Conspiracy theorists are trying to influence European election campaigns with disinformation and lies. Much of the fabrication comes from Moscow, but plenty is homegrown.

If media campaigns in more than a dozen European countries were to be believed, the European Union (EU) intends to force citizens to eat insects instead of meat.

The claim has touched nerves, especially in Italy, where variations of it have been revived and splashed across billboards during European elections to pit Brussels against mama’s special sauce.

But consumers of this claim are being fed pure nonsense, an example of countless fabrications launched or adopted by candidates seeking political gain at the cost of the truth.

The fake insect-food narrative, which first surfaced last year in a number of EU countries, has proven so popular with malign actors both within and outside the bloc that they’ve brought it back for the European election cycle to try to discredit pro-EU candidates.

But no one should be surprised that malignant actors want to impact Europe’s election cycle, with 720 seats up for grabs for the next five-year term in the European Parliament and many national elections taking place simultaneously as part of a record year for elections worldwide.

The EDMO reports a record-high amount of disinformation ahead of the vote about universally controversial issues like migration, agricultural policy and climate change, including even the resurrection of fake stories from years past, such as COVID-19 conspiracies.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    5 months ago

    You can feed insects on garbage. No resources will be wasted. You also don’t need to use pesticides or herbicides on insects.

    I get that you don’t like the idea of eating insects, but that’s another issue. Farming them is sustainable and eating them is healthy.

    • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Crickets Are Not a Free Lunch: Protein Capture from Scalable Organic Side-Streams via High-Density Populations of Acheta domesticus https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118785

      It has been suggested that the ecological impact of crickets as a source of dietary protein is less than conventional forms of livestock due to their comparatively efficient feed conversion and ability to consume organic side-streams. This study measured the biomass output and feed conversion ratios of house crickets (Acheta domesticus) reared on diets that varied in quality, ranging from grain-based to highly cellulosic diets. The measurements were made at a much greater population scale and density than any previously reported in the scientific literature. The biomass accumulation was strongly influenced by the quality of the diet (p<0.001), with the nitrogen (N) content, the ratio of N to acid detergent fiber (ADF) content, and the crude fat (CF) content (y=N/ADF+CF) explaining most of the variability between feed treatments (p = 0.02; R2 = 0.96). In addition, for populations of crickets that were able to survive to a harvestable size, the feed conversion ratios measured were higher (less efficient) than those reported from studies conducted at smaller scales and lower population densities. Compared to the industrial-scale production of chickens, crickets fed a poultry feed diet showed little improvement in protein conversion efficiency, a key metric in determining the ecological footprint of grain-based livestock protein. Crickets fed the solid filtrate from food waste processed at an industrial scale via enzymatic digestion were able to reach a harvestable size and achieve feed and protein efficiencies similar to that of chickens. However, crickets fed minimally-processed, municipal-scale food waste and diets composed largely of straw experienced >99% mortality without reaching a harvestable size. Therefore, the potential for A. domesticus to sustainably supplement the global protein supply, beyond what is currently produced via grain-fed chickens, will depend on capturing regionally scalable organic side-streams of relatively high-quality that are not currently being used for livestock production.


      Could consumption of insects, cultured meat or imitation meat reduce global agricultural land use? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912417300056

      Animal products, i.e. meat, milk and eggs, provide an important component in global diets, but livestock dominate agricultural land use by area and are a major source of greenhouse gases. Cultural and personal associations with animal product consumption create barriers to moderating consumption, and hence reduced environmental impacts. Here we review alternatives to conventional animal products, including cultured meat, imitation meat and insects (i.e. entomophagy), and explore the potential change in global agricultural land requirements associated with each alternative. Stylised transformative consumption scenarios where half of current conventional animal products are substituted to provide at least equal protein and calories are considered. The analysis also considers and compares the agricultural land area given shifts between conventional animal product consumption. The results suggest that imitation meat and insects have the highest land use efficiency, but the land use requirements are only slightly greater for eggs and poultry meat. The efficiency of insects and their ability to convert agricultural by-products and food waste into food, suggests further research into insect production is warranted. Cultured meat does not appear to offer substantial benefits over poultry meat or eggs, with similar conversion efficiency, but higher direct energy requirements. Comparison with the land use savings from reduced consumer waste, including over-consumption, suggests greater benefits could be achieved from alternative dietary transformations considered. We conclude that although a diet with lower rates of animal product consumption is likely to create the greatest reduction in agricultural land, a mix of smaller changes in consumer behaviour, such as replacing beef with chicken, reducing food waste and potentially introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        5 months ago

        Your first link talked about the problem being variability in how they are farmed, not that they are farmed.

        Your second link says:

        introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system.

        Did you even read it?

        I didn’t go further than that if you’re not going to check your own links.

        • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Yes, I read it. Plants are still the superior option. I was being generous for your middle ground position.

          If you knew anything about animal farming, you’d know that “garbage” can mean a lot of things. This hope of waste feeding gets trickier with invertebrates who don’t regulate their own body temperature. I’m saying that you’re being excessively optimistic about it.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            5 months ago

            You were being “generous” by contradicting your own point.

            That’s also known as being wrong.

            • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              I expect you to understand that some topics are more ambiguous, which means that there are more contradictory bits of information which are tied to different setups in context.

              As the practice of raising these invertebrate animals is not happening at a large scale, the data for it is also weak and based on immature research. The ambiguity with decline over time, if there’s more research into this and it actually happens at a large scale.

              In terms of food traditions, eating land insects is usually a luxury, which reflects the scarcity: https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/insect-delicacies-around-world The simple notion that “insect protein is cheap” is misleading.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                5 months ago

                I expect you to understand that you contradicted your own point with your own link that you clearly didn’t read.

                And now you are linking to some food blog about what insects people eat rather than anything scientific as if it means something.

                • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  🙄

                  I love how you think that I didn’t read it. As if you can imagine what’s in my head. Very disappointing for a so called skeptic.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                    5 months ago

                    If you didn’t read it, it’s weird that you thought it supported your point when it actually did the exact opposite.

                    So you were purposefully undermining yourself?