Eating insects: save the planet and munch a moth

by amyjudd | June 4, 2008 at 12:34 pm

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As food prices continue to rise, and the world gets hotter, we as humans need to find more ways to conserve our planet and help our species adapt.
Well, eating insects could be the answer.
I don't know if I could do it, but I know in some countries, it's not unusual to tuck into a grasshopper or two.
I would think I was on an episode of Fear Factor all the time though!

Scientists from Mexico, where grasshoppers are sold by the pound, have reported that the human consumption of creepy-crawlies could "contribute to sustainable development" because cultivating the small invertebrate would require forests to be preserved rather than felled and, furthermore, would also reduce the world consumption of meat.

While we must applaud these singular findings by the researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico - which also unearthed the fact that 1,700 species of bug are eaten in at least 113 countries across the globe - it should be noted that a solitary Englishman came to a remarkably similar conclusion some 120 years earlier.

In 1885 the entomologist Vincent M Holt published his only known work, entitled 'Why Not Eat Insects?' His skinny book, which included a comprehensive history of those who had feasted on the winged and multi-legged creatures, made the then radical proposal that insects should supplement the diet of the English peasant.

"How can the farmer most successfully battle with the insect devourers of his crops?" wrote Holt. "I suggest they be collected by the poor as food, thus pleasantly and wholesomely varying their present diet while, at the same time, conferring a great benefit on the agricultural world."

Like I said, this is not a new idea, but it was being pushed this week in the UK as the answer to our problems.

This enthusiasm extolling the epicurean delights of insects was not new. The book claimed that Moses encouraged the people of Israel to eat locusts, beetles and grasshoppers (Leviticus, Chapter XI, Verse 22); Aristotle wrote that the "most polished of Greeks enjoyed cicadas"; while "Aelian tells us that in his time an Indian king served up as dessert a dish of roasted grubs".

The Romans fattened the larvae of the stag beetle for the table; the French astronomer Jerome Lalande spread spiders on bread, while the author of The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin, declared the larvae of the sphinx moth "delicious".

Since the publication of Holt's book, 20th-century scientists subsequently discovered that insects are the equal of shellfish in providing high-quality protein and are an excellent source of nutrients such as iron, calcium and vitamin B.

Their nutritious worth is proven by the Australian Aborigines, who still feast on bogong moths, witchetty grubs and the honeybag bee. Meanwhile, Japanese restaurants serve boiled wasp larvae, Nigerians eat roast termites (and even have termite stock cubes), and dragonflies are chucked on the barbie in Bali.

Closer to home, chef Lars Scheuble at the Soda restaurant in Berlin offers his customers cockroach pasta and sautéed maggots with green leaves.

Yeah, I don't know about that....

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Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:48 on June 4th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. Okay, this story Amy is seriously creepin me out.

sweet east pearl

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:51 on June 4th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

But for myself....i'd rather eat grass than insects...yiakkss..

drLisica

at 06:13 on June 5th, 2008

Well, as a person who has eaten ants several times... They are totally OK. Especially in north Thailand where the "main" ant dish is veeery spicy so you don't taste anything :)

KyleTombstone

at 07:11 on June 5th, 2008

I've had the Mexican grasshoppers. They're called chapulines and are found in the southern region of the country, collected from the wild by farmers. They're served fried with lemon juice and chili salt and are delicious. They taste sort of like beef jerky. The only drawback is that they are known to have a high lead content, and that the little legs get stuck in your teeth.

AK 47

at 08:05 on June 5th, 2008

Forget episodes of Fear Factor... Welcome to China... I had heard of all kinds of insects being eaten by the chinese... but I was in Beijing in Dec last year to actually see it all infront of my eye. Grasshoppers, scorpions, seahorse, silkworm, etc. Place 4-5 of them on a skewer, dip them in a very very hot oil (everything gets cooked in probabbly a second or two), pour some spicy mix on top and you are ready to go.
What you see in the pic is the street food stall in the busy Wangfujing area of Beijing at 7pm in the evening... atleast 100 such stalled neatly lined up in a row (not all of them selling insects though).

AK 47 has contributed a photo to this story.

makrokrenki

at 08:12 on June 5th, 2008

I made this photo on a little cherry tree during sunset. enjoy!

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matiasromero

at 08:35 on June 5th, 2008

I've eaten ants, more for the fact I was lazy enough not to get them out of my loaf of bread before eating it than for anything else (I don't think that counts). Looking at the You Tube young communtity, I see people are not only eating insects in the West (and frogs as well) but also eating them alive! :o

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asdasd123123123

at 08:36 on June 5th, 2008

Here are a variety of fried insects found in beijing... I didn't have gut to try them out first even I am a Chinese but after seeing some foreigners eating a few, I tried too... actually they all taste the same - crispy and salty. They were super deep fried so they simply turned into salt dust. If you have a chance to try next time, don't be afraid!

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carlitus91

at 09:32 on June 5th, 2008

Miomantis paykulli, adult female eating adult female of Bombyx mori.

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pinke.thinks

at 09:50 on June 5th, 2008

My concern would be that uncontrolled human predation on insects would disrupt the important role insects play in pollination and insect predation on other insects.

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szueechen

at 11:02 on June 5th, 2008

For 50 baht (about $1.67 US) you can buy a bag of fried worms for a nice snack on the streets of Bangkok. My boyfriend purchased a bag of assortments from the vendor that included locusts, grasshoppers, ants (different sizes), worms, and something that resembled cockroaches. After taste testing, it was proclaimed that the stir-fried ants were the best and most flavorful.

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lavomatic

at 11:42 on June 5th, 2008

MIAM MIAM !

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skypecaptain

at 11:48 on June 5th, 2008

If you are in Beijing I recommend the Night Market. There are between 50 and 100 booths where street vendors fry, boil or bake all kinds of food according to your taste. You can have millipedes, scorpions, grasshoppers, snakes or even starfish. Most things are quite tasteless but with some hot spices it becomes interesting. I can see how the looks and texture might not be for everybody but who said you have to eat them like they are? How about grinding them and make a burger out of it?

Feel free to check out my other pictures from Beijing, including some more insect food.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gov/sets/72157601106971954/

skypecaptain has contributed a photo to this story.

egypt112

at 12:00 on June 5th, 2008

We found one of these insects small cone shaped holes just off the beach where it was very sandy and dug it up. (It does not do any harm to dig them up)

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Flames of Aries

at 12:47 on June 5th, 2008

well i dont think so that eating insect is gona save the planet because insect are playing the main role in cleaning this planet i mean whose gona eat our left oversor whose gona eat the dead when there will be no insects on this planet,insect teach us many thing we just have to see them closely they teach us to work like a team and we can move heavy thing without any machines,infact they tell us whats the real meaning of the word (UNITY).

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juanchan

at 13:06 on June 5th, 2008

Yummy appetizer platter from the Four Seasons Mexico City. From what I remember its crickets, ant larva, some sort of worm, and something that looked like little lobsters--DELICIOUS.

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Florence3

at 13:38 on June 5th, 2008

I'm sure that if I had grown up eating these insects they would not have seemed so exotic to me. No samples were being given out, but I don't think I would have tried them if they were. Nonetheless, they seemed popular at the market.

Florence3 has contributed a photo to this story.

kingofnor

at 14:19 on June 5th, 2008

This is a young thai woman, a good friend of mine. She was hungry and while walking along the street in one of the cities in Thailand, we saw a person who sold newly prepared insects to eat. I looked closely at them and since I have never tasted one in my live, I did not dare. But she said that they were delicious and bought a bounch of them and chew them like it was the best food in the world. I just had to take a photo of her while she had one of the insects in her month. I think it was a grashopper or another insect that looked like it. But as I know, insects are good protein resource and good for the body.

kingofnor has contributed a photo to this story.

restorationcomedy

at 14:15 on June 5th, 2008

This was at the West Baray just outside of Siem Riep in Cambodia. Many local people were having an afternoon at the park - it's a great place to swim - in fact, we saw a waterskiier! The insects were sold as a snack food and most were deep-fried. One must peel them like fried shrimp usually are to eat them, or they are just too fibrous-feeling in the mouth.

restorationcomedy has contributed a photo to this story.

Marc Holgate

at 14:21 on June 5th, 2008

Marc Holgate has contributed a photo to this story.

fialaa

at 14:30 on June 5th, 2008

Fried insects sold by a street vendor in Bangkok, Thailand

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grassvalleybrent

at 15:01 on June 5th, 2008

In Bhutan, these are called winter grass, summer worm and are considered medicinal.

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psryland

at 15:16 on June 5th, 2008

Deep fried insects, for sale at a food market in Chang Mai, Thailand.

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darley_ra

at 15:20 on June 5th, 2008

Why stop at the bugs? That lizard looks pretty tasty!

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Beaulieu

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:23 on June 5th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I've eaten scorpion in a London restaurant (it was about 4 inches) and it was dipped in chocolate. It wasn't bad at all, sort of crunchy. It's 'my party piece'.

Then I ate witchetty grub in Oz and that's not bad. It's like peanut butter. You'd love it.

In London there is a shop in Covent Garden where you can eat lollipops with insects in it.

matthewrowles

at 16:36 on June 5th, 2008

Well, I saved this little bugger from drowning in my pool so I took some snaps of him and then he went on his merry way :)

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Sweet Freak

at 18:43 on June 5th, 2008

Just some ants noshing on a fry...

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Lynn_EL/UnaOdd

at 18:47 on June 5th, 2008

The reality that insects are a vast resource of available protein makes sense from a purely biological viewpoint, but you would think that there must be a reason for most of human-kind to have an aversion to eating insects. Does eating insects somehow make us seem too animal?

Fry in garlic butter and most everything would probably be palatable.