Promoção da antropoentomofagia no ambiente escolar: um estudo com alunos da educação de jovens e adultos

Abstract

The anthropoentomofagia represents the consumption of insects by humans, being an old practice, but still unknown by many. Insects have greater protein potential than conventional animal production, and can feed many people suffering from malnutrition in several countries. Considering the exponential growth of the world population, there is a need to rethink sustainable alternatives to feed everyone, minimizing environmental impacts. Having said this, the present work aims to evaluate the acceptability of the insertion of insects in human food in a school of Basic Education of Young and Adults. For this, the research was carried out in the State Center of Basic Education for Young and Adult (CEEBJA) of Dois Vizinhos-PR, in the second half of 2018, involving 25 people. The research was developed with the application of a pre-questionnaire, a lecture, after presentation of a video about research in anthropoentomofagia in Brazil and, post-questionnaire application. The collected data were analyzed and exposed in graphical representations, using the Microsoft Office Excel 2007 package and the Microsoft Office Word 2007 package. After the analysis of the questionnaires it was noticed that previously to the lecture the people were not aware of the subject anthropoentomofagia, different from the answers obtained in the post-questionnaire. Many people have labeled insects as dirty, disgusting and transmitting diseases, with a negative perception of them, although (62%) of people rated insects as contributing to nature and could contribute to human consumption in the future. Participants also claimed that insects are great sources of nutrients and proteins that can help fight hunger and malnutrition. It was not noticed a differentiated conception in the pre and post-questionnaire in relation to the consumption of insects, since the answers in both were positive, claiming that people are curious to feed on insects, especially if they are inserted in some food in flour, because the whole insect causes greater disgust, with (52%) of people saying they would buy insects if they were offered in supermarkets. The application of a lecture to disseminate information is a viable alternative to attract the attention of the public, because when the content is explained, exposing its benefits, the acceptance of a certain subject becomes more efficient and arouses curiosity in the public, deeper into what you have learned. However, the anthropoentomyofagia needs to be more widespread, because even with the acceptance obtained in the research, there is a need to reach a larger public to analyze the acceptance and obtain more complex results of the population in relation to the insects.