Life Support: How bugs put food on the table
Episode two of Life Support, a video series about why the global nature crisis matters for our lives
Back in the 60s, the chemical industry saw insects as a threat to our food supply. We now know that bugs are the foundation of our ability to feed ourselves – and we’re killing them at an incredible rate.
Thanks to Professor Alexandra-Maria Klein and Dr Lynn Dicks for speaking to us for this episode. Thanks also to IPBES.
Life Support is a series about why the global nature crisis matters for our lives.
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Written and narrated by Emma Howard
Produced by Georgie Johnson
Edited by Charlie Denholm
Filmed by Isabelle Povey and Alice Russell
Music and sound design by JPML.agency
Featuring Rima Sonigara as ‘the human’
Sources and further reading:
> ‘More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas’, Caspar A. Hallmann et al. (2017)
> ‘Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops’, Alexandra-Maria Klein et al. (2006)
> ‘What agricultural practices are most likely to deliver ‘sustainable intensification’ in the UK?’, Lynn Dicks et al. (2018)
> ‘Policies for Ecological Intensification of Crop Production’, Lucas A. Garibaldi et al. (2019)
> ‘Climate-driven declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web’, Bradford C. Lister and Andres Garcia (2017)
> ‘The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects’, John E. Losey and Mace Vaughan (2006)