A government-backed group has begun exploring the use of psychological propaganda in order to convince people to eat bugs.

The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), which is funded by UK Research and Innovation, a government quango, is trying to sell the public on “meat alternatives” in the name of reducing carbon emissions as part of the UK’s net zero agenda.

Professor Anwesha Sarkar, from the University of Leeds, where the research centre will be based, told the Telegraph that “We want to make alternative proteins mainstream for a more sustainable planet.”

That diet includes “mince created from crickets” and various insects ground up into something that “looks like a burger.”

The new research centre will also receive £23 million in funding from multinationals and other businesses hoping to cash in on an industry that could be worth nearly £7 billion a year.

Knowing that the public has an innate revulsion to eating insects, added to studies that show consuming bugs can be toxic because they contain parasites, the group effectively admits it will have to brainwash people to buy them, as highlighted by the Modernity news portal.

That will take the form of the government and industry using “nudging techniques, or public information campaigns” in order “to persuade people to swap their steak for a plant-based or lab-grown alternative, such as nudging techniques, or public information campaigns.”

The essence of „nudging” – a technique, or tactic, mainly used in business – is to use subtle cues to persuade people to do what is best for, or expected of them, but in a way that preserves the individual’s freedom of choice.

Farmers have argued that coercing people to eat insects as a replacement for meat will harm the industry, while many also see it as another deliberate attempt to reduce people’s living standards as part of the unhinged drive towards net zero.