Mealworms, Madness, Influencers

 

Seven Insects
unknown artist
Photo Credit: Wellcome Collection [Public Domain]

Yellow mealworm smoothies, biscuits, pasta and burgers could soon be mass produced across Europe after the insect became the first to be found safe for human consumption by the EU food safety agency.

The delicacies may not be advisable for everyone, however. Those with prawn and dust mite allergies are likely to suffer a reaction to the Tenebrio molitor larvae, whether eaten in powder form as part of a recipe or as a crunchy snack, perhaps dipped in chocolate...

The insects main components are protein, fat and fibre, offering a sustainable and low carbon source of food  for the future. When dried, the maggot-like insect is said to taste a lot like peanuts...

Insect-based food has long been seen as a part of the solution to cutting the emission of greenhouse gases in food production...

Mario Mazzocchi, an economic statistician and professor at the University of Bologna, said: "There are clear environmental and economic benefits if you substitute traditional sources of animal protein with those that require less feed, produce less waste and result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

"Lower costs and prices could enhance food security and new demand will open economic opportunities too, but these could also affect existing sectors."

(Daniel Boffey, The Guardian, 2021)

Yum but no doubt the SPCI  will have something to say about this. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Insects is campaigning for a new Insect Welfare Bill to become law. It also hopes for royal approval.

Madness

The Stolen Interview
Carlton Alfred Smith  (1853-1946)
Photo Credit: Bury Art Museum [CC BY-NC-ND]

Nearing 50, Neil McClements applied for an NHS job taking hospitals over to new technology. He scored top marks at interview and met the female team, eldest member 33. But oh dear: for all his experience they found him "nothing like" the young woman he would replace. They chose "a better fit", a woman in her twenties who did less well at interview but was more like them.

The doctor who would have been his boss airily explained that she would be uncomfortable giving directions to a man with an 11-year-old daughter. He claimed age and sex discrimination. He won. Good...

The pity is not just the unfairness but the team's timidity, despite all millennia mantras, about real diversity. For if there is one thing worse than a workplace full of weary old codgers it is one staffed by socially identical, group-thinking youngsters with short memories and opinions machine-cut by their peers. I don't presume that this NHS team was like that - but if they'd got away with discarding a middle-aged dad on principle it would be a terrible precedent...

We know that mixed-sex workplaces do well, and so do ones with an age mix. Ideas need challenging from different perspectives: a good team is thus wiser than the sum of its parts...

The theory that middle-aged men can't take orders from younger women is rubbish, too. I spent my youth in the Radio 4 Today office watching Brian Redhead and John Timpson being crisply directed by bright young woman producers...

Authority and competence always matter; age and gender rarely do.

(Libby Purves, The Times, 2021)

The last sentence sums it all up very neatly.

Influencers

During difficult times last year I drew on the absurd lives of rich people for comfort...I have to credit celebrities and influencers for providing the light relief I needed.

Squabbles over million-dollar homes or whose boyfriend is worse were a tonic to the anxiety over my loved ones' mortality. But that feeling has worn off in the past few weeks and, like many others, I'm getting tired of the never-ending reminders that this pandemic is just a relaxing break for some.

This week, singer Dua Lipa posted an image of her, some friends and model boyfriend Anwar Hadid in Mexico, while seemingly the entire cast of Love Island congregated in  Dubai... They're very happy to share it all on Instagram...

Feast of Fools
Frans Floris the Elder (c.1517-1570)
Photo Credit: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust [CC By-NC-ND]

This pandemic has made it even more apparent that celebrities are not like us and, despite their syrupy sweet proclamations, we are not "all in this together".

Also this week I saw a fitness influencer jet off to Dubai to film swimwear content for her brand after sharing a meme of influencers all flocking abroad in a pandemic the week before...

Celebrities and influencers have powerful platforms and in this pandemic, I'd much rather see them use them in a way that is helpful...

(Ruchira Sharma, The i, 2021)

Oh goodness what have we come to? 

Drawing on the absurd lives of the rich for providing comfort and light relief? A tonic to the anxiety over loved ones mortality? Then the Damascene conversion and the informative and perceptive idea that celebrities are not like us! 

Celebrities and influencers have powerful platforms because there are so many gullible, naive and impressionable people who give them that status.

Might not these celebrities and influencers be on a holiday that includes a Covid-19 vaccine jab?