Critical Thinking Feed

Skeptoid #962: Bats and Rabies

Skeptoid Feed - Tue, 11/12/2024 - 2:00am

Bats are scary and rabies is deadly, but do you need to worry about you or your pets catching the disease from them?

Dr. Warren Hern: Stories From the Front Lines of Abortion Care

Skeptic.com feed - Fri, 11/08/2024 - 11:00am

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In his new book Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor’s Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade, a nationally prominent doctor reports the daily challenges of offering and receiving abortion services in a volatile political and social atmosphere. In stories from the front lines–from protecting patients and staff from protesters’ attacks to the dangers to women of restricted access to abortion services, and the pertinent findings of his remote research in Latin America, Hern’s book is strikingly detailed just as it exposes the needs of women and the U.S. national interest. Dr. Hern–an abortion specialist, researcher, scholar, and highly visible public advocate – shows how abortion saves women’s lives given the many risks that arise during pregnancy, more than most people realize. He points to political and national solutions to reverse a reawakened crisis that now threatens democracy. Throughout the book, Dr. Hern shows how the current emergency was largely created by political actors who have exploited and distorted the abortion issue to increase and consolidate their power.

A vital component of women’s health care, the crisis over abortion is not new. Yet the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the steady accumulation of power by America’s right wing has put the issue at a level of urgency and national prominence not seen since the days before legalization. Women’s need for safe abortion services will continue as the struggle to secure their rights intensifies.

Warren M. Hern, M.D., is known to the public through his many appearances on CNN, Rachel Maddow/MSNBC, Sixty Minutes, and in the pages of The Atlantic magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, and dozens more media. A scientist, Hern wrote about the need for safe abortion services before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and was present at the first Supreme Court arguments. In his research and medical work, he pioneered since 1973 the modern safe practice of early and late abortion in his highly influential books and scholarship. A tireless national activist for women’s reproductive rights, he is an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and holds a clinical appointment in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado medical center. He holds doctorates in medicine and epidemiology. His book is Abortion in the Age of Unreason: A Doctor’s Account of Caring for Women Before and After Roe v. Wade.

Shermer and Hern discuss:

How and why he became an abortion doctor
Age of Unreason: Crusades, Inquisition, Witch hunts, pogroms against Jews, slavery, genocide and ethnocide, McCarthyism
Abortions pre-Roe going back centuries
Abortions after Roe
Late term abortion, Partial birth abortion, Abortion on demand
What exactly is involved in an abortion: walk us through the procedure
Protests, death threats and violence against abortion doctors and clinics
Fetal personhood and when life begins
Weighted risks of abortion vs. pregnancy.

Show Notes

According to the CDC, the number of abortions in the United States in 2021 was 625,978
Women in their 20s accounted for more than half of abortions, higher for minority women, over half performed medication (mifepristone & misoprostol) at ≤9 weeks’ gestation (53.0%)
Guttmacher Institute: 930,160 abortions in 2020. Decline:
744k in 1973, 1.25m in 1975, 1.6m in 1990, 1.25m in 2005, 930,160 in 2020
14.4/1,000 women (compare homicide rate of 5.9/100,000 people)
Abortion providers: 2,908 in 1982, 1603 in 2020
87% unmarried women (CDC)
Black: 42%, 30% White, 22% Hispanic, 6% other races
Second abortions: 24%; Third abortions: 11%; 4th abortion: 8%
93% of abortions in the 1st trimester, at or before 13 weeks of gestation
6% between 14-20 weeks of pregnancy; 1% at 21 weeks or more.

Why women get abortions—2013 study “Understanding Why Women Seek Abortions in the US” (BMC Women’s Health Antonia Biggs, Heather Gould, Diana Greene Foster):

Financial (40%)
Timing (36%)
Partner-related reasons (31%)
Need to focus on other children (29%)

The top three reason categories cited in both studies were: 1) “Having a baby would dramatically change my life” (i.e., interfere with education, employment and ability to take care of existing children and other dependents) (74% in 2004 and 78% in 1987), 2) “I can’t afford a baby now” (e.g., unmarried, student, can’t afford childcare or basic needs) (73% in 2004 and 69% in 1987), and 3) “I don’t want to be a single mother or am having relationship problems” (48% in 2004 and 52% in 1987). A sizeable proportion of women in 2004 and 1987 also reported having completed their childbearing (38% and 28%), not being ready for a/another child (32% and 36%), and not wanting people to know they had sex or became pregnant (25% and 33%)

What about medical problems with the woman or the fetus? Lozier Institute 2024 study:

Rape and incest: 0.4%
Risk to the woman’s life or a major bodily function: 0.3%
Other physical health concerns: 2.2%
Abnormality in the unborn baby: 1.2%
Elective and unspecified reasons: 95.9%

Worldwide (Guttmacher Institute):

121 million unintended pregnancies occurred each year between 2015 and 2019
Of these unintended pregnancies, 61% ended in abortion. This translates to 73 million abortions per year

Americans’ Self-ID on Abortion, 2024 (Gallup):

Pro-choice: 54%, Pro-life: 41%
Men: 45% pro-choice/49% pro-life; Women: 63% pro-choice/33% pro-life
Republican: 23% pro-choice/69% pro-life; Democrat: 86% pro-choice/12% pro-life; Independent: 52% pro-choice/41% pro-life

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Categories: Critical Thinking, Skeptic

Insect on the Menu: Separating Fact From Fiction

Skeptic.com feed - Fri, 11/08/2024 - 8:00am

In 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published a report titled Edible Insects: Future Prospects of Insects as Food and Feed.1 Despite being downloaded over seven million times and receiving widespread publicity, the report did not generate much controversy. This was likely because the consumption of insects was seen as an unfamiliar practice associated with developing countries in the tropics, and the idea of incorporating bugs into Western diets was just not taken seriously. However, that perception has been changing recently. Several edible insect products have been declared safe by international and national food safety organizations in Western countries. In response, critical coverage has emerged on social media, claiming that edible insects pose a threat to public health and even to national identities.

Here are a few examples of how some politicians and journalists reacted to the legalization of insects as food:

A senator from the Republican party in France warned the Senate on January 25, 2024 that French people would be led to “eat insects without their knowledge.”2
The Hungarian agriculture minister warned that “traditional eating habits may be in danger.”2
A former interior minister and leader of the ABV party in Bulgaria described allowing insects in food as a “crime against Europe” and claimed it showed a “readiness to kill our European children.”2
In 2023, the Italian agricultural minister said of the use of edible insects to make traditional dishes such as pasta and pizza, “it’s fundamental that these flours are not confused with food made in Italy.”3
In the Netherlands in 2023, a member of parliament posted on social media that “we will not eat the bugs,” while seen pouring mealworms from a bag onto the ground.4
In the UK, a news article read, “Regulations are imposed (not debated) by the European Commission. In this case, the powdered bug was imposed into the food chain of around half a billion people without debate.”5
In the U.S., a newspaper article warned, “Biden admin shells out taxpayer dollars on getting Americans to eat trash-fed bugs.”6

This aversion has been connected to conspiratorial claims about a shadowy global elite that aims to control the world’s population. The World Economic Forum (Davos) has been singled out, with claims that elites such as heads of state and business leaders want people to eat bugs instead of meat to combat food insecurity.7

The main narratives surrounding these claims include:

The European Union is forcing its citizens to eat insects against their will.
Insects are poisonous.
Insect-derived ingredients are added to food because of the dramatic consequences of sanctions imposed on Russia in light of the war in Ukraine.8

Is there any truth to such allegations? These claims are largely false. Since 2021, several insect products have been approved in the European Union as safe for human consumption,9 but there is no mandate forcing citizens to eat them. The safety of these products is ensured through rigorous testing by food safety organizations. Additionally, the move towards including insects in the food supply is motivated by concerns about sustainability and food security, rather than by sanctions against Russia. So, why is there such significant resistance to eating insects?

Why are we reluctant to accept insects as food?

The numerous statements by politicians and journalists quoted above, and similar sentiments shared by the public, are primarily rooted10 in two underlying reasons:

Food Neophobia: The reluctance to eat (or the avoidance of) new foods.
Disgust: The instinctual avoidance of food considered potentially to cause death or disease and because “creepy-crawly” things are, well, disgusting.

Although these are closely related, disgust is the more significant barrier to acceptance of insect consumption. Food neophobia can be mitigated with information about the food item’s nutritional value, safety, and sustainability. Disgust is harder to overcome as it is based on emotion rather than rationality.11 A related reason why insects are not commonly eaten in the Western world is their association with dirt, death, disease, and contamination.

Food Safety and Nutritional Value

The assumption by Westerners that insects cannot be eaten and are merely survival food in tropical countries is more of a bias than a fact. In tropical regions, over 1,500 insect species are consumed because the local population considers them nutritious, tasty, and easy to procure, rather than solely due to low living standards. In North America and Europe, insects have not been a customary food item primarily because they are not available in sufficient quantities to be considered food. In contrast, in tropical regions, larger insects are available year-round and can be easily harvested due to their tendency to occur in clumped distributions. Insects do occasionally appear in large numbers in temperate zones—for example, in the U.S., the 2024 simultaneous emergence of 13- and 17-year cycle cicadas, which happens only once every 221 years, sparked interest in using them as food.12 Historically, until the mid-1900s insects such as cockchafers were both a common pest and a delicacy in France and Germany.13

To make edible insects available in Western markets, they need to be reared under controlled conditions on farms. For human consumption, species such as mealworms, crickets, and locusts are used, while fly species such as the black soldier fly are used for animal feed because they can be reared on various organic side streams. And there’s an additional benefit: with 30 percent of food and agricultural produce going to waste,14 using these fly species could contribute to a self-sustaining economy. The market for edible insects as animal feed is expected to grow from about $7 billion in 2023 to $116 billion by 2033.15 This growth is being driven by the increasing prices for conventional feed ingredients such as fishmeal and soybean meal, whose sustainability is in question.16 Most insect-based ingredients are used as feed for animals (pets, fish, chickens, and pigs), while insects for human consumption remain a niche market, expected to grow from $650 million in 2023 to over $1 billion by 2033.17

Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories often highlight the perceived food safety risks associated with consuming insects. The European Union requires that any insect intended for food first must be screened by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This rigorous process takes considerable time and thoroughly evaluates all aspects of food safety. While several insect products have been approved, they carry a warning regarding allergies. Individuals allergic to seafood or house dust mites should be cautious due to potential cross-reactivity, as these groups are taxonomically similar to insects. Consequently, this risk must be shown on the product label, along with a clear statement that the product contains insects.

Conspiracy theories also mention the alleged danger of consuming chitin, the material composing the exoskeleton of insects. Chitin can be present in food products containing whole insects, as the processing methods—decontamination, drying, and grinding—do not remove it. However, when insect protein (meal) is used, it is often separated from fats and chitin. Even when chitin is present, it is unlikely to be harmful and may even offer health benefits.18, 19 Insect products are rich in antioxidants and essential minerals such as zinc and iron, which are often deficient in large segments of the human population, and can cause conditions such as anemia.

It is challenging to provide general numbers regarding nutritional value of insects, because they depend on various factors such as the insects’ diet and other biotic and abiotic elements. However, insect products are generally as nutritious as, or even more nutritious than, meat products.20

Are insects the future of food?

There are many misconceptions about the use of edible insects, often reinforced by negative associations. Insects provide crucial ecosystem services, such as pollination, valued at over 150 billion U.S. dollars—10 percent of the value of global agricultural production for human consumption.21 Additionally, insects play important roles as decomposers and in the biocontrol of agricultural pests. Many bird species, including chickens, as well as various fish species, naturally consume insects. Non-human primates also eat insects, as do hundreds of millions of people worldwide in tropical regions.22

This article appeared in Skeptic magazine 29.3
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The publication of the 2013 edition of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Statistical Yearbook triggered enormous publicity by highlighting the environmental benefits, nutritional value, and safety of using insects as food and feed. This coincided with increasing awareness that changes in our food habits were necessary. Eighty percent of all agricultural land worldwide is used to produce dairy and meat products.23 It is estimated that this land area will not be enough to satisfy the increasing demand for these products due to the growing world population and improving living standards. Additionally, the environmental impact of meat and dairy production is substantial, accounting for about 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions and almost two-thirds of all ammonia emissions.24 Water and land use requirements are also very high. Farming edible insects is environmentally better on all fronts, while their nutritional values are similar to those of conventional meats.25

The idea of eating insects is gradually gaining traction in Western countries. Strategies such as targeting more adventurous eaters, incorporating insect ingredients into familiar products, and providing information about food safety, nutrition, and sustainability may help shift public perception and gradually convince more people that insects deserve a place on the menu.26

Resistance to this new food is not unexpected, given that insects have never been considered a regular food ingredient in the West. But if insect products are proven to be safe, nutritious, tasty, and more sustainable than meat, perhaps we should reconsider our food habits?

About the Author

Arnold van Huis is a Professor Emeritus of Tropical Entomology at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. From 1974 to 1979, he worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Nicaragua. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers and co-author of The Insect Cookbook: Food for a Sustainable Planet (Columbia University Press). In 2014, together with FAO, he organized the first conference, Insects to Feed the World, attended by 450 participants from 45 countries. He is the chief editor of the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed.

References

Categories: Critical Thinking, Skeptic

Report from Death Valley, and the Bermuda Triangle

Skeptoid Feed - Wed, 11/06/2024 - 2:00am

A report from the recent Skeptoid Adventures trip to Death Valley, including how many brave souls we lost in the desert and how they met their fate; and announcing the next Skeptoid Adventures trip to the Bermuda Triangle! Reserve your spot now at https://skeptoid.com/events/30285

Categories: Critical Thinking, Skeptic