{"id":9911,"date":"2014-11-11T06:30:09","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2014-11-25T20:26:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T04:26:24","slug":"entomophagical-entrees-insects-are-the-next-big-food-revolution-if-we-can-stomach-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2014\/11\/11\/entomophagical-entrees-insects-are-the-next-big-food-revolution-if-we-can-stomach-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Entomophagical entrees: Insects are the next big food revolution… if we can stomach them"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0tried them for the first time just the other day.<\/p>\n

Some might call me a brave pioneer, but it was simply a matter of doing my duty. It was shocking how calm I felt. There was little to no adrenaline; there was no fear. I wasn\u2019t even phased by my onlookers, cringing in horror.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t hesitate… I put the worms in my mouth and chewed.<\/p>\n

They were extra crunchy and I could feel them getting lodged in my teeth like poppy seeds. It was the first time I had ever thought of them as food. Crickets, ants, some kind of weird grub: I tried them all.<\/p>\n

They went down easy. Delicious.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0046<\/a>
(Photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Protein is important. Humans are omnivores, and we can benefit from the essential amino acids that are most easily absorbed from meat proteins. Nonetheless, the amount of meat North Americans are consuming is almost as large as the average waistband.<\/p>\n

This is not a hidden fact: people have known this for years. It\u2019s just in the past couple decades that more people have started to care, and this has brought about a great search for alternatives.<\/p>\n

The average North American consumes just shy of 200 pounds of meat a year, an amount which many educators and activists think is way too high.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a tremendous amount, and we\u2019re actually realizing now that we are not designed to support that level of meat consumption. It\u2019s really hard on our hearts and it\u2019s hard on our health,\u201d explains Nicole Kilburn, an anthropology teacher at Camosun.<\/p>\n

But what if there were a protein alternative out there that few of us in North America have even considered? They\u2019re creepy and crawly, but they actually taste pretty good. We\u2019re talking about bugs, of course!<\/p>\n

\u201cInsect protein has all sorts of things going for it, but one of them is the nutrition piece,\u201d explains Kilburn. \u201cIt\u2019s a much healthier source of protein for the human body. Insects are low-fat and really high in protein, iron, and calcium.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, to many, may sound like something so farfetched that they have never deigned to consider it, but entomophagy, or the consumption of insects, is no phenomenon to most of the world. Despite its massive popularity around the planet, Western culture has labelled the activity of eating insects taboo. This may have been satisfactory in the past, but with the food problems of today it\u2019s unlikely that the label will stand for very long.<\/p>\n

And although it\u2019s quite likely that someday bugs might be a staple of the North American kitchen, Kilburn suggests our ignorance of this possible food source is because of a very practical reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of reasons why western culture doesn\u2019t eat insects is because of geography,\u201d she says. \u201cThere simply aren\u2019t an awful lot of big, plentiful insects for us to traditionally have consumed. Though shellfish have been a really important part of the diet in coastal communities for a long time, and things like shrimp and prawns are actually so similar to crickets and grasshoppers that if you have an allergy to one, you probably have an allergy to the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though there are some who choose not to eat shellfish, there are many who eat it without a second thought. The question then arises, if they are so similar, why one and not the other? It all comes down to point of reference. There are many cultures that look at some of our food traditions and gag, after all.<\/p>\n

Culture shocker<\/b><\/p>\n

Kilburn suggests that the ew factor of eating bugs is just a response to something that we\u2019re not used to yet, but that it\u2019s no different than some of the other animal products in most North Americans\u2019 diets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s normalized that in North America you consume a lot of milk and you don\u2019t necessarily think about that,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cI had a professor at the University of Colorado who did some work in South America. She recollects telling people about drinking milk and they were dry heaving. What they said was, \u2018Let me get this straight. You actually drink the bodily secretions from another animal\u2019s giant sweat gland. You drink something that comes out of this other species?\u2019 And when it\u2019s put like that, you think, \u2018Wow, that is a bit odd.\u2019 Yet we have completely normalized it, and it\u2019s something that we celebrate and have identified as part of a normal diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

This same idea applies to western culture in many ways. In Scotland, they eat haggis, and there are many here who find that gross. Sheeps\u2019 eyes, frogs\u2019 legs, snake soup, and snails are all foods that are eaten without gagging in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

But here we have decided that those foods are unpleasant without so much as tasting a morsel. Kilburn puts it well when she says that we have determined what is edible based more on culture than on our taste buds.<\/p>\n

Insects have long been an important part of food cultures from around the world, she says. While it\u2019s certainly very foreign to modern western diets, there are over 2,000 species of edible insects that have been consumed in 80 percent of the world\u2019s cultures. We are, in fact, the outsiders when it comes to bug consumption. Perhaps the time has come for our culture to reconsider its present position?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are starting to realize that our affluence is unsustainable in so many ways. Our consumption pattern of all of the resources on this planet, whether it\u2019s making cheap clothing, fuelling our vehicles, the way that we use water, the way that we waste food, or the way that we bring food in from all over the world, is incredibly difficult on our environment,\u201d explains Kilburn. \u201cThere was a report that came out last month that identified that if all humans lived the way that North Americans do we would need the equivalent of four planets to be able to support our demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eat bugs and save<\/b><\/p>\n

Consuming insect protein offsets demands in other parts of the ecosystem. If one consumes insect protein, they are placing less demand on other sources of traditional protein.<\/p>\n

Next Millennium Farms, a government-inspected insect farm located in Ontario, has found that if a family of four ate insect protein one day a week, in the course of a year that family could save 650,000 litres of water, just from one meal out of seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur traditional sources of protein, particularly cattle, are incredibly hard on the environment. They use tons of acreage, huge amounts of water, lots of fossil fuel inputs in terms of feed, and fertilizer for that feed, and their nutrient conversion isn\u2019t great. Cows are kind of the SUVs of our food system,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cInsects, on the other hand, are environmentally sustainable. They\u2019re swarming creatures, so you can grow them in very large densities without taking up a huge amount of space, and it\u2019s still humane. They use a fraction of the amount of water, they produce a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions, and they don\u2019t produce ammonia or methane, which contribute to the degradation of soils and dead zones in the oceans. So insects have the environmental argument sewn up, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(Photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only do crickets require a fraction of the inputs of large protein sources, but their ability to multiply is amazing. A female cricket can produce more offspring than a cow or chicken, and they then mature within four to six weeks. With a turnaround that high, crickets are set to provide a healthy, environmentally sustainable source of protein for the hungry masses. This option couldn\u2019t have appeared soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there are many people of my generation and younger that are thinking much more critically about our impact on the planet,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cStarting to think about how they address climate change, soil degradation, deforestation, there\u2019s an awakening that is happening. Part of the reason that I wanted to get involved is that there needs to be a viable option. It\u2019s really hard to tell students about all of the terrible things that are happening that we as human beings have a hand in, and not having a viable alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next generation of farms<\/b><\/p>\n

Luckily, the upswing in insect-protein-related interest in the past few years has presented an alternative for at least some of those problems.<\/p>\n

Next Millenium saw this as an opportunity to go from mainly providing crickets for the reptile trade to providing insects for human consumption. After moving to a 5,000-square-foot industrial property and advancing some of the technology associated with the raising and processing of insects, they began selling to the public. Though the going was slower at first, business picked up, and Jarrod Goldin, one of the farm\u2019s founders, says that sales this most recent month were 164 times the sales of six months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say the curve is beginning to slacken now, but that\u2019s simply because we are reaching our capacity,\u201d says Goldin. \u201cWe are in the process of raising funds, of getting a significant investment that will allow us to really try and expand our company and grow into some of the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a kind of pioneer in a new field of production has created some unique opportunities for Next Millennium. Not only have the sales of product been phenomenal, but they have also received lots of interest from others who would like to use their technology to start their own farms.<\/p>\n

Though the crickets, mealworms, and other varieties of bugs raised by the farm are considered livestock, Goldin says that they have little in common with beef or pork.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s far more akin to corn than meat because meats don\u2019t have the same pharmaceutical applications or industrial applications,\u201d he says. \u201cThis commodity, and I think it will be traded on the stock market like orange juice and coffee, is much more like corn in the sense that corn\u2019s industrial. They are looking into using chitin [found in insects\u2019 exoskeletons] when they paint the inside of oil tankers, because it acts as an anti-corrosive. There are applications in wound-healing with band-aids made out of chitin, and on people who get massive wounds that are difficult to stitch. There are pharmaceutical applications for shampoos, or shampoos for dogs\u2019 coats, or B12 extraction for B12 pills, and that\u2019s just to name a few. Obviously the adoption in those different areas will be hard to predict, but I can tell you with the internet, social media, the issues with food transparency, and people learning about where their food comes from, this as a source of nutrition is very attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verrry interesting<\/b><\/p>\n

And the interest in bug consumption does seem to be there, but at the moment the market has problems with education and accessibility. Either most people are unaware of the benefits of insect protein, or they simply don\u2019t have the means to obtain any bugs for the dinner table. Time will be the biggest factor in both cases as word gets out and more farms begin to appear. In the meantime, those who are educated in the matter seem very willing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would consider eating insects as a good form of protein,\u201d says Sarah Lindsay, a Camosun student in the second year of the accounting program. \u201cThey are animals, there\u2019s lots of them, so a ready supply. Though it\u2019s not my first choice, as I like the fleshy texture of chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she\u2019s still a bit weirded out by the prospect of eating bugs, Lindsay realizes that it\u2019s probably just a case of mind over matter, and that insect consumption is no different from eating other kinds of animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve grown up being told that eating insects is not the norm, and so I find the idea slightly repulsive,\u201d says Lindsay. \u201cWhich makes me sad, because I feel like I\u2019m missing out on some great opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even those who wouldn\u2019t personally eat bugs seem to see it as a cultural possibility. Hayley Langdon, a Camosun student in office administration, says that if she wasn\u2019t a vegetarian and did, in fact, eat meat, she would likely try eating insects, as they\u2019re not really different from other animals.<\/p>\n

Kilburn suggests that the easiest way for people to adapt to eating bugs is simply to take the plunge and try it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCooking crickets was quite an adrenaline rush,\u201d she says, \u201cand it was quite hard the first time. What was amazing was that once it became food, it was just fine, and once you get it past your mouth you can think about it in a very different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live and learn<\/b><\/p>\n

The transition from creepy crawly to actual food will be one of the hardest parts of the adoption of insect protein into people\u2019s diets. Kilburn says that education about the benefits of bug consumption is critical, so from 7 to 9 pm on Wednesday, November 26 in Young 300 on the Lansdowne campus, students from Anthropology 204, a Camosun course on the anthropology of food, will be doing a public education event to promote a conversation about insect protein as a sustainable component of food in the future (tickets, $8, can be purchased from Kilburn).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be samples, and each student is going to do either an interactive poster or a booth,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cIt\u2019ll be set up so you move from booth to booth and learn about the different element of insect protein, whether it\u2019s how to do micro livestock rearing in your own home, what the introduction is going to look like, comparing and contrasting what the product is going to look like, or talking about the psychology of introducing a taboo food into the Western diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u201cpestival\u201d will provide a unique chance that has so far been unavailable in our corner of the globe. Millennium Farms and a company called Tiny Farms out of California have generously provided plenty of content to help introduce the public to a wide variety of insect-related products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be as diverse as possible with lots of opportunities for people to try it out,\u201d says Kilburn. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun. We\u2019re hoping it will be a really robust blend of students and members of the public that want to learn about new sources of protein.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the planet\u2019s sake<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entomophagy movement is here to stay. Some have estimated that within the next five years people will be consuming insects on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Emily Pendergraft, manager of the Victoria Bug Zoo, suggests that everyone will soon see the benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a vegetarian. I\u2019ve been one since I was born, so the only meat I\u2019ve ever eaten is bugs. And I actually accept that because it\u2019s better for the planet and is a better source of protein for our bodies,\u201d says Pendergraft.<\/p>\n

The bug zoo has been open for nearly 18 years, but it\u2019s only in recent times that Pendergraft has really seen people considering insects as a viable food option. Though they stock many novelty items, including energy bars made of crickets, she can\u2019t wait to stock more insect protein products. At this point, it\u2019s really only a question of finding more suppliers, then waiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do get a lot of people who are very interested in it, and interested in the cookbooks we sell and that sort of thing. But a lot of people can\u2019t believe it, actually. It\u2019s very strange. A lot of people just don\u2019t understand that you can eat bugs, so we\u2019re trying to change that,\u201d says Pendergraft. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone was talking about it 10 years ago, and if they were I don\u2019t think anyone was listening. Now people are actually listening. I hope that North America gets on board, for the planet\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The writer putting his bugs where his mouth is (photo by Jill Westby\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But… how do they taste?<\/b><\/p>\n

At a recent taste test in the Nexus<\/i> offices, I tried three different types of insects. To help give a better idea of what exactly it\u2019s like to eat insects, here are my tasting notes.<\/p>\n

Mealworms<\/b><\/p>\n

The mealworms were super tasty. They were seasoned a bit, but underneath you could really taste a kind of nice, nutty flavour. I\u2019m told they go nicely on tacos (seriously!).<\/p>\n

Ants<\/b><\/p>\n

The ants I didn\u2019t like so much, because I\u2019m terrified of ants, and their texture was a little bit stranger. Despite that, they did taste kind of lemony, which wasn\u2019t half bad.<\/p>\n

Crickets<\/b><\/p>\n

I also had a cookie that had cricket powder added to it, which can be thought of as a kind of protein powder. It mostly tasted like a cookie, but there was kind of that same nuttiness underneath, which, if anything, added to the flavour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0tried them for the first time just the other day. Some might call me a brave pioneer, but it was simply a matter of doing my duty. It was shocking how calm I felt. There was little to no adrenaline; there was no fear. I wasn\u2019t even phased by my onlookers, cringing in horror. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-november-12-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9915,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/9915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}