4 ms·

> But don’t be too quick to attribute its failure to the “ick” factor that many > Westerners feel about bugs. I think this is a weird wording. I dont think yo

> But don’t be too quick to attribute its failure to the “ick” factor that many > Westerners feel about bugs. I think this is a weird wording. I dont think you need to limit the ick factor to "Westerners" There are an awful lot of people out there who would feel the "ick" factor. And even for some of those who do eat insects, they are specific insects, form specific places, prepared in traditional ways. Not a powder of insects

Hoasi 9mo ago
> I think this is a weird wording. I dont think you need to limit the ick factor to "Westerners" There are an awful lot of people out there who would feel the "ick" factor. Of course, this has nothing to do with “Westerners.” No one in their right mind would want farm animals to be fed insect powder. The fact that the company was allowed to operate and to receive massive funding is the real issue here.
- its-summertime 9mo ago
  > No one in their right mind would want farm animals to be fed insect powder. Why?
  - ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
    There aren't really any farm animals that eat insects. Mostly they eat tough grasses and plants, the kind of things that we can't eat.
- 317070 9mo ago
  Well, chickens tend to live off insects when you let them roam. I don't really see how insect powder would be worse than the flour they get now. You don't even need to turn the bugs into a powder.
  - fc417fc802 9mo ago
    Indeed we already feed them insects and we don't powder them. You can purchase bags of dried meal worms at the feed store. The carcasses are fully intact.
  - shtzvhdx 9mo ago
    To be fair, chickens can see and discriminate between insects before putting them in their mouths. Powdered insects preclude that. Likewise, cows would never eat a carcass cow, but as hamburger mixed with a lot of grass...
    - ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
      > To be fair, chickens can see (insects) Yes, they do that > and discriminate between insects Yeah, they do not do that. They also eat mice, which I guess came as quite a surprise to the cat that was stalking the mouse, although not half as much as to the mouse.
  - pajko 9mo ago
    Chickens eat anything they can. Sometimes including eggs and chicks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_poultry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_poultry
- close04 9mo ago
  For the longest time industrial and domestic livestock raising used to involve feed that included literally anything the animal would it. Free range birds today regularly eat worms and insects. Pigs were used as a sort of waste disposal system for anything they could digest, leading to a lot of health issues. Still nobody really cared beyond “I’ll cook it until it doesn’t kill me”, not the producers, not the consumers.
- Yokohiii 9mo ago
  I am pretty sure most people don't care how their steak made it's on their table.
  - shtzvhdx 9mo ago
    I think most people do care if it weren't very difficult, even illegal, to find out.
    - Der_Einzige 9mo ago
      There's a famous video of a bunch of kids seeing the nasty, vile process of creating chicken nuggets in front of them. At the end of the nasty process, the chicken nuggets are made and presented in front of the kids. After asking, "Who wants chicken nuggets?" all hands go up instantly. No, actually showing how the sausage is made does NOT stop people from wanting it. I honestly think that people like knowing how fake/cruel things are! People want the comically fake look and taste. See Mar-a-Lago face and its popularity. Hopefully AI or something can "engineer the human spirit" away from this horrible tendency. Related, Asians seem to love to take westerners absolute worst food and act like it's okay despite being absolute "food divas" otherwise. Asians (in their own countries) will unironically eat kraft singles on their ramen and use spam everywhere, while simultaneously gloating that "they only go out to eat for food that's hard to make at home" and lamenting about how disgusting fast food is. You won't win anything by trying to show people how gross food is. You think bugs are gross to people? Remember fear factor?
      - shtzvhdx 9mo ago
        Thats was Jamie Oliver, right? I really don't concede the point. Kids see food they aren't accustomed to eating blended together and fed to them by people they trust (Oliver is a celebrity in the UK). What they aren't seeing is the chicken eggs they're eating was laid by a hen that was shat on by the chicken above it while sitting on a bed made of the cadaver of the chicken that held the pen before it.
  - trimbo 9mo ago
    Steak is the meat that people pay the most attention to in this regard! People will pay hundreds of dollars for a few ounces of steak solely based on how the cow was raised and fed. For steak, I disagree with the article about stigma of eating bugs. Feeding cows bugs will save money, no doubt, and that might help cost on the low end of the beef market. Steak is a different thing though. A "bug-raised, bug-finished" steak would have to be incredible to overcome the stigma.

Hoasi 9mo ago

> I think this is a weird wording. I dont think you need to limit the ick factor to "Westerners" There are an awful lot of people out there who would feel the "ick" factor. Of course, this has nothing to do with “Westerners.” No one in their right mind would want farm animals to be fed insect powder. The fact that the company was allowed to operate and to receive massive funding is the real issue here.

its-summertime 9mo ago
> No one in their right mind would want farm animals to be fed insect powder. Why?
- ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
  There aren't really any farm animals that eat insects. Mostly they eat tough grasses and plants, the kind of things that we can't eat.
317070 9mo ago
Well, chickens tend to live off insects when you let them roam. I don't really see how insect powder would be worse than the flour they get now. You don't even need to turn the bugs into a powder.
- fc417fc802 9mo ago
  Indeed we already feed them insects and we don't powder them. You can purchase bags of dried meal worms at the feed store. The carcasses are fully intact.
- shtzvhdx 9mo ago
  To be fair, chickens can see and discriminate between insects before putting them in their mouths. Powdered insects preclude that. Likewise, cows would never eat a carcass cow, but as hamburger mixed with a lot of grass...
  - ErroneousBosh 9mo ago
    > To be fair, chickens can see (insects) Yes, they do that > and discriminate between insects Yeah, they do not do that. They also eat mice, which I guess came as quite a surprise to the cat that was stalking the mouse, although not half as much as to the mouse.
- pajko 9mo ago
  Chickens eat anything they can. Sometimes including eggs and chicks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_poultry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_in_poultry
close04 9mo ago
For the longest time industrial and domestic livestock raising used to involve feed that included literally anything the animal would it. Free range birds today regularly eat worms and insects. Pigs were used as a sort of waste disposal system for anything they could digest, leading to a lot of health issues. Still nobody really cared beyond “I’ll cook it until it doesn’t kill me”, not the producers, not the consumers.
Yokohiii 9mo ago
I am pretty sure most people don't care how their steak made it's on their table.
- shtzvhdx 9mo ago
  I think most people do care if it weren't very difficult, even illegal, to find out.
  - Der_Einzige 9mo ago
    There's a famous video of a bunch of kids seeing the nasty, vile process of creating chicken nuggets in front of them. At the end of the nasty process, the chicken nuggets are made and presented in front of the kids. After asking, "Who wants chicken nuggets?" all hands go up instantly. No, actually showing how the sausage is made does NOT stop people from wanting it. I honestly think that people like knowing how fake/cruel things are! People want the comically fake look and taste. See Mar-a-Lago face and its popularity. Hopefully AI or something can "engineer the human spirit" away from this horrible tendency. Related, Asians seem to love to take westerners absolute worst food and act like it's okay despite being absolute "food divas" otherwise. Asians (in their own countries) will unironically eat kraft singles on their ramen and use spam everywhere, while simultaneously gloating that "they only go out to eat for food that's hard to make at home" and lamenting about how disgusting fast food is. You won't win anything by trying to show people how gross food is. You think bugs are gross to people? Remember fear factor?
    - shtzvhdx 9mo ago
      Thats was Jamie Oliver, right? I really don't concede the point. Kids see food they aren't accustomed to eating blended together and fed to them by people they trust (Oliver is a celebrity in the UK). What they aren't seeing is the chicken eggs they're eating was laid by a hen that was shat on by the chicken above it while sitting on a bed made of the cadaver of the chicken that held the pen before it.
- trimbo 9mo ago
  Steak is the meat that people pay the most attention to in this regard! People will pay hundreds of dollars for a few ounces of steak solely based on how the cow was raised and fed. For steak, I disagree with the article about stigma of eating bugs. Feeding cows bugs will save money, no doubt, and that might help cost on the low end of the beef market. Steak is a different thing though. A "bug-raised, bug-finished" steak would have to be incredible to overcome the stigma.