81–90 of 113 posts
If I agreed that edible insects were a novelty today I might be persuaded that they'll be mainstream tomorrow. Since I believe that edible insects are a source of revulsion to most Westerners (at least) today, I'm doubtful that they'll be mainstream tomorrow. There's a general principle of argumentation here: if you want me to believe your apodosis, make sure we're on the same page with your protasis.
I gave a friend some cricket bars and he thought I was joking about the ingredient until after he'd tried it. Well, that's one answer to the ick factor.
The article capitalizes on a popular foreboding about resource limits with a thrilling "ick" factor, but it's premise is unsubstantial. I once met an ancient Jewish gentleman who, due to poverty, had been forced to eat lobsters as a youth. In that day they were considered on par with rats as a food source (not to mention they were forbidden by his religious culture) and he had never recovered from the experience, and…
There are other cultures where lobster is available domestically but without the negative connotations; I have good memories of eating fresh-caught lobster for dinner in a tiny fishing village in Ireland, where people had been enjoying them along with crab for many generations. Shellfish are considered unclean in Judaism, but you shouldn't generalize from that to assume every other culture views them the same way, as…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Just like cod, which my Hull fishing-town relatives taught me is a dirty, wormy fish unsuitable for consumption. All you can do with it is sell it to the naive land-lubbers...
The article capitalizes on a popular foreboding about resource limits with a thrilling "ick" factor, but it's premise is unsubstantial. I once met an ancient Jewish gentleman who, due to poverty, had been forced to eat lobsters as a youth. In that day they were considered on par with rats as a food source (not to mention they were forbidden by his religious culture) and he had never recovered from the experience, and…
Then you will become like most old people.
New things like interracial marriage, gay marriage, trying to not use a lot of resources(baby boomers not pre war), computers etc frighten old people.
And you also will get older and die, like they will before you.
But while you are dying off the youth will embrace the new and the better.
I just feel sad you have pin holed yourself already to not even want to try.
And although I don't like boiled meats, BBQ rat tastes fine.
[Edit] broil != boil I see from Google :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rats, raised in clean conditions and fed properly, would probably make a good food source. People eat rabbits and squirrels, there's really not much difference.
True, but what you consider clean conditions is relative. City streets are dirty, but so is the bottom of the ocean! where sharks vacate and whales rot to bits and all kinds of sediment and detritus gathers: there's your market price lobster's "clean conditions and properly fed". So would you knowingly eat a rat off the city streets? Well, I probably would too in fact, even if the thought truly disgusts me :}
I think the idea of producing cricket meal as a protein supplement/food additive is pretty novel, but it will be a long time before I cook with it directly.
And 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 taste…
My guess is that while bugs are more efficient than most animals at converting energy, the equipment and methods to raise the bugs and convert them into human-ready products have not had the centuries of optimization that mainstream animal husbandry enjoys.