Insects as food
Tue, 2008-02-12 06:00
#1
Insects as food
Tue, 2008-02-12 06:00
#2
Can insects feed the world? Bugs provide ample amounts of nutrients in an average serving and are more environmentally sustainable than the average North American diet. But would North Americans be willing to add insects to their diet?
quote:
The Greeks and the Romans ate them. John the Baptist partook, and yes, locusts are even kosher. Many cultures in Asia, Africa and the Americas still raise insects as livestock or gather them through foraging. If Gracer and his peers have their way, the United States will soon join them. It will be home to domestic insect farms, employ arthropod husbandry experts and begin processing insect “mini-livestock” into food — breads made from insect flour as well as whole bugs in various life stages like pupae and larvae. After all, if Americans love shrimp and lobster, why won’t they eat their terrestrial cousins?--
...Insects do meet the test of environmental sustainability: they create far more edible protein per pound of feed as cattle. Moreover, given world consumption trajectories, scientists warn that a complete collapse of global fish stocks is possible in the next 40 years. We might want to hedge our bets. Perhaps then it’s no surprise that the concept of bugs as food is getting serious consideration from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Later this month, it will stage a workshop called “Forest Insects as Food: Humans Bite Back” in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Among the questions to be addressed: Why douse fields with pesticides if the bugs we kill are more nutritious than the crops they eat?
[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/magazine/10wwln-essay-t.html?_r=1&ref=... here.[/url]
[ 12 February 2008: Message edited by: M.Gregus ]
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:11
#3
[url=http://www.eatbug.com/recipes.htm]The obligatory recipes:[/url]
quote:
[b]Mealworm chocolate chip cookies[/b]1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup mealworm flour[b]Ant Brood Tacos[/b]
2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil
1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
3 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
Pepper, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Oregano, to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Taco shells, to serve
Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro.
And the classic:
quote:
[b]"Natural Style"[/b]As many mealworms as you can sanely eat
Open mouth. Insert live mealworms. Chew. Swallow.
Some caveats:
quote:
You can eat almost every kind of edible insect raw; however, this method of eating insects should only be performed on insects that you keep yourself or know are free from pesticides. Do not snag passing cockroaches, ants, or termites in an urban area unless you have developed a natural immunity to pesticides. And don't forget to wash your insects before eating them!
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:31
#4
I've been slacking off the vegan thing, but this thread just might convince me to begin anew!
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:35
#5
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]I've been slacking off the vegan thing, but this thread just might convince me to begin anew![/b]
heh. I'm a vegan but I was just thinking that I might be able to eat insects. (I'm not sure my reasons for not eating animals would apply to bugs. I'd have to give it some thought!)
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:36
#6
Lots of vegans don't eat honey because of bees...
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:51
#7
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]Lots of vegans don't eat honey because of bees...[/b]
Yeah .... I'm just not sure about bugs, morally speaking. I may as well admit that I kill spiders. They frighten me so much it's either kill them or move. However, I absolutely will not eat spiders!
Tue, 2008-02-12 07:58
#8
I don't know about anyone else, but those recipes have my mouth watering! [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] But I still need some way to deal with those centipedes that live in my drain -- they don't get much mention in the range of edible insects.
I would be willing to try bugs, especially in the finely ground form that's meant to replace flour. That's easy. When it comes to insects in their whole form, anything little and delicately crunchy might be okay, like the caramel-covered ants mentioned in the article. But I reach my limit at big, tough, households bugs like cockroaches. I'll never forget, back in biology, dissecting huge tropical cockroaches that oozed yellow goo when you cut into them. I can't imagine eating this "meat" -- even in its cooked form. Come to think of it, I can't stand lobsters and shellfish either.
Tue, 2008-02-12 08:00
#9
Speaking as a former vegetarian (though not vegan, usually) who was partly influenced by the environmental impact of meat, I'm thinking insect-eating would have less of a carbon footprint than being a vegan, that is, if you're eating wild-caught bugs as opposed to agriculturally-produced soy products for your protein.
Though at this time of year, insectivores would have to have their bugs trucked in.
[thread drift]I read an essay in Granta a few years ago about a dinner given by Idi Amin when he was in power. If there were Americans or Europeans at the dinner table, he would deliberately make sure there were lots of the local bug delicacies being served.[/thread drift]
Tue, 2008-02-12 08:03
#10
quote:
Originally posted by Sineed:
[b]Speaking as a former vegetarian (though not vegan, usually) who was partly influenced by the environmental impact of meat, I'm thinking insect-eating would have less of a carbon footprint than being a vegan, that is, if you're eating wild-caught bugs as opposed to agriculturally-produced soy products for your protein.
[/b]
My reasons are more "animal rights" than environmental (though obviously environmental considerations are always important) but I don't eat much soy. Most soy is raised for animal consumption, though, so it's the meat eaters who, indirectly, are eating all the soy!
bugs trucked in - ha! You're right. Unless a person could bring herself to raise them in an aquarium at home and pick out a few nice ones for supper. (This is making me ill.)
[ 12 February 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]
Tue, 2008-02-12 20:31
#11
Years agoI gardened for a neighbour couple and as payment they gave me a feed of summer kale and spuds. It was curley kale. They were a bit old and sight was fading but mine was not.
Anyways, i ate them so as not to cause embarasement. It was disgusting (but of course they hadnt been evicerated) so who knows.
I knew the horrors of curley kale from my own gardening from 5 years previously. curley kale is the most amazing thing.
the catapilars can hide in the fronds and get stuck and blend in amazingly.
I do not remember who cooked the first batch, but I will not forget the taste or how the sliced up swolen grubs gradually came into focus on the half eaten plate.
Termites are supposed to be nice and honey ants are supposed to be very nice. But, I do not know.
I guess vegetarians are not so vegetarian as they think.
Mon, 2008-02-18 18:23
#12
ebodyknows
In what I think is good use of the technology youtube is full of people eating various insects.
I was onced offered silk worm larvae so I took it. Kind of like a squishy peanut. I could potentially get used to it. Not sure what is involved in farming them though. I have helped out in farming peanuts....I've never appreciated 2$ a lb. in my life as much.
...I had a friend who spoke nostalgically about how he missed eating ants and grasshoppers. I've seen them being sold in large bags like popcorn...and the joyus smiles on the faces of kids who have caught them in the wilds. I really want to eat them myself but am still working on pyschologically preparing myself.
Mon, 2008-02-18 18:30
#13
If a restaurant opened in TO that served bugs, I'd totally try them.
Mon, 2008-02-18 18:53
#14
I generally refuse to eat anything that still has little eyes to stare at me, but I could see trying out grasshoppers, bees in honey, and maybe certain kinds of ants and tropical grubs as side dishes. Tasty I've heard and not at all unsightly. OTOH I couldn't imagine succesfully ingesting mealy-worms or spiders or anything our raccoons wouldn't touch, not unless I was truly starving.
Mon, 2008-02-18 18:58
#15
quote:
Originally posted by Erik Redburn:
[b]I generally refuse to eat anything that still has little eyes to stare at me, but I could see trying out grasshoppers, bees in honey, and maybe certain kinds of ants and tropical grubs as side dishes. Tasty I've heard and not at all unsightly. OTOH I couldn't imagine succesfully ingesting mealy-worms or spiders or anything our raccoons wouldn't touch, not unless I was truly starving.[/b]
My dog causes me some distress by eating grasshoppers in summer. The crunching on a live thing disturbs me. (I don't blame the dog. She's hard-wired for this.)
Mon, 2008-02-18 19:00
#16
quote:
...
breads made from insect flour as well as whole bugs in various life stages like pupae and larvae. After all, if Americans love shrimp and lobster, why won’t they eat their terrestrial cousins?
...
I don't know how to break this to all of you, but there is already a certain amount of insect (along with mouse poop and other things one really does not like to think about) in our breads, cereal etc.
Mon, 2008-02-18 19:04
#17
quote:
Originally posted by Yibpl:
[b]I don't know how to break this to all of you, but there is already a certain amount of insect (along with mouse poop and other things one really does not like to think about) in our breads, cereal etc.[/b]
I don't necessarily object to ground up insect. My difficulties with the issue are ethical. I just can't decide about the moral status of bugs. I think I might be inclined to eat them. Ground up. There's certainly a plentiful supply and it would be easy to raise them.
Mon, 2008-02-18 19:07
#18
On the other hand, the thing about the average person eating 4 spiders per year in her sleep is
[url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspidereat.html]apparently a myth.[/url]
Mon, 2008-02-18 20:02
#19
quote:
Originally posted by RosaL:
[b]My dog causes me some distress by eating grasshoppers in summer. The crunching on a live thing disturbs me. (I don't blame the dog. She's hard-wired for this.)[/b]
Refusing anything still twitching is another self imposed rule of mine, but I also make allowances for my pets. I found they're even less inclined to listen to my good advice than fellow anthropoids. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
[ 18 February 2008: Message edited by: Erik Redburn ]
Tue, 2008-02-19 09:59
#20
quote:
Can insects feed the world?
Why should they? Instead of looking for more food we should be looking for less consumption.
quote:
RosaL:
I may as well admit that I kill spiders.
Murderer! [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
With the exception of Black Widows I protect spiders, they dine on all of the other bugs that buzz around here.
Tue, 2008-02-19 10:11
#21
ebodyknows
What about tarantuala? yum yum.
Tue, 2008-02-19 10:14
#22
Sineed:
quote:
Speaking as a former vegetarian (though not vegan, usually) who was partly influenced by the environmental impact of meat, I'm thinking insect-eating would have less of a carbon footprint than being a vegan, that is, if you're eating [b]wild-caught bugs[/b] as opposed to agriculturally-produced soy products for your protein.
Bold for highlight... It's likely sustainable until we scale bug farms to the same size the beef industry has scaled to, start cutting down forests to make room for ant farms?
Tue, 2008-02-19 17:41
#23
quote:
What about tarantuala? yum yum.
[img]http://www.rhymer.net/New%20Folder/spiderboy/spider-eating.jpg[/img]
![http://www.rhymer.net/New%20Folder/spiderboy/spider-eating.jpg[/img]](http://www.rhymer.net/New%20Folder/spiderboy/spider-eating.jpg[/img]){kind=link}