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Can the Dutch Get the World to Eat Bugs?
- terhechte 15y agoI'd try it right away. I dig the idea and I wouldn't mind at all moving away from having to eat cattle. But what I didn't from the article get was, how is eating insects considered in line with the vegatarian mindset? Insects are living things, too, no?
- robin_reala 15y agoYeah, I didn’t get that bit. But then I don’t get why some vegetarians eat fish either.
- kristofferR 15y agoWell, plants are living things too ;) There are a couple of reasons why some vegetarions (pescetarians) eat fish and not other meat. The main one is health, since it is really difficult to get a healthy and varied diet, with enough protein and fat, through eating just plants. A lot of people also don't believe that fish suffers as much as other animals.
- Alex3917 15y agoI've had locusts. They're pretty good, especially panfried, but unfortunately people seem to be having trouble importing them into the US: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8176871 http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_fran... I don't think they can ever completely replace beef or pork, but the article was pretty dead on when they described them as something crunchy that could be added to fried rice or whatever.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- hesselink 15y ago> I wouldn't mind at all moving away from having to eat cattle. Who's forcing you to eat cattle?
- terhechte 15y agoIt's a matter of ease and usability. Go to any normal restaurant and the set of non-meat (read, tofu) is rather limited (read, none). Of course, I cook myself and I'm selective that I don't eat too much meat. But that's additional work. It would be great if non meat would be a more common part of the food industry. To make it easier to find / eat it. (Even the salad offerings are terrible, most of the time. The Mediterranean areas are pretty good at that, though).
- burgerbrain 15y ago"Go to any normal restaurant and the set of non-meat (read, tofu) is rather limited (read, none)" We must be in dramatically different parts of the world... I never really considered the east coast particularly good for that particular kind of variety either.. ..but I have no problem eating vegetarian most of the time.
- hesselink 15y agoHere (Netherlands) it's also not that bad, there's often a few sections on the menu: meat, fish, vegetarian. If you're lucky, they're of similar size. Supermarkets have a reasonable selection of meat substitutes, though I prefer to use cheese, mushrooms or nuts (and meat ;)) It does vary even more, now that you mention it: I remember San Jose in Costa Rica having many different vegan (not vegetarian) option.
- Ygor 15y agoDepends on the definition of the term vegetarian. You can go with the "no meat, but fish and bugs allowed" definiton? I wonder why do we, as humans, consider eating bugs strange, and why haven't they evolved as a regular part of the modern human diet? Is it only for historical reasons, social, or is it something physical or biological?
- kristofferR 15y ago"Humans" doesn't consider eating bugs strange, just us westerners do. The only reason for it is cultural. Eating bugs is very common around most of the world actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy
- danieldk 15y agoWell, I guess it depends on what particular mindset. I do not eat meat, because I think that most animals that are commonly eaten are sentient, and I believe intentionally killing sentient animals is wrong. The question of course is, what animals are sentient. I don't know. But I find it plausible that, say worms, are not really sentient. And from that perspective it's pretty ok to eat worms. Since I do not know where to draw the line, I play safe and avoid meat, but others would choose differently. Some of my friends are also vegetarians, not because they think killing animals is wrong, but because they believe animal farming has a negative impact on the environment. If insect farming does not have the same impact, it could be a reason for them to consider eating insects.
- randoom 15y agoI don't want to attack you or anything, just want to point out that no living thing wants to die. There is evidence that even plants have some form of sensation [1] [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15food.html?_r=2 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15food.html?_r=2
- sliverstorm 15y agoOf course living things don't want to die. But if you decide that all living things including plants deserve to not be eaten or harvested, your menu becomes incredibly short. I mean, you are not left with absolutely nothing to eat, but all you've got that I can think of is dairy, fruit and nuts. You could technically eat grains, but harvesting enough grain without killing the plant is difficult.
- noelwelsh 15y agoInteresting. I wonder how bugs stack up for heme-iron and the other nutrients (aside from protein) that one gets from red meat. It's diversity of nutrients, and the body's efficiency at absorbing them, that for me make the strongest case for an omnivorous diet. It's the environmental cost of raising animal protein that for me is the strongest argument for vegetarianism.
- stcredzero 15y agoDiversity is often overlooked when people think about diet. The longest lived populations also tend to have preserved a tremendous amount of diversity in their diet. Folks living in the hills of Sicily can sometimes incorporate material from several dozen different kinds of plants in a single meal. In contrast, it's not unusual for a North American to make a meal with corn, peas, potatoes, and some form of meat. That's between one or two orders of magnitude less diversity. I've tried purposely maximizing dietary diversity, and it seems to make a difference for me.
- xefer 15y agoNo
- ristretto 15y agoWhat happened to that project that would develop meat in vitro?
- bromley 15y agoHere's a fairly recent article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=inside-the-meat-lab http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=inside-the-... I'm a lot more enthused by the thought of petri-dish-grown steak than mealworm.
- mhb 15y agoThey're still working on it. Here's the first page of a New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_specter http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_...
- ck2 15y agoWe already eat bugs. You should see what's allowed to get into the ingredients by the FDA in food processing plants.
- onemoreact 15y agoThat's probably because it's heathly. People in rice-eating regions, for example, typically ingest significant numbers of rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) larvae, and this has been suggested as an important source of vitamins.[37] ... 3.1.2 Wheat flour shall be free from abnormal flavours, odours, and living insects. 3.1.3 Wheat flour shall be free from filth (impurities of animal origin, including dead insects) in amounts which may represent a hazard to human health. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's The Food Defect Action Levels booklet.[39] Contamination on the average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of wheat flour, or below poses no health hazard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy
- Someone 15y agoThat is contamination, but there also are additives where insects are added on purpose: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal is used to color lots of food red.
- btilly 15y agoIt is not always healthy. For instance it is suspected that the prevalence of peanut allergies is connected to the fact that stored peanuts usually have cockroach infestations. The FDA limit on acceptable levels are 30 insect parts per 100 grams. (See http://www.fda.gov/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidancedocuments/sanitation/ucm056174.htm http://www.fda.gov/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformat... for verification.)
- davedx 15y agoWageningen, that's down the road from where I live! I wonder if I could get a free sample...
- amalag 15y agoSo disgusting. There are millions of vegeterian options available. But as usual, get science involved and people make it more complicated.
- JoeAltmaier 15y agoI'm thinking vegetarian options are not necessarily more eco-friendly than this solution, which is 10-100 times more efficient than pigs. Factory-grown bugs take little room. The corn around here (I'm in Iowa) take up 96% of the land surface of the state. Organic vegetables take up - more ecosystem. More passes thru the field to baby them, more loss to insects etc so less yield. And they are labor-intensive so load them with the cost of raising the humans that tend them. Humans are Really eco-unfriendly, especially when used as laborers.
- cdcarter 15y agoHow much of that corn grown is for human consumption, and how much becomes cattle feed?
- thegoatrope 15y agoI vaguely remember it being some huge number, like 80%-90%? The rest of it goes to ethanol and high fructose corn syrup and other processing. I'm pretty sure the amount of corn that is grown for humans to eat as corn directly is (much?) less than 5%. A quick Google search showed roughly similar stats.
- nas 15y agoEthanol is now using about 40% of the US corn crop.
- JoeAltmaier 15y agoFunny thing, Pepsi is Iowa's largest customer.
- amalag 15y ago
- cageface 15y agoOver here in Asia people have been eating all kinds of bugs for years. A bowl of beetles with chili powder is a favorite bar snack in Thailand.
- jamesbritt 15y agoPlease tell me the beetles are already dead before being served.
- cageface 15y agoDefinitely. Generally fried and liberally seasoned. I haven't had the courage to try one myself yet.
- stuff4ben 15y agoWhy is it I have no problems eating shrimp or lobster, but the thought of insects disgusts me? Shrimp and lobster are crustaceans which are arthropods just like insects.
- ori_b 15y agoCulture.
- landhar 15y agoIndeed, that's the thought that got me to rationalize my disgust for tasting insects when I was living in Thailand. If I had no problem trying the spicy salad with live shrimps why should I think twice about eating the grilled grasshopers ? You can even extend this reasoning to most delicacies of the sea, clams and oysters don't look any better.
- StavrosK 15y agoThank you, I tell everyone how disgusting shrimp and lobster are (they're essentially sea cockroaches!) but they don't seem to mind.
- seanalltogether 15y agoBecause one provide a large continuous chunk of meat, and the other doesn't? Also are insects gutted or do you end up eating their entire intestinal track?
- raldi 15y agoClams, oysters, and mussels aren't gutted.
- pygy_ 15y ago... and neither are crustaceans. They're mollusks, and they're delicious when properly cooked (especially mussels, if you ever visit the north of France, Belgium or the Netherlands, you'll miss something if you don't try them). I find oysters disappointing though, especially for their high price. They're just textureless, wet salty things. French people also eat snails. With truckloads of garlic, to mask the dirt taste, they're quite nice to eat too.
- jules 15y ago> Crickets, for example, convert feed to body mass about twice as efficiently as pigs and five times as efficiently as cattle. So, with about the same efficiency as chicken. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio
- lobo_tuerto 15y agoWell, Mexico is a place where you can find places to eat insects fairly easily. Like "chapulines" (grasshopers)from Oaxaca. They are very crunchy and tasty. ;) The mexicas (from prehispanic era) used to have a variety of insects in their menu. Here you can find a table with a list of some of the species currently included in people's diet: http://entomologia.net/idolina.htm http://entomologia.net/idolina.htm It's in Spanish, but they have the scientific order and family name.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- patio11 15y agoPass the word: rich, cultured people eat lovely healthy organic DUTCH_HERE. This script has gotten people to eat cooked snails, raw fish, and various microbial infection byproducts before. They're only "bugs" if you're incompetent at marketing.
- phren0logy 15y agoPerhaps "land shrimp"? Seriously, I agree that putting the word "bugs" in the name of the products does not bode well for attracting any but the adventurous and novelty-seeking Americans/Europeans.
- patio11 15y agoEven worse, they're describing it as chicken nugget replacements: i.e. for those people who are too poor to buy McNuggets now you can get fat on BugNuggets. I'd have difficulty coming up with a less appealing narrative for food if I tried.
- burgerbrain 15y agoWhat do you suggest as affordable and practical sources of protein for poor people?
- patio11 15y agoAre we talking Africa poor or American poor? For Americans: beef, pork, chicken, fish, or anythig else. At the top of the list of problems poor Americans don't have: dang, poverty is greatly restricting my protein and calorie intake. For everybody else, seaweed, legumes, or whatever. You really don't need Western levels of protein consumption, as evidenced by e.g. it being a minuscule portion of the traditional diets of Non-Western nations without peacetime food problems, like, say, Japan. Plus after they're rich they can overconsume meat like we do. It practically defines being a rich country when your local poor people eat meat regularly.
- 15y ago
- stcredzero 15y agoIt should be relatively easy to both engineer completely controlled "farms" for growing insects and to selectively breed variants that are more suitable for food. We should be able to produce a creature that would be a great deal more palatable to the western palate as well as easier to process. Have you ever seen a wild strawberry or a wild carrot? Many examples of the former are little mean things whose entire surface is seed, and the latter can have the consistency of wood. (Sometimes fully domesticated carrots can have woody parts in the center.) In general, the domesticated versions of plants are an order of magnitude tastier than their wild ancestors, and a great deal of adaptation can be managed with animals as well. Insects, with their small size and short lifespans, should be even easier to domesticate, once we set our minds to it.
- icegreentea 15y agoWhile true, it's not -too- necessary. There's a pretty good set of insects that are already 'palpable to the western palate'. Grasshoppers/crickets when stir fried pretty much tastes like crunchy chicken (at least that's my 5 year old memory of it). Also, it's pretty clear that the 'western palate' is super open to change from social pressures. You guys seem to love raw fish now.
- sliverstorm 15y agosashimi does have the upside of still being fish, which westerners are used to.
- rmc 15y agoWe should be able to produce a creature that would be a great deal more palatable to the western palate as well as easier to process. The things about bugs that make them unpalatable to Western palates have very little to do with the physical aspects and food. It's all an image problem,.
- felxh 15y agoI'm curious to see how many people turn out to be allergic to insects. Again drawing the analogy to shellfish which are among the most common food allergens. This is not to say that eating insects is a bad idea in general, though.
- raldi 15y agoA piece of advice I learned in the publishing industry: When a headline ends in a question mark, and the question can be answered either "yes" or "no", it's never yes.
- nkurz 15y agoIt's interesting to note that this is not a new concept. I've long been enamored of Vincent Holt's 1885 "Why Not Eat Insects". It the work of a very earnest Victorian gentleman trying to figure out how best to deal with the protein needs of "the poor", leading to the conclusion that the upper class must lead the way by changing their attitude toward the consumption of insects: It is hard, very hard, to overcome the feelings that have been instilled into us from our youth upwards; but still I foresee the day when the slug will be as popular in England as its luscious namesake the Trepang, or sea-slug, is in China, and a dish of grasshoppers fried in butter as much relished by the English peasant as a similarly treated dish of locusts is by an Arab or Hottentot. There are many reasons why this is to be hoped for. Firstly, philosophy bids us neglect no wholesome source of food. Secondly, what a pleasant change from the labourer's unvarying meal of bread, lard, and bacon, or bread and lard without bacon, or bread without lard or bacon, would be a good dish of fried cockchafers or grasshoppers. "How the poor live!" Badly, I know; but they neglect wholesome foods, from a foolish prejudice which it should be the task of their betters, by their example, to overcome. Full text (with many recipes) online here: http://bugsandbeasts.com/whynoteatinsects/ http://bugsandbeasts.com/whynoteatinsects/
- sliverstorm 15y agoThe only argument that matters to me: 10 kilograms of feed will generate just 1kg of beef, 3kg of pork, and 5kg of chicken. It generates 9kg of locusts. And that is why we should be eating insects, end of story.
- WiseWeasel 15y agoNote that it also yields 10 kg of feed, which sounds more appealing to me than locusts. Unless these locust nuggets turn out to be the best tasting thing ever, I think I'll have my feed with a side of chicken, and leave the locusts to the more adventurous.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- adnam 15y agoDid the dutch get the world to eat Pannekoeke, Bitterballen, Haring or Uitsmijtern? Sadly not.
- zavulon 15y agoWhy did I click on this? I completely lost my appetite when reading this and some of the comments.
- Darmani 15y agoA few weeks ago, feeling adventurous, a few coworkers and I journeyed to midtown New York to try the grasshopper tacos at a Mexican restaurant. When mine arrived, I fearfully picked up a grasshopper and brought it to my tongue... ...and had to restrain myself from gobbling the rest up by the fistful. In less than a second, my opinion of grasshoppers had gone from "creepy" to "tasty." I expect most others won't be much harder to convince.
- Joakal 15y agoLobster were once seen as cockroaches, now the rich want them. So, anything's possible with enough marketing.