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This kind of stuff faces the same problems as vegetable-based meat replacement products. While traditional vegetarian dishes like various bean dishes, Indian cu
by AlexandrB 6mo ago
This kind of stuff faces the same problems as vegetable-based meat replacement products. While traditional vegetarian dishes like various bean dishes, Indian curries, salads, etc. can be quite healthy and require minimal processing, meat substitute products like Beyond Meat are heavily processed. This means they're often not that healthy (containing a lot of salt and added fat) despite being technically vegan while also being expensive and requiring energy-intensive industrial food processing.
Based on the findings here:
> These emotional reactions were particularly prominent for unprocessed or visually apparent insect formats, reinforcing the view that entomophagy challenges deeply anchored cultural expectations about what constitutes acceptable food. Given this barrier, product formats that conceal or process insects can reduce sensory aversion and facilitate initial acceptance.
Any kind of "insect food" is likely to go the same way resulting in heavily processed products with added sugar, salt, and fat to make them palatable. Even then it's a really tough sell given all the "live in the pod, eat the bug" memes out there.
Finally, I struggle to see how insects would be a more economical source of protein than beans or processed foods derived from beans like Beyond Meat and various soy products.
- ravenstine 6mo agoIt's not even more economical than raising chickens. Just because raising relatively small batches of crickets uses less water per unit of protein (which isn't even necessarily a problem) doesn't mean that it's manageable at scale. Moreover, as you said, bugs have to taste good for people to want to eat them. I was into entomophagy way before it became this sort of thing in the 2020s. As much as I appreciate it from a curiosity standpoint, the truth is most bugs don't taste very good. I think there's maybe one insect that I thought was truly worth eating again (sphinx moth caterpillars). Supposedly bee drone larvae taste good but I've not had them. Neither of those can be scaled for mass food production. The rest of the bugs I've had either taste extremely earthy or like nothing. Civilization should just scale with how much food it can produce. The idea that food production should infinitely scale with civilization is backwards.
- nkrisc 6mo agoA civilization increasing food production to feed itself is civilization scaling with food production. There is no extrinsic food production with which civilization can scale. All food production is intrinsic to the civilization. All food must be produced by the civilization, either by gathering or farming or any other means.
- mc32 6mo agoWhat I don’t understand is why not push bug based foods on people who already eat bugs? Why push it on a population that hasn’t traditionally had overtly bug based diets? Populations that are used to some bugs would definitely be more receptive to having a heavier bug based diet.
- kibwen 6mo agoLobster and crab are both just as much a bug as a tarantula is, so the same reason that the seafood industry pushed lobster and crab into mainstream acceptance: profit.
- ravenstine 6mo agoThey were more or less remarketed as a luxury, though. Historically (at least in the US), lobster and crab were considered low class foods, if not outright fertilizer for crops. Some terrestrial bug could theoretically be given the same sort of luxury status, but lobsters have the advantage of actually tasting good. The best candidates would be snails and bee drone larvae. But what would be the point? Neither could be farmed at such a scale that they could be made food staples that are also better for the environment.
- mc32 6mo agoSure. But… why not push these foods on a population that is currently used to eating some bugs rather than one that only accidentally or unknowingly ingest them? Like there are areas of the world where insects are a thing. And the US isn’t one of them.
- 6mo ago