Chow Down on Insects to Help the Environment
May 12, 2008 · Print This Article
Doesn’t the sound and texture of insect exoskeletons being crushed between your teeth make your stomach growl? Especially when their crispy outsides break open and you get that gush of mushy innards all over the inside of your mouth. Some people describe the grayish, greasy meat of the giant water bug as “perfumey, tastes like salty apples”.
Sorry if I just ruined your lunch, but, eating insects is being called a great new way to help the environment. David Gracer, a composition teacher at a Rhode Island community college, has made it his goal to persuade Americans to eat insects in an attempt to “shake up how we all think about our food supply”.
Discover Magazine has it:
Gracer wants people to move away from getting their protein from traditional livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens because raising livestock has a huge negative impact on the environment, regardless of whether the animals belong to subsistence farmers in developing countries or a Western industrial conglomerate (see “Warning: Contains Pork By-Products,” page 40). A United Nations report released in 2006 calls the livestock sector “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” The report notes that, among other adverse impacts, livestock production is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. (That’s more than what is produced by transportation worldwide.) And the problem is only going to grow, with global production of meat reaching 465 million tons by 2050, double the amount produced in 2000.
Other benefits of insect eating include the fact that raising them has a low impact on the environment, and that they’re low in fat. Somehow, though, I can’t see even the poorest of the poor in America being desperate enough to bite into a cockroach patty sandwich. Considering that America has a narrow view of what is deemed acceptable to eat, broadening our horizons enough to include insects on the menu is probably no more than a pipe dream. More power to those who can stomach it!
Link [Discover Magazine]
Photo credit: Flickr user Barnaby
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Nasty!! I know there are cultures that eat those critters, but leave me out of it.
But seriously, what’s the difference between crayfish and this? Or even Shrimp? They are just water-based creepy crawly things.
Yeah I know, I think of shrimp & lobster as water bugs. Shrimp is one of the things that drove me to be vegetarian when I was 12 - watching people eat that little line of poop or whatever it is that goes down its back! Gag! I come from a family of New York/Massachusetts seafood eaters, and it’s hard to watch sometimes.
He he he! Omnivorism is so simple. I eat food. I have a try-it-once strategy to food. If it’s terrible, I don’t eat it again. So far the failures include raw oyster and portobello mushrooms (vegetarian steak my pale behind!). Surprise winners are shitake mushrooms and fish sauce. Same applies here. Besides, stir fried in sesame oil or such, I bet most small arthropods make a delightfully crunchy snack.
I get what you mean Roy, and totally agree with that… I just can’t bring myself to actually eat bugs. For a girl I’m actually not too squeamish about bugs - I garden with my bare hands at times and dig up some weird looking creatures - but I just can’t fathom eating them unless I were totally desperate. I would rather eat weeds (many of which do have great nutritional value, like dandelions!)