Honestly I haven't tried it but I wouldn't mind certain things containing bug parts (on purpose) to make up for protein in them. And honestly that crunch sounds quite good.
It has one of the same inherent inefficiencies as animal meat: they need to eat something to grow. Therefore we need to use a lot of resources to produce a lot of food for them to eat, before we can eat them.
It always seems much more efficient to use those resources to grow food for us to eat directly. Also, getting Americans to eat a vegetable is slightly easier than getting them to eat a bug.
I think the "magic" of bugs is that they can eat things that would be inedible or unhealthy for other omnivores (like pigs). If we can convert some of our food and paper waste into protein and chitin, it might be worth the investment.
This only works for small farms but regular animals already fill that spot there too. Chicken and pigs are mainly fed kitchen scraps in these settings. The issue is once you go into large-scale commercial farming it becomes way too inefficient to use waste products and buying feed is more economical viable. Doesn't matter if it's insects or mammals or.
A lot of animal feed is already made up of a lot of "food waste". Rice bran, maize and wheat offal, fish meal, and bone meal, all of that are byproducts of food for human consumption and commonly found in animal feed. You can even find some that have things like sawdust or other wood products inside. There are even studies into using waste paper for cattle. And while this might sound wrong, it doesn't harm the animal. But the issue is, humans don't want to eat something that ate something we don't like. And I don't see that changing with insects either.
1 is they're a lot more efficient at producing calories vs calories eaten compared to larger animals, and insanely more water efficient. And 2, which varies by insect, is what they eat and the results of it. Many insects eating habits have positive impacts on environmental health and are sought after for that purpose. Earthworms are a famous example, but there are all kinds of insects that play a composting role in nature, eating decaying organic matter and converting it into nutritionally rich soil for plants. Pollinators are another example.
If you don't use pesticide (as we should, it's poisoning the air and the water), bugs will come whether you want it or not. You probably won't be able to make an industry out of it, but I don't think that's the point we're advocating for either.
bugs are still part of the cuisines of a lot of the world
bugs for food can be raised in tiny spaces with minimal resources
the main issue is Western countries where bugs are seen as icky (but then we’ve also lost track of where our food comes from and are grossed out by simple organ meats) – we still do shrimp and crayfish and lobster but only because we refuse to see them as bugs
one sideline that came out of the paleo community – our bodies have a “genetic library” of digestive enzymes, but it is also common for our body to “forget” enzymes (ex. lactase) through lack of use, but apparently our body never forgets chitinase (the claim being that chitin was such an integral part of our diet for so much of our evolutionary history) – side effect of this is yes, you can quite easily consume those shrimp tails rather than pushing them off to the side of your plate
I’ve eaten a few things made with powdered crickets. They were ok. I think treating it as a protein powder and adding it to baked goods makes the idea of eating “bugs” more palatable for most people.
Cricket flour isn't bad at all. It adds a burnt toast flavor that works best in heavier spiced baked goods. I've made this recipe a few times for halloween and challenged people to "eat bugs" and everyone who tried it has liked it. I do make sure they don't have a shellfish allergy first.
I bought some of the little flavored crickets you can get, I got cheese flavor and bbq flavors. They're not bad, they remove the legs so it's just a little morsel, they taste a lot like sunflower seeds. I don't think I'd be opposed working them into my diet if I needed to.
Just use a plant based protein powder then. That's what I don't understand, why bugs when you could use soy or peas or some other plant based protein source? It's even more efficient, no animal cruelty, and not "icky" at all.
I agree to an extent but if you take a look at one of the best diets in the world for a moment the Mediterranean diet has lots of plants, fish and rarely meat
I think whenever news articles talk about bugs they always show a gruesome picture of someone taking a bite, as though eating beef would be a person carving right into the animal. Yes, some cultures do eat bugs, but this is unlikely to be the form factor in which most people would eat them.
Cochineal is a food safe dye made from insects, used in cosmetics and beverages. There are probably other examples, but overall I would expect that insect derived foods would be ground and eaten like powders or patties in the west.
A friend of a friend brought back a couple bottles of some seriously amazing homemade mezcal from a trip to Oaxaca. He also brought back a couple bags of Chapulines to pair with.
He would ONLY share the mezcal with you if you tried the Chapulines with it.
It was an interesting experience. The seasonings on them were delicious, the texture... took a bit to get used to.
I bought some fried mealworms for my pet rats. I've tried them, they aren't bad. They don't really taste like anything. They just crunch.
I had a pleasure of eating fried beetles. They taste like shrimp.
Meat is meat. If you eat meat, why don't you eat bugs?
I've eaten quite a few things with bugs. Mostly powdered and in something else -- cricket bread is quite good and very high protein. Grasshopper too. Even black fly casings can be ground up and added into things (though I wasn't as big a fan).
I think insects are a good option for low cost protein. They can be cultivated vertically, and don't require as many resources as some other proteins. I think they add some nice nutrient diversity to diets trying to limit meat consumption. Plant proteins are great, but you can only eat so many forms of soy before it starts messing with your body.
I hope it catches on more. I think once people see and try products where the bug body isn't as noticeable, they'll get over some of their 'ick' factor.
The bugs would be cultivated outside the natural population & would likely be common species with no risk of extinction. Plus they have a much smaller carbon footprint than many meats, so might help us end the current human imposed mess.
I think it's a good bandaid but I don't think it's a perfect solution. I haven't seen information on feed and slaughter. Maybe you can help me locate a source.
Tried mealworm, crickets and a few others.
Pretty terrible tastewise imo, not worth it past the novelty stage.
I don't really see the point honestly, I'd rather we stabilize our population rather than find ways to accommodate exponential growth a bit longer. We're hitting that wall eventually.
When I used to live in Florida, we'd go once a year to visit the Keys and eat some "bugs" - they were Caribbean Spiny Lobsters. If you think about it, they are pretty closely related - insects and crustaceans. If you are ever confronted with the option to tuck into a big bowl of insects, consider it like a big bowl of shrimp! (full disclosure: I have not had this option, this is only my intellectualization of how to think about it. It is related to my intellectualzation of pretending spiders are crabs, to overcome arachnophobia - though this only extends to not screaming when touched by a spider rather than trying to catch spiders to eat them)
I've eaten --cricket-- grasshopper tacos at a restaurant in Washington, DC. The crunchy texture was honestly great. My only complaint was that the spice/sauce they used to prepare them was too salty. I think with a more restrained spice blend, it would be something I'd be happy to eat on the regular.
Edit: I was mistaken. They're grasshoppers, and apparently the saltiness is part of their natural flavor.
I mean, I'd eat it
If in 10% of earth people are eating them, that's good for me
Only thing is that it's doesn't come to the stores near me, and I don't see myself ordering them from amazon to eat them, the pollution to eat more earth healthy would be ridiculous
@Doctor_olo I personally would not. My spouse and I are vegetarian and I think we would stick with that. We are not dogmatic about it but I think that one can get all the protein they need from plants, pulses, and dairy. But if other's want to try, power to them.
I mixed feelings about this. The thought of eating bugs sickens me. I am extremely phobic of most insects and can't stand the thought of them anywhere near my mouth. If there were a way of eating them where nothing about the food resembled an insect, then maybe it would be ok.
I'm vegetarian so I wouldn't try an insect meal anyways.
I definitely do not want to… I‘d rather die, sorry. To each their own, but if everything else became unaffordable and I‘d be left with bugs, you‘ll find me smuggling veggies and growing them in the city parks, or on company properties or wherever I can find space.
I'm not really talking about eating them out of desperation but rather just as an additive in food, however I see where your coming from and it's a pretty reasonable response.
Yeah sorry I got a bit emotional, I‘m just grossed out by bugs a lot, including the popular sea ones. Though I guess if they are in a powder I wouldn‘t mind as an additive.
It‘s mostly for me the issue that a lot of right wingers are also using these sort of articles to push the "the left wants to force us to eat bugs" narrative, which is untrue (there is no force at all), but I wouldn‘t actually put it past some state‘s politicians to go like "let them eat bugs" as a response to rising food prices either.
In which case I would like to respond by aggressively planting vegetables.