Podcast: French police go back to school, eating insects, deciphering hieroglyphics

<p>Police officers join a sociology degree programme and are asked to reflect on their role in society. A French start-up banks on insect protein to feed livestock and pets more sustainably. And the Frenchman whose claim to have cracked the code of hieroglyphics in the 19th century allowed him to decipher the Rosetta Stone.</p> <p>After the <a target="_self" href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230630-macron-to-hold-second-crisis-meeting-as-french-riots-escalate">riots</a> in June and July, following the fatal police shooting of a young man at a traffic stop, the role of the police in France came under scrutiny. <a target="_self" href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230729-france-police-racism-analysis">Issues of racism</a> come to the fore with observers lamenting that relations with the public –- notably with young residents of disadvantaged city suburbs, or banlieues – <a target="_self" href="https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230720-riots-in-france-s-banlieues-are-over-for-now-but-deep-rooted-anger-remains">have not improved</a> in the two decades since the 2005 riots. A handful of police officers have been offered the opportunity to reflect on their role in society in a new degree programme <a target="_blank" href="https://www.u-picardie.fr/l-universite/actualites/unique-en-france-l-upjv-lance-une-formation-de-sociologie-dediee-aux-policiers--687258.kjsp">offered by the University of Amiens</a>. Sociologist <a target="_blank" href="http://amiens-sociologie.fr/index.php/elodie-lemaire/">Elodie Lemaire</a> talks about giving police new intellectual 'weapons' to confront a changing world, and the police officer students talk about their motivations for wanting to question their profession in a university setting. (Listen @3'00'')</p><p>French start-up <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ynsect.com/">Ÿnsect </a>is preparing to open the world's largest vertical insect farm in the north of France, breeding mealworms to provide insect protein ingredients for pet food, animal feed and fertiliser, to help ease environme