Insect foods were infamously featured on NPR several times before the same outlet ran a story insisting that nobody was pushing insect foods. But insofar as we

Insect foods were infamously featured on NPR several times before the same outlet ran a story insisting that nobody was pushing insect foods. But insofar as we are discussing insect products, silk, shellac and resilin continue to be excellent functional materials, and avoided by almost nobody. And who can forget honey? But the likely motivation for the "insects as edible protein" stories always struck me as investor-focused PR for insect farming companies and not real consumer market positioning. For one thing, practically no products were mentioned that are on shelves, except for "cricket powder", but the real money is not in selling ingredients. In reality, insects are still expensive, and the protein quality is disappointing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCAAS#Example_values http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCAAS#Example_values ^ has caterpillars at 0.77 and crickets at 0.69, comparing unfavorably with legumes, cashews, quinoa etc. Silkworm pupae score very well, but silkworms have been cultivated since forever and remain expensive. For convincing the greater fool that you can generate returns with a cricket farming security, though, a few NPR articles about insect food need not be specific or correct.