This may a little gross, but hear me out. Insect Farming. I know the topic alone makes many uncomfortable, so I’ll refrain from including any pictures. There are a lot of benefits to this & is way more efficient than the ways we are doing this right now. Entomophagy, the eating of insects, is something the rest of the world has been doing for centuries. This is just another way the Western world is falling behind. And this is from bugs even.
From a health viewpoint, “Although bugs are higher in sodium, studies have shown that, gram for gram, they are healthier than meat, lower in saturated fat, and high in nutrients,” said Amy Shapiro , M.S., R.D., C.D.N., founder of Real Nutrition in New York City. It was also found that cricks have higher levels of iron, calcium, and magnesium than beef. Additionally, the it was found that the copper, zinc, manganese, magnesium, and calcium in crickets, grasshoppers, and mealworms were more readily available for absorption than the same nutrients in beef. And since insects contain way more protein for kilogram than beef, for a much lower cost to everyone, why not give it a try?
According to the paper, titled “Bioconversion of organic wastes into biodiesel and animal feed via insect farming” from the University of Hawaii, about ⅓ of all food produced for human consumption is wasted worldwide. Traditional means of food production, meat or vegetable, are costly, especially land and energy wise. Insect farms have been shown to just simply take all of the food waste lying around, feed them to bugs, and produce nutritious biomaterial for us to use. They don’t need wide swaths of land to grow & we all know how quickly they reproduce. It is only the “gross” factor that is stopping us.
From a cultural perspective, it is only Western cultures that consider insects as gross and soles as pests. And even then, there are pockets of the US where that is changing. For example, the Seattle Mariners, a professional baseball team in Seattle, Washington, have been serving toasted grasshoppers with chili, lime, & salt since early 2017 with extreme levels of success. The concession stands have actually been known to run out of the thousands of critters they stockpile for each game by the 2nd inning. All the research points to insects being a much better source of protein. We just have to join the rest of the world and acknowledge that. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. It doesn’t have to be a cockroach or spider. It can just be some grasshoppers or crickets that people across the coasts have been embracing.
Source:
- Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collection and marketing in Thailand http://affia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2013-FAO-Six-Legged-Livestock-Thailand.pdf
- Bioconversion of organic wastes into biodiesel and animal feed via insect farming https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148116302063
- A Side of Grasshoppers (An ESPN article about the Seattle Mariners offering spiced grasshoppers as a snack during this games) http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/22946221/at-seattle-mariners-games-grasshoppers-favorite-snack
Science & the Public Intellectual 
Really interesting article. It’s really mindboggling to think about how 1/3 of food produced is being wasted. Although I’m vegetarian, I do think meat eaters could help improve our food waste by switching to an insect-based diet. However, there are cultural preconceived notions in our society that insects are not meant to be eaten; therefore, I feel like most people will not be able to bypass those negative connotations for the sake of decreasing our food waste. Would you?
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This was an entertaining read! I agree with pretty much everything you said. The Western World truly needs to figure out ways of incorporating insects into its diet. I believe the most significant barrier to getting people to try this new cuisine is its texture. The crunchy exoskeleton is a significantly large turn off to people who have been raised exclusively eating creatures with soft exteriors. A lot of westerners have difficulty eating certain seafood for this very reason, despite these dishes being popular items within the culture.
I enjoy eating crab meat yet the thought of eating its shell disgusts me. People commonly prepare insects with their hard shells still attached. I am open to trying bug, but seeing the shell will be challenging to overcome. The problem of the whole insect can probably be overcome by processing them into a flour-like powder. I use cricket based protein mix as well as flour in this way. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good protein source.
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Such an interesting concept! I like that you acknowledged that people are hesitant to insect farming because Western culture thinks it’s “gross” but if the farm are structurally kept, the surrounding population wouldn’t be affected, just benefitted! I wonder, what cultures embrace insects and not shy away from their “gross” stigma?
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