I can say that bee larvae taste like raw almonds and cow milk butter and I eat on sight.
Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
21–30 of 113 posts
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#22Which is sushi, novelty or mainstream? Or tofu, or non-wheat flour?
Or maybe there's a middle ground where things are neither.
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#23Kind of interesting how many people would rather eat bugs than not eat meat at all.
Not really, considering the nutritional profile of insects. There are some nutrients you can't readily get from plant-based foods, or only in poor amounts, like DHA/EPA, carosine, lysine, etc. Not to mention all the things you'd normally miss out on with traditional meat, because we're not used to eating the bones and innards of large animals here, but that you get from insects cause you'd eat them whole, so you'd get plenty more minerals, vitamins, and rarer amino acids that way.
I recommend reading this book if anybody's interested in more specifics about insect-based nutrition, and why it's actually more unique and useful than most people realize:
http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Adventure-Eating-Insects-Planet...
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#24People have been publishing this article every few months for as long as I can remember. They may well be an efficient form of protein but... squick. Basically.
It's just unfamiliarity - you would have the same reaction to a prawn if you hadn't grown up with it. And many outsiders would have a similar reaction to squid cooked in its ink (Spain), half-rotted herring (Scandinavia), or even just strongly flavoured blue cheese (everywhere). For that matter, lots of people feel icky about fresh tomatoes. It's not likely to become something which is mainstream overnight, but there…
That's the thing though - it's been there for years (maybe not in the form of cricket flour), and it gets hyped every few months, yet AFAICT there's not been any indication of it being any more than a niche interest.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the sector is really growing this time...
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#25Unlikely. They are icky, unappealing and do not have the "man" quality one gets from real meat. Food is mostly about taste and convenience today, because we have access to enough of it - insects doesn't really give you either. In short it is highly unlikely that I will wake up tomorrow and eat insects, nor that the majority in the developed world will. And yes shrimp may technically be insects. Technically correct do…
Lobster is a bug; it used to be 'ick' and now its 'yum'. The ick factor is cultural. No reason the OP can't be right - if bugs are tasty, and some people start eating them, and then more people, they could easily become a regular thing.
I have a friend who is an entomologist, a doctor of entomology no less. He doesn't eat lobster, or any other type of mollusc, on the basis that they filter-feed and will quite happily chow down on faeces, just like any other insect.
Mind you he finds the texture of boiled eggs repulsive too, so it might just be him.
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#26Isn't cricket feed mostly corn and soy? Seems like it would be more efficient to eat the raw ingredients rather than the crickets.
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#27Which is sushi, novelty or mainstream? Or tofu, or non-wheat flour? Or maybe there's a middle ground where things are neither.
Sushi in Vancouver or Tokyo? Mainstream. Boise, Idaho? It's all relative to where you are.
Eating insects here is currently novelty. But in many parts of the world, it is a part of daily life.
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#28People have been publishing this article every few months for as long as I can remember. They may well be an efficient form of protein but... squick. Basically.
It's just unfamiliarity - you would have the same reaction to a prawn if you hadn't grown up with it. And many outsiders would have a similar reaction to squid cooked in its ink (Spain), half-rotted herring (Scandinavia), or even just strongly flavoured blue cheese (everywhere). For that matter, lots of people feel icky about fresh tomatoes. It's not likely to become something which is mainstream overnight, but there…
Or any kind of meat -- just a fuckin chuck of animal muscle, tendon, gristle, sometimes even skin.
I think there'd be a lot more vegetarians if everyone had to do their own butchering.
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#29And you thought chicken farms were disgusting...
I definitely think chicken farms are disgusting (and I've been a vegetarian for 21 years for that reason among many others). Cricket farming, on the other hand, I've considered trying. I'm not entirely confident of the ethics of eating bugs, but it's so vastly superior to the environmental disaster and suffering caused by eating meat, that I think making bugs a part of the average human diet is a net win.
If it tastes good, is healthy, requires less land/water/resources to products, and leads to lower meat consumption, I don't see how it can be a bad thing.
Unfortunately, costs are still very high. I'm not sure why that is, given all the hype about "bugs are a low cost protein!"
Re: Edible insects are a novelty today, but they'll be mainstream tomorrow
#30Isn't cricket feed mostly corn and soy? Seems like it would be more efficient to eat the raw ingredients rather than the crickets.