRfixc9NJzsqu8fjmfyUE8MAaAhlIEALw_wcB

Molly O

Why are Elephants an endangered species?

Elephants were once abundant throughout Africa and Asia. However, during the twen?eth century, the elephant popula?on saw a rapid decrease as a result of demand for ivory from Asian markets.

In the last forty years, the African elephant popula?on has declined by over 70% from a popula?on of over 1.3 million elephants that roamed Africa in 1979. Today as few as 450,000 remain across Africa and Asia.

Why they are important Elephants help maintain forest and savanna ecosystems for other species and are ?ed to a rich biodiversity. Elephants are important ecosystem engineers and prevent other species from ex?nc?on. They make pathways in dense forested habitat that allow a passage for other animals. An elephant footprint can also enable a micro-ecosystem that, when ďŹ lled with water, can provide a home for tadpoles and other organisms.

During dry seasons, elephants use their tusks to dig for water. This allows them to survive in dry environments when droughts happen. It also means that other animals that share the same habitat can beneďŹ t from this.

Another reason why elephants are so important is because when forest elephants eat, they create gaps in the undergrowth. These gaps allow new plants to grow and is one of the main ways in which trees scaPer their seeds; some species rely en?rely upon elephants for this ac?on.

By saving the elephants also means saving lives, preven?ng poverty, and sustaining livelihoods, with communi?es across Africa depending heavily on elephants for an income in tourism.

Threats to Elephants The Ivory Trade Recent research has shown that an es?mated 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa between 2010 and 2012.

Un?l 1990, the legal interna?onal trade in African elephant ivory was thriving. The ivory was carved and sold in Asia and jewellery was sold in the United States and Europe. Na?ons tried but failed to stop the trade. Between 1979 and 1989, the number of African elephants dropped from approximately 1.2 million to 600,000. In 1989 CITES (Conven?on on Interna?onal Trade and Endangered Species) successfully banned the interna?onal commercial trade in African elephant ivory by placing the species on Appendix I (species threatened by ex?nc?on). Once this ban went into ac?on in 1990, elephants’ popula?ons in the wild began to stabilize.

Ul?mately, the ivory trade is driven by a high demand from consumer countries, despite the interna?onal ban on commercial trade. Even though there is a global demand for ivory, it is most wanted in eastern countries where it is seen as a status symbol or an investment to own ivory.

It takes a female elephant up to 22 months to have a single baby, which is difficult when you are trying to increase the elephant popula?ons. Since females don’t mate un?l they are about 14 years of age, those that are killed before never get the chance to bring up their offspring. Males don’t mate un?l they are about 40 to 50 years of age, yet these older elephants have to long tusks that poachers are acer and that is why they are being killed. These older elephants are the ones with stronger gene?cs so it is important for them to breed so that their offspring will be very strong and healthy.

However, this is becoming very challenging for them as the rate of the elephant popula?on being killed is much faster than they can reproduce.

Natural Habitat The other main problem for elephants is that their natural habitat is being destroyed. They aren’t able to roam as they use to, to find the amount of food that they eat on a daily basis. As a result, many of them are starving to death which is extremely sad. As more of their natural habitats con?nue to be wrecked, they find they are stuck trying to compete for the liPle bit of food that they happen to find, however, this is very difficult when they are already weak and ?red. Even though they can travel large distances to find food, without it for too long they become vulnerable and not able to travel to find their needs.

Human-wildlife conflict In the last 40 years, human popula?ons have doubled. Consequently, there has been a huge expansion of agriculture and villages, this growth has naturally pushed humans and elephants into a closer area and has worsened human-wildlife conflict.

Elephants ocen wander into agricultural areas to raid crops due to there being a lack of food in their natural habitats, causing farmers to react by killing the elephants. While many people in the west see elephants as majes?c and beau?ful beings, they ocen bring anger and fear amongst communi?es living alongside them and are frequently viewed as pests. Farmers are ocen very poor and lack nutri?on in their diets, so any threat to their source of food and income is quickly and cruelly dealt with.

What are the effects of the ivory trade?

The ex?nc?on of a species can have a nega?ve economic impact on the local communi?es as animals are a huge aPrac?on for tourists and some countries rely purely on tourism as their source of income. However, if these precious animals are killed for the ivory trade, tourism decreases which can hugely impact people’s lives as they have minimal income to support their families.

The ivory trade also means that the wild African elephant popula?on is rapidly decreasing by 2-3% each year. In some African countries, elephants have already been driven to ex?nc?on and if nothing is done, we could lose 50% of the remaining elephants in African within the next 10 years!

Conclusion There is no doubt that elephants are an endangered species because of humans. However, there is s?ll hope for these beau?ful creatures as there are many chari?es across the globe who are taking ac?on to save the elephants and are con?nuing to protest the ivory trade. Elephants are so important to help sustain the planet and ecosystems and without them, many other animals would struggle.

! !

Can the world support a popula0on of 10 billion?

!

Overpopula0on is o9en addressed as the elephant in the room as this is because it is o9en seen as the greatest threat to mankind in the future, as the earth isn’t expanding like our popula0on it brings the ques0on that the human popula0on does pose a certain threat to the planet. It is also said it isn’t the amount of people on the earth but the daily consumers and the scale and nature of their consump0on but the bigger the popula0on the more consumers you would have.

As it stands the worlds popula0on is just over 7.3 billion and by 2050 it could reach 9.7 billion and in 2100 it could be over 11 billion which tells us that we are going to consume more of earths limited resources but we don’t know if this is sustainable because it has never happened before so we wouldn’t be able to have any real accurate knowledge that could give us any specific details of what the future holds.

Many scien0sts believe that the earth can just about support 10 billion people if we reserve and change our ways of our resources. This can be applied to our food and even in the case of maximum efficiency, in which all the grains grown are dedicated to feeding humans (instead of livestock, which is an inefficient way to convert plant energy into food energy), there's s0ll a limit to how far the available quan00es can stretch. If everyone agreed to become vegetarian, leaving liSle or nothing for livestock, the present 1.4 billion hectares of arable land (3.5 billion acres) would support about 10 billion people. The 3.5 billion acres would produce approximately 2 billion tons of grains annually, he explained. That is enough to feed 10 billion vegetarians, but would only feed 2.5 billion U.S. omnivores, because so much vegeta0on is dedicated to livestock and poultry in the United States.

Overpopula0on is a situa0on where a popula0on is in the process of deple0ng non-renewable resources. Under this defini0on, changes in lifestyle could cause an overpopulated area to no longer be overpopulated without any reduc0on in popula0on. This is how we would be able to maintain living on earth with such a rapid growing popula0on because we would u0lise all of earth’s non renewable resources and would be le9 without any to live on which would highly pollute earth’s atmosphere. This is where we need to change our ways to a more sustainable on where we use sources such as wave and wind power and use electricity to power many items such as cars instead of fossil fuels.

Earth though has many natural defences against its inhabitants such as diseases and viruses. This is to protect itself from keeping species down in popula0on. Anthrax is best known for a weapon of bioterrorism. But the disease is an ancient scourge of wildlife. It mostly affects herbivores, but anthrax can cause outbreaks in other mammals. A 2004 outbreak in Zimbabwe’s Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve killed over 90% of some of the wild herbivore populations. This is an example of diseases trying to control the population of a species.

This also happens with humans because between 1346 and 1353 the black death wiped out many people during the time and the death tole was between 75-200 million deaths. This wiped out most of Europe’s population at the time. This keep the population down significantly over that time In recent months the pandemic COVID-19 could also be an attempt to keep the population down as this has quickly become a global problem worldwide as there has been over 3.19 million cases and 200 thousand deaths so far and this pandemic is continuing spreading and no cure has been found. This could many of earths defence systems to keep and species under control from becoming to much of a problem.

It still is much of a mystery and we can only make predictions on what the future holds as we have never experienced anything like this before so we can only do what we think is right with the knowledge we have.

Shreya Dasgupta. (N/A). ten shocking animal diseases that may threaten species .

Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150327-ten-scary-diseases-of-animals.

Last accessed 30/04/2020.

Vivien Cumming. (n/a). how many people can our planet really support?. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160311-how-many-people-can-our-planet-reallysupport. Last accessed 30/04/2020.

N/A. (N/A). outbreak: 10 of the worst pandemics in history. Available: https:// www.mphonline.org/worst-pandemics-in-history/. Last accessed 30/04/2020.

N/A. (N/A). corona cases . Available: https://news.google.com/ covid19/map?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&ceid=GB:en. Last accessed 30/04/2020.

wikipidia . (N/A). human overpopulation. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Human_overpopulation. Last accessed 30/04/2020.

! !

1 )Summarise Question...

the

2 )How use?

many

sources

3 )How

reliable

and

do

answer/finding of you

information feel

the

for

this

did

the

sources

Big author

used

were

why?

4 )Identify

your

5 )What used?

you

! !

key

do

three like

favourite about

the

pieces style

of of

information presentation