​Last night was really quite surreal. More than once, the proverb 'be careful what you wish for' came to mind.

I arrived in the village yesterday evening, and was immediately confronted with the tasks of collecting water, reconnecting my solar panel, repairing damage done to gas pipes that had been chewed through by a mouse, and mitigating emerging political situations within the village. Thanks to the help of my neighbours, I wasn't alone in any of this, but by 9.30pm I was exhausted and ready to lay out my mat to sleep.

However, the world had other ideas. 

A large moth with a frantic wingbeat careered by drunkenly, drawn to my reading light, and i glanced down at it. I sat up, put down my book, and switched to autopilot. This was a Cirina butyrospermi moth!

My first reaction was to get my makeshift 'killing jar' (a sealable plastic bag with a wad of acetone-soaked tissue), because we need to collect a few samples for DNA barcoding and identification. However, I quickly corrected myself - some of these moths might not yet have mated, so there's a chance I can collect eggs, let them live out their lifespan, and take them as specimens afterwards.

I got a cage from my bag and began to collect moths to put inside. At first, I used a net. But before long I was grasping them with my hands.

I've just got back from Madagascar! I was there for a meeting of IPSIO (Insects and People of the Southwest Indian Ocean), coordinated by ant expert Brian Fisher, who also runs the Madagascar Biodiversity Center right by Tsimbazaza zoo in Antananarivo.

Madagascar is home to an incredibly diverse range of plants and animals; 90% of all species are found nowhere else on earth. But, as this photo above shows (taken through a plane window!), agricultural expansion is encroaching on wild habitats, putting many unique species in danger of extinction.

During the three day meeting, and three days of field trips, we listened to some inspiring people talk to us about some really exciting projects and prospects for harnessing the potential of insect-human interactions to combat problems of wealth inequality, environmental degradation and malnutrition. Here are some highlights.
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Catherine Craig spoke to us about CPALI(Conservation through Poverty Alleviation, International)'s work in Madagascar. In partnership with a local NGO, they base their strategies on the belief that local communities are crucial for effective conservation. They have set up training centres where they teach local farmers how to rear wild silkworm and plant native silkworm feeding trees. Farmers are offered 'stepping stone' incentives (such as further rearing equipment, further training, and eventually a salary) in return for their participation in the rearing program.

This gives value to the forest, and therefore helps with habitat conservation and reforestation. At the same time, it gives people a source of livelihoods. The enterprise relied mainly on crowdfunding to get going.

CPALI are currently focusing their efforts on repairing the damage wreaked by a major cyclone that hit the northeastern coast of Madagascar. They are seeking donations to the relief effort via their GlobalGiving page.
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Tapia forests are dominated by a single tree species, Uapaca bojeri. The leaves of these trees are the food plant for a native silkworm, Borocera cajani. This photo shows the tapia forest, which covers the ridges that tower above fertile valleys in the region:

We visited a small facility where larvae are hatched and raised year-round, to ensure that even when storms or forest fires threaten the species, they are still available. The photos below show pupae, larvae and moths in the facility. The pupae are also sold in the local markets as food.

Last but not least, Bombyx mori - this is the now-widespread Asian species of silkworm that has been farmed for its silk for thousands of years, and can no longer survive in captivity.

It's unclear how long it's been used in Madagascar (the island was first settled 4000 years ago by migrant agricultural populations from Asia), but it's certainly fairly important today. It was the only insect for sale in the city markets that we visited, and it clearly has great economic importance to the people who cultivate it and make products from it. Here are some photos of people using Bombyx mori in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital city:

Now, having returned from Madagascar, I'm feeling inspired and uplifted. We were lucky to be joined by some experts with years of experience who had some really great insights and ideas about the future of insects and people in Madagascar. At the end of the meeting, we had a much more concrete plan for how the project will progress in the coming months and years, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

It was also really relevant to my PhD work. Of course, on the practical side, it was invaluable to see first-hand the methods used for rearing different African silkmoths, and hear about some of the logistical problems that had been overcome in developing different rearing practices. But it was also useful in a broader sense: In one very memorable presentation, Alan Gardiner spoke to us about his experience working with mopane worm harvesting communities in southern Africa, and emphasised the importance of community participation. Adding value to the environment is one crucial step of any successful conservation project, he said, and then giving local communities ownership of the project is equally necessary. Without these qualities - value and ownership - the project is unlikely to last beyond a few years.

This gave me a great deal to think about regarding our current project in Burkina Faso. How can we ensure that the communities we work with feel that they have ownership over the work that we do? How can our work add value to biodiversity in the region? I've a few ideas, and now, thanks to my time in Madagascar, I'm lucky to have some great contacts to discuss those ideas with! 

We did it! We managed to raise over and above our target for funding our research project, thanks to 44 generous backers on experiment.com.
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Also, the project was covered in a 30 minute programme on the BBC World Service! They visited us in Burkina and interviewed our Burkinabe collaborators at the University of Ouagadougou, and several of the women in the villages where we work. The programme is called 'Should we eat insects?', it's free to listen to online, & available for the next 21 days!
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Hello, and happy World Water Day!

I guess 'happy' isn't the right word to use here. 

A couple of days ago, I read that Wednesday 22nd March would be World Water Day. And, I read that 663 million people live without a safe water supply close to home; that women and children are those who must carry the burden of collecting water for the household; that a lack of safe water is a major contributor to health problems in the developing world.

Those facts and figures felt familiar to me - Where I live and do fieldwork in Burkina Faso, the water that I and most people living around me rely on comes from unprotected wells, which don't fulfil the WHO's definition of safe water. 

Also in the same villages, drawing water is definitely women's work - I've never seen a man carrying water. Whether it's safe or not, the transport of water is back-breaking, time-consuming, energy-sapping. Wealthier families (and me, I use my bicycle) have bicycles and donkeys to help the women to carry the many litres of water a family needs each day to wash, cook, clean and drink. But many women carry their water - 25-30 litres at a time - on their heads, walking up to 1km between their homestead and the nearest dug well, several times a day, in temperatures of up to 45C.

As I was reading about World Water Day, three memories came to mind. The first is trivial, the second two are not:

1- The memory of time that the nearest well to me was contaminated, and for a week I had to walk twice as far to get water. What was already an arduous and time-consuming task became more so - and I felt guilty and resentful of the privilege that allowed me to be frustrated by this.

2- The memory of a man in the village pointing out that if they only had the money to build a dam, they'd be able to grow so much more. A river flows past the village where I work. In the dry season it's a cracked riverbed, and in the rainy season it's a dangerous and volatile torrent. The surrounding homesteads are water-poor. They can only grow crops during the short rainy season, limiting them to staple crops requiring little water. As soon as he said it I could see it in my mind's eye - a diverse, water-rich vegetable garden, communally-owned and fed by irrigation via a simple dam. I've seen it in other villages nearby. Fertile soil is a sure ticket to a more food- and financially-secure existence, and this can be achieved with a plentiful water supply.

3- The memory of woman in my village who came home one evening feeling unwell. She couldn't walk the 500m to collect water (which they draw from an unprotected well) to prepare food. Her neighbour came round and made her and her husband some maize porridge. She felt better, and went to sleep. The next morning, she was dead, and her husband buried her next to their 9-yr-old son, who had died a few months before, also from unexplained causes. They live 7km from the nearest clinic, along dirt tracks that are inaccessible by car, so an evening visit to the doctor wasn't an option. They'd had a bad harvest, so they were stressed and food insecure. Was it a water-borne disease that killed them? Would better sanitation have protected them against ill-health? A lack of access to safe water is part of a vast suite of interrelated problems that make it near-impossible for households to even see a way out of the struggles of poverty, let alone have the strength to do so.

So back to World Water Day. After my three memories/stories, I've three thoughts:

Firstly: This is NOT just about water. In many parts of the world, a lack of safe water is a symptom of a much greater problem: Wealth inequality. Just look at my stories above. In the first, I'm jolted out of my comfort zone by a situation that could be deadly for some, but for me it's just an inconvenience. Why? Because when I get ill, I have the money to pay for healthcare, for transport to the nearest clinic, for medicine, etc. If it's really bad, I even have money to fly me to the UK for round-the-clock medical care.

Secondly: I think the same is true for food security. It's NOT just about food; it's a term we use to describe another symptom of wealth inequality. This is evident in the second story sbove - food security and water security are both dependent on financial security.

Thirdly: By focusing on the symptoms of food and water insecurity, are we missing the point? Are we failing to diagnose and confront the greater malaise of wealth inequality - and in doing so, failing to acknowledge our role as perpetrators of this system?

I know that this is where I should tell you about a great way to help in the fight against wealth inequality, and towards a more water-secure world. But it's not easy - even the World Water Day official website just has advice on how to spread the word about unsafe water..which is not bad in itself, but I can't help feeling that there is something more that we can, and should, do.

So here are my three ideas for small actions we might want to take today:

1. A bit of wealth redistribution. Water.org offers affordable loans to women to install safe water and sanitation facilities! Every $1 you give has a $4 return. So donating to water.org is one positive action to take today.

2. A bit less water wastage. Get into the habit of doing one or more of these practical steps toward a more water-secure world: Take a shorter shower. Wash your hair less frequently. ​Eat less meat, & swap it for vegetable protein, which uses FAR less water. Or, just cut down on your protein, as most people in developed countries eat too much anyway. Dont leave the tap running when brushing your teeth or washing plates. Turn off the shower when you're applying soap/shampoo. Handwash your clothes when you can.

3. A bit of altruism - if you'd like to do something to help the water-, food- and financially-insecure communities where I work, please consider donating to our crowdfunding campaign here. If you've other ideas for how these communities can be more water-, food- and financially-secure, please contact me directly. And if you're interested in knowing a bit more about the women I work with, here's a recent blog post that gives a bit more information about their lives.

I'm part of a new project! We're exploring how to best enjoy insects and wine together, two of the world's greatest luxuries...

Here is my first blog post on the site, which describes the first five of ten traditional pairings of insects with wine. I chose to start with this because I wanted to emphasize that globally we have a rich history of eating insects alongside fermented alcoholic drinks - so, there's firstly a great historical precedent for the project, and also probably a lot to be learned from traditional pairings. Here are some pictures from that first post:

We also had a launch party last night, which was fantastic. We're hoping to get lots of people involved, contributing to the blog and exchanging recipes, tips and recommendations. Please be in touch if you're interested in being a part of the project!

In Burkina Faso, International Women's Day is a big deal. In the village, the women party and the men prepare food for them. I'm back in the UK now and really sorry to be missing out on this!

I'm going to a women's day celebration this weekend, and for it, I've submitted some photos of women from the village in Burkina where I work. Here they are, with some explanations below:

These photos were taken at the request of the women in them, and selected by them. They live in a village in southwestern Burkina Faso. 

Burkina Faso is an inspiring country for many reasons: Muslims, Christians and animists live alongside one another as friends and frequently intermarry. The same is true for people of different ethnicities - 4 different ethnicities (and languages) are represented by the women in these photos alone.

Yet in terms of equal opportunities for women, it is less inspiring. FGM was made illegal in 1996 but allegedly still continued in this village until just five years ago. Many men have multiple wives, with age gaps of many decades, but women cannot have multiple husbands. Women cannot own land. Women are judged by their ability to prepare food for their husband and to bear many children.

And in terms of equal opportunities with us, their UK-based counterparts, it is devastating. The majority of families in the village are food insecure, due to a lack of means to purchase food. This means they also lack the means to purchase medicine and medical care when needed. They lack the means to attend school or pay for their children to attend school, meaning that literacy is very low (of the women above, only Albertine can read and write). And they lack the means to visit their birth family, too - women usually marry outside of their home village.

Feminism is solidarity. Please share in the strength, self-confidence and happiness in these photos, and consider acting in your solidarity by contributing to our crowdfunding campaign, or by any other actions - I'll be going back their again this year and will happily take gifts, direct contributions, letters etc.

(I've also put a version of this post on our crowdfunding page as a project lab note)

I think locusts are a really exciting edible insect.

​Type 'locusts food security' into Google and you'll see lots of hits that give examples of locust swarms destroying crops and threatening food availability in some of the most food-insecure regions of the world. The FAO has even developed technology to monitor locust swarms, making them easier to combat. Yet the common locust is also one of the most popular edible insects, and its large swarms make it fairly easy to collect.

What does this mean for farmers who combat their locust invasion by harvesting them and using them for food or additional income? Is there still a net loss, and if so, what does it take (efficient harvesting methods? higher prices? fairer commodity chains?) to convert that into a net gain? These are crucial questions that could help reduce the devastating impacts of locust crop pests.

Locusts can also be farmed, though they're reportedly picky and will only eat fresh leaves, according to colleagues of mine who breed them in Japan. Perhaps they're a bit like the caterpillars we're working with at the moment!

​Anyway. Enter Kahit Hien of FasoPro:

We're working together with Kahit to try and develop a way of breeding edible caterpillars to improve West African food security. But when I saw him this weekend, he was keen to talk about locusts, too. 

Locusts are a popular snack in Burkina Faso, and they're usually imported from Niger or Nigeria.

Kahit had just returned from a business trip to Niger, where the locust season has recently come to an end. The future of his company, FasoPro, may well involve diversification into the farming, production and distribution of locusts, as well as caterpillars.

So, he showed me how to cook them! He tipped a bag of dried locusts into a pan over an open flame, and added a small amount of oil, stirring them periodically. After about 7 minutes, a delicious savoury smell rose from the pan, and he declared them ready. 

Our crowdfunding campaign on experiment.com is going well - in just 10 days we've already raised nearly a third of our target!

And, since I'm now on my way back to the UK, I thought I'd write an update about some of the things that we've achieved in the last few weeks:
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Please click here to read the rest of the update. And please do spread the word about our project, and our crowdfunding campaign!

Thank you so much to our backers so far :)

In collaboration with other researchers, I’m working on a fairly unusual project that needs a bit of financial assistance!
 
Could you help?
 
Our crowdfunding page is here, please take a look. It has a video explaining the project and lots of details about who we are, what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.
 
The project is called ‘Achieving food sovereignty with edible insects: Breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition’, and here’s a short summary:
 
What’s the project?
 
A 12-month multi-site collaboration to develop a breeding protocol for the edible shea caterpillar. We’re currently working to develop some trial feeds at Rothamsted Research Institute. In June, we’ll trial these feeds with newly hatched caterpillars in two laboratories (Rothamsted Research Institute and the Entomology Department at the University of Ouagadougou) and at one field site (Soumosso in southwestern Burkina Faso).
 
Why is this important?
 
Poverty and malnutrition – particularly micronutrient deficiency – are major global problems, and rural smallholders are the worst affected. New sources of livelihoods and income diversification are key to breaking this cycle. If those livelihoods also provide a stable supply of edible protein, entire households will be more food secure.
 
Why caterpillars?
 
Caterpillars have a high market value, they are rich in protein and essential micronutrients, and they have a high feed conversion efficiency compared to vertebrate livestock. They’re also a celebrated traditional food - there’s even a caterpillar festival! – throughout western, central and southern Africa.
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A replicable caterpillar breeding protocol could empower rural smallholders throughout Africa, by providing a year-round source of nutrition and income.
 

A replicable caterpillar breeding protocol could empower rural smallholders throughout Africa, by providing a year-round source of nutrition and income.
 
Who are ’we’?
 
Our core team members are: Athanase Badolo, University of Ouagadougou; Darja Dobermann, Rothamsted Research Institute; Charlotte Payne, University of Cambridge. You can see our full profiles on our crowdfunding page.
 
Why do we need to crowdfund?
 
The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition have given us 8000EUR towards this project to use during 2017. We estimate that our total costs this year will amount to 10,000EUR, which is why we’re trying to raise the last 20% through crowdfunding.
 
Where does the money go to?
 
The money will cover the costs of: Sampling and analysing the composition and sensory characteristics of shea leaves, the caterpillars’ natural food source; purchasing and processing ingredients for the trial feeds; collecting pupae and eggs in the field and transporting them to the laboratory; purchasing equipment for keeping the caterpillars; employing technicians in the laboratory and the field to run breeding trials.
 
Who will benefit from this research?
 
We will publish all our results open access, and we will ensure that our protocols are easy to replicate, so that anyone interested in breeding edible caterpillars will be able to benefit from the knowledge that we generate.
 
The technicians we employ will be Burkinabe students at the University of Ouagadougou, and women with rural smallholdings in southwestern Burkina Faso; we hope that the employment and the training we provide will be of benefit to them and may potentially lead to a longer-term source of income.
 
Ultimately, if we are successful in developing a full breeding protocol for the caterpillars, we anticipate that thousands of rural smallholder farmers in West Africa will benefit from this project.
 
To give you an idea of who they are, here are a few of the women smallholders we work with in Burkina Faso who we hope will benefit:

This is Mme Ouattara. She lives in a household of 18 people, and in 2016 they made more money from selling shea caterpillars than from selling shea nuts.

This is Antoinette. She moved to the area, and didn’t grow up eating caterpillars. But when they’re in season, she goes out at 3am every morning with the other women in the village and collects them to sell. She’s also a musician and a shaman.

This is Annette. This isn’t her bike; it’s her father’s. She’s 30 and has her own family now. Annette was born deaf and dumb and she’s one of the strongest women in the village. And she’d love to be able to afford a bike – maybe caterpillar breeding will help with that!