According to a WSJ piece from May 3rd (Crickets Crawl Onto The Menu, p, A12) it shouldn't be too long before the trillions of tons of edible insects on our planet become part of the normal human food menu. In Western nations, that is. It will also be a major step toward feeding the teeming billions (now past 8 billion, a milestone reached last November). As the article notes:
Besides, the aspiration of too many in the world to eat like Americans, beef burgers, Kobe steaks, fried chicken etc., simply isn't on. There just isn't enough water to support a meat- intensive diet. Bugs then, properly raised, would solve a huge problem facing the world.
A 2022 report in New Scientist (May 6, p. 12) made clear that swapping a typical American-European diet heavy on meats and dairy for insect protein (like the meal worm burger shown at top) could cut food-related greenhouse gases immensely. But the even bigger benefit would be to enhance water and land use by up to 80 percent. Water and land use that would otherwise go to supporting cattle, hogs, chickens etc.
Bajan biologist John Phillips (see image above) is a huge fan of insect food and has endorsed the mass use of crickets and such in Barbados. He believes altering human consumption of proteins to insects (which outweigh all of humanity) would be a godsend in terms of saving water in an ever drier future world. His favorite meal is fried Bajan crickets, as shown. As he pointed out to me in our last trip to Bim in April, 2019, "an optimized diets of insects" tapping those highest in bug protein like crickets and grasshoppers - could slice greenhouse emissions by 83%, water use by 84 % and land use by 87%. And as he notes, regarding the expected 'yuck' factor:
"The revulsion to eating insects is all in the head anyway. I could prepare a sumptuous dinner for you of just fried crickets and you'd wolf it down if I never told you exactly what you were eating."
Colorado kids checking out M&M coated cricket pie
And according to a Denver Post piece that featured these adventurous bug eaters, the kids were generally open-minded enough to try most offerings - but usually resorted to sniffing first. However, they universally turned down the worms with one kid yelping "I do NOT want to eat bugs!" adding she was a Vegan anyway.The WSJ piece (ibid.) also noted that in the EU now there is a massive experiment underway to introduce the creepy crawlers to citizens. In Switzerland, indeed, one chef (Olivier) has been touring schools and touting the benefits of bugs. Based on his efforts thus far, he insists:
“They are young, more open to novelty. At some point, if not tomorrow then later, they will include insects in their diet.”
But that may still be a hard sell among Americans, especially adults who've grown up with juicy burgers as well as hot dogs, slow cooked brisket and barbecued ribs. Even one expert (Basten Rabastens) the founder of the Paris-based 'Jimini's' is not too sanguine about adult consumption, noting:
"We haven’t had problems getting people to eat insects once. The real challenge for us is that this won’t be just one time, ticking the box ‘I’ve eaten insects’ like ‘I’ve gone skydiving.’ ”
He may be right, this despite the fact that insect eating (known as "entomophagy") dates as far back as Old Testament times. Currently, some two billion regularly partake of the critters - which provide a crucial source of nutrients according to the UN. (The global edible insect market last year was estimated at $424 million.) Still, as the WSJ article observes, companies struggle to find a mass audience in the West - especially the U.S. - the "yuck" factor being the main obstacle.
Let's also be clear the pandemic didn't help as the virus and insects were often conflated as "vermin". But sitting at home under lockdowns, most people were in no mood to consume bugs. The sheer misery of the pandemic made inevitable people would gorge on the classic comfort foods, including macaroni pie, fried chicken, burger and pizza. No apologies. "We're loked in and we're goinna gobble what we want, nbut not bugs!"
One huge step, at least in the EU, the European Commission has authorized cricket flour as a food ingredient. This move upset one French senator and farmer - Laurent Duplomb- who complained (WSJ, ibid.):
Meanwhile, as counterpoint, Noelle Gmür, head of sales and marketing at Essento, a Zurich-based startup that sells insect snacks logically asked:
"Why do you need a cow or a pig in between when you can just eat the insect itself?”
For his part, John Phillips promised me "the biggest, juiciest cricket burger" I've ever seen the next time we come to Barbados. When I asked him if he planned to market this novelty like he did his popular Bajan cou cou, e.g.
Cou Cou – the taste of BMEX (nationnews.com)
He stated that he needed more time to plan advertising to make it work. In the meantime I can hardly wait to try a new dish: fried crickets and cou cou.
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