Are You Ready to Eat Insects?

In a way, this article’s headline is a bit silly; eating insects has always been a big part of the human story. (If it wasn’t, who would have ever had the idea to try crawfish?) But it hasn’t caught on in the high-production, high-consumption context of industrialized nations, and if it does, it just might save the world. That’s only a very slight exaggeration.

In this PBS NewsHour piece, veteran journalist Spencer Michaels follows entomophagists Monica Martinez, Brian Fisher, Florence Dunkel, and Daniella Martin. And by the time they describe why they eat insects (and why they think the rest of us should consider it), it’s hard to rationally disagree with them (especially when the worst thing Martinez’s customers have to say about grubworms is that they’re too bland):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsntjGF8eV0

Earlier this month, the charming Big Cricket Farms took the entomophagy movement a step further by successfully funding a Kickstarter campaign to mass-produce cookies and “chirps” (tortilla-style cricket chips) made from cricket flour, which is exactly what it sounds like. The products are high-protein, relatively low-carb, and apparently still taste a little bit like crickets, which is by most accounts not at all a terrible thing, once you get used to it.