I was listening to KPCC radio the other day and a story came on that nearly made me gag. The Europe Commission is offering a 4.3 million dollar prize to anyone who comes up with the best tasting recipe using insects as a meat substitute. What? Bugs??? I have seen people eat barbecued grasshoppers on a few episodes of Survivor, but adding them to the American Food Pyramid?
According to the guys at the World watch Institute, our planet is about to get real crowded; 7 billion people kinda crowded. We are also having an issue with water. We don’t have as much as we used to and ranchers need water for their livestock. If they can’t afford water for their livestock, they won’t raise as many and the price of meat will skyrocket. So somebody came up with the bright idea to eat creepy crawlies. The only problem seems to be is persuading Americans and Europeans that insects are the new beef. I am so glad I am vegan!
I was driving my car when I heard the NPR story, so when I got home, I looked on the web to see if there were more stories about insects as food and boy was I surprised! I even found a Food Insect Monthly Newsletter! http://www.foodinsectsnewsletter.org/ This is their vision statement as listed on the top of their homepage:
” To make this web site the most important source in the world for useful information about the sustainability, and the economic and nutritional value of using insects as food for humans and other animals.”
I shutter to think what their annual conventioneers must look like! Probably a scene right out of some Gary Larson comic strip. What about requirements for labeling insects as an ingredient in processed foods? Will insects fall under the “all natural” catagory? We already know how mega corporations feel about having to label their GMO ingredients, will this be handled the same way? Will the price of grasshoppers go up? Could PetSmart become a supermarket for humans as well? They already sell crickets. Will “There is a fly in my soup” be the soup of the day?
According to the Huffington Post , people in Oaxaca, Mexico have been eating crickett and grasshopper tacos for years!
Food entrepanur, George Sandefur dreamed up the idea of a food truck specializing in bugs called, Jungle George’s Exotic Meats and Bugs. He sold 23,000 maggots at the Colorado State Fair in 2011. One of his young customers said his maggot sandwhich was “Good stuff. It tastes like crackers and cheese.” That just gave me another reason why I don’t go to State Fairs.
Selling maggots as food is USDA approved and the UK Food Standards agency says that insects are lower in fat than beef or pork. Will they meet the strict guidelines of Hallal and Kosher? Will biotech jump in and create bigger, fatter bugs, maybe 1/4 pounders? The UK and Dutch government have been looking into the feasability of insect farms for over a year. Actually Viet Nam already does. But who needs farms? We should be able to just go outside with a mason jar and catch our own dinner. Wild always taste better than farmed, when it comes to salmon. Why not insects?
As for me, I don’t care how you dress up a cockroach, grasshopper, cricket, or whatever. I ain’t eating it. I lived in Miami for 5 years and keeping cockroaches and flying Plametto bugs out of my kitchen was a daily battle. It never occured to me to eat one as a snack.
I get it. There are too many of us humans crowding out other species on this planet. I suggest instead of bugs, we get a handle on birth control, because feeding all of us won’t be the only issue. What about disease? Air quality? Climate change? I know there those who believe its their God given right to have as many babies as they want. I disagree. The planet is too crowded already by a few million so why not encourage birth control? If we won’t do it, Mother Nature will, and serving Cricket Helper won’t do anything to stop it.
Not to loose anyone their lunch, but coincidentally this item was online Tuesday-
(CNN) — A 32-year-old man downed dozens of roaches and worms to win a python at a Florida reptile store, then collapsed and died outside minutes later.
Edward Archbold was among 20 to 30 contestants participating in Friday night’s “Midnight Madness” event at Ben Siegel Reptiles in Deerfield Beach, authorities said.
The participants’ goal: consume as many insects and worms as they could to take home a $850 python.
Archbold swallowed roach after roach, worm after worm. While the store didn’t say exactly how many Archbold consumed, the owner told CNN affiliate WPLG that he was “the life of the party.”
“He really made our night more fun,” Ben Siegel told the station.
Soon after the contest was over, Archbold fell ill and began to vomit, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
A friend called for medical help. Then, Archbold himself dialed 911, the store said in a Facebook post.
Eventually, he fell to the ground outside the store, the sheriff’s office said. An ambulance took him to North Broward Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and are awaiting test results to determine the cause of his death.
No other contestant fell ill, the sheriff’s office said.
Back for more research?
.
I am sure there will be some people who will try the ‘new meat’, but I don’t know if they will want to eat as a main staple
Will we see a future release that shipments of “Maggot and Cricket Delite” are being recalled due to contamination with BEEF?
LOL!