
Why Aren’t We Eating More Insects? - JoshMnem
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/t-magazine/eating-bugs-food-restaurant.html
======
zdragnar
From the article:

1- the European ice age eliminated almost all of the edible insects in the
continent, meaning it's never been a good idea there 2- they live in and on
rot and decay, and are otherwise unsanitary

We like meat from animals because it can be butchered without too much
contamination. We dislike non-meaty textures- heck, I won't eat chicken feet
not only because of the texture, but because what do you think chickens walk
around all day in?

Sure, there's limited exceptions- pork cracklins and tripe, though most
westerners also refuse to eat those as well.

The comparison to crustaceans is unfair, since most people don't eat the
shells of lobsters or crabs, only the fleshy bits. Ultimately, barring some
seafood and small game, we're conditioned to not eat the entire animal at
once, only the parts that appeal to us. Meat on its own, guts and other soft
bits in sausage, bones for broth. Eating insects invariably means that what
you eat looks like what it is- an animal.

The article goes on to sing the praises of eating insects- good protein,
environmentally friendly, cheap, so on and so forth. That sounds nice, but it
doesn't change the appeal of eating an animal whole, or thinking about that
same animal living its entire life among a pile of rotten food and poop.

~~~
sandworm101
It isn't just preference. There are biological reasons why we avoid insects
and small invertebrates generally. There are many parasites that use such
things as hosts for part of their life cycle. Not eating insects shields us
from these diseases.

Take angiostrongylus cantonensis, a tiny worm. It causes eosinophilic
meningitis, which is lethal. It is a very rare parasite in the west.
Interestingly, when an infection does occur, it is always a male child. Never
girls. Never men or woman. Always male kids and the rare teenager. Why? Who
else eats slugs?

~~~
bootlooped
Since we eat animals that we're more biologically similar to than insects, and
assuming that parasites prefer to live in roughly similar things, I'm not sure
how the parasite risk would be worse by eating insects. If they were raised in
captivity, we would have just as much opportunity to pump them full of
antibiotics as we do other food animals.

The other thing is that sufficiently heating food will kill any parasite
present, along with many other things that would do us harm.

~~~
sandworm101
Dont assume. It is very normal for a parasite to go through many very
different hosts, each covering a different part of a complex lifecycle.
Bacteria and viruses are different.

~~~
GW150914
Just to add, being a parasite’s intermediate host is often a raw deal, because
the little critter didn’t evolve to give a shit about how quickly and brutally
it kills you.

~~~
sandworm101
Like when they take over hosts, change their behavior, ... essentially operate
them as zombies.

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y-c-o-m-b
A strong imagination does it for me. I used to love eating lamb, but in my
teens my father took me to a friends house where I partook in slaughtering a
lamb and later eating it. Now I find eating lamb utterly disgusting. If I even
smell lamb it reminds me of how the animal wailed around as it was dying and
the smell of its intestines and skin as we butchered it.

Same idea with insects - when I picture someone eating insects, I get reminded
of the smells, the sounds, and worst of all where they've been. Bees?! Ever
seen a portable toilet in the summer when the doors are left cracked open and
insects get into? Bees on human feces. No thanks.

~~~
daenz
Props to you for experiencing how your food is made. Some people turn away
from meat after that (like you did), some people are fine with it. Regardless
of where you land, we shouldn't psychologically shield ourselves from the
processes involved in getting food to the table.

It's the one thing that sticks with me from the PETA and PETA-like movements:
you should know how your food is created. If it makes you more empathetic,
fine, and if it doesn't, also fine. We are omnivores after all.

~~~
mLuby
Why is denying ourselves a psychological shield a good idea?

~~~
opportune
Typically because it helps you make decisions you morally disagree with by
pretending the bad parts don’t exist. You can’t decide whether you are morally
ok with how a product is produced without seeing how it’s produced: this
applies to more than just food, e.g. sweatshops

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checkyoursudo
I am not opposed to people eating insects.

However, as I am someone who already does not eat meat, is there a compelling
reason for me to start eating insects?

Would adding insects to my diet be, for example, more eco-friendly/sustainable
than my plant-based diet?

I don't think I have a diversification need that is not currently satisfied,
either nutritionally or for enjoyment of variety.

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jliptzin
Because we find them disgusting and there are many cheap alternative foods
that we don’t find disgusting.

Of course it’s probably irrational, but that’s the way it is.

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sebringj
Didn't evolution across the land-bridges groom us to be different at the core
in some areas given the amount of time passing? Why do I immediately find
certain things super gross? It feels like its within me rather than a learned
behavior. Possibly these feelings are from my ancestry passing them on? One of
the reasons I say this is because I tried korean "mediche", don't know actual
spelling but its very tiny dried fish with their eyes still on. It sounds
gross but is very tasty and strangely I was never grossed out by this as they
do look like tiny fish. The same goes for sardines. Why fish with eyes on
doesn't gross me out but the sight of larvae makes me want to gag?

~~~
elboru
I'll go with "learned behavior", although my argument is 100% anecdotical, my
dad grew up in a rural are in a tough period of time when food was not
guaranteed, he learned to eat everything from an animal and he learned not to
waste anything. Then he moved to the city (before I was born), where food is
no longer a privilege, but still after several decades he still enjoys a lot
of animal parts that I (a common city boy) wouldn't eat unless my life
depended on it.

~~~
sebringj
I think there are some things totally like that, but I did notice my young
kids seeing a bug and being scared right away. Or funny thing, any cat will do
this, put a cucumber next to them without them noticing, and they jump like 3
feet in the air when they see it but its so fast it seems they just react like
when you touch a hot metal so its instant. I saw this on Youtube about the
cats and tried it with 2 of mine. Its so funny to watch them fly. Anyway,
meaning they have an inherent fear of snakes baked into their DNA seems like.
We are all mammals and we most likely have some similar things like that.

One thing Elon Musk said that made me rethink some things. In his NeuralLink
company, he said they came to the conclusion that our neural cortex is
"hosted" by our limbic system in his quest to eventually have our neural
cortex host AI itself. What that means is our limbic system is driving the
motivation of our neocortex to do complicated things to appease it. So in
other words, our underlying needs are still very rudimentary in that sense
shared with other mammals and even reptiles despite our neocortex reasoning
that we are more than that.

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TangoTrotFox
Probably because you would need to harvest _immense_ amounts for them to work
as a staple food source, and their pretty bland flavor, at least of the
various sorts I've tried, is not really something likely to make them a luxury
food source, though I'd have said the same thing about caviar.

With modern farming technology the mass cultivation may be possible, but for
times past compare this to something like a single decent sized whitetail deer
that can provide upwards of 100 pounds of edible meat. One deer = months of
food. One insect = minutes/seconds of food.

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salgernon
I wonder if an insect based food economy scales. A few years ago, several of
my friends were getting into generating biodiesel - they were so excited to be
able to go to restarauntd and try to buy up their grease. But it turns out
that once a critical mass of consumers (nowhere near the local population)
started doing this, it was no longer viable to “make your own” economically.
If let’s Say a cricket contains 10kC, and you need 200 a day, how do you scale
that to city size populations?

I suspect the answer will be mushrooms or yeast, ultimately.

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moosey
This is a cultural/marketing issue, although at this point I'm not sure how
separated those are. Also, when I call it an issue, I mean it seriously. The
ecological impact of insect production is so much lower than other meats. Non-
scientific responses of 'gross/revolting/disgusting' are perfect examples of
negative cultural responses to insects as food, rather than scientific ones.

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acconrad
At this point (with cricket powders, et al) I think a big reason is because
it's so dang expensive.

If crickets are touted as this miracle protein that are easy to farm, low
impact on the environment, and are still considered to be undesirable, then
_why_ are these companies charging $35/lb for their protein powder when you
can get whey or pea powder for $6-8/lb?

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blhack
Because nobody in the west has figured out a good way of preparing them yet.

Lobster (essentially a giant cockroach that lives in the water) was once
considered revolting too:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#As_food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#As_food)

It's because nobody had figured out how to prepare it yet.

~~~
daenz
I'd be interested to see what a Michelin star chef could do with insects.

~~~
peppage
Noma used ants, [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-
drink/news...](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-
drink/news/worlds-best-restaurant-comes-to-town-and-its-serving-
ants-7995007.html)

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barbegal
Mainly because insects are expensive. Sure, they need less food than
conventional livestock but they are very labour-intensive.

You typically need thousands of insects to get the same amount of protein as a
chicken. You can raise several chickens per square meter but you can't raise
the equivalent number of insects in that space which means you either need
more real estate (expensive) or typically more labour with insects in many
shelves or boxes stacked up. And each of these shelves or boxes requires
cleaning, feeding, watering, temperature control...

Without a huge revolution in technology to automate all of these tasks you
have to employ a small army of human workers which is only really viable in
lower wage countries.

You simply can't produce insects suitable for human consumption at less than
$20/kg whereas chickens can sell for just a few dollars per kg. And when the
consumer is given the choice between delicious, cheap, tried and tested vs
unknown, expensive they will always choose chicken.

~~~
bartread
> And when the consumer is given the choice between delicious, cheap, tried
> and tested vs unknown, expensive they will always choose chicken.

Unless they're hipsters. How else does one explain the existence, and
outrageous price, of cold brew coffee as compared to its unfailingly
disappointing flavour?

~~~
ClassyJacket
Has it genuinely not occurred to you that some people might like b different
things to you?

~~~
bartread
Has it genuinely not occurred to you that I was being a little tongue in
cheek? _And the point stands_ : there will always be people who pay a premium
for things that others find unappealing.

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coldtea
Because we don't want to. We don't we eat less meat? (not a vegan, just don't
particular care for the "tons of meat every day" lifestyle that takes tons of
resources).

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jmaa
I haven't read the article, but one reason may be the unappetizing portrail.
The photographs in this article are bleak and chaotic, in sharp contrast to
the colorful and organized way food is depicted nowadays.

Unrelated, I've encountered energy bars with an insect: Standard energy bars,
but extra expensive and with minuscule amounts of insect. Selling cheap eco-
friendly insects as an expensive "cool" gimmick is a cruel sort of irony.

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cageface
Why not just switch to plant-based sources of protein instead? The idea that
we have to eat animals to be healthy isn't supported by modern science.

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emmanuel_1234
The idea that only in "the West" are insect not consumed is misleading. I've
been living in "the East" for a decade now, and had to pull some connections
to get crickets in Thailand, or water cockroaches in China. Those are
consumed, but not staples (just like French people don't feed on a snails and
frog diet).

~~~
BugsJustFindMe
> just like French people don't feed on a snails and frog diet

People might not eat them every day, certainly not at pork and bread levels,
but frozen escargot and cuisses de grenouille are easily found in any grocery
store in France that's large enough to have a freezer section.

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lookACamel
How to write about eating insects:

Muse about why Europeans don't eat insects. Claim that eating insects is a big
thing in Asia, Africa, and various indigenous cultures. Mention seafood. Talk
about some new insect farming and processing ventures. Point out the supposed
eco-friendly advantage. Point out that they are rich in protein. Point out
that they're cheap to raise. Make a quip about how we're already eating
insects because tiny minuscule bits end up in processed foods.

------
vbuwivbiu
because the idea is inherently revolting

~~~
jay-anderson
There are humans that eat insects. I don't think there's something about
eating insects we automatically find unappealing. I believe we've been taught
that. Another idea is we don't like seeing the face of what we're eating. Most
meat is processed to the point where we can't see where it comes from.

For fun my wife made some cookies including cricket powder. We told people and
did not hide that fact from them. Most wanted to try it for the novelty of it
and didn't find the idea disgusting.

~~~
gnulinux
Primate brain has special parts specifically wired to visually process snakes
[1]. It is also thought that it has specific parts that process the shape of
spider, and maybe other insects [2]. This is one explanation why primates have
such a strangely large brain. Processing image requires a lot of computational
power, being arboreal, primates need to distinguish snakes and spiders to
safely crawl in the forest.

This is not to say, primates wouldn't eat snakes or spiders. I don't know if
other primates eat them (they might be?) but humans do eat both [3] [4].

[1] [http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/10/did-snakes-help-
build...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/10/did-snakes-help-build-
primate-brain)

[2]
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214004539)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake#Consumption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake#Consumption)

------
swframe2
Maybe we should first feed insects to the animals/plants we prefer to eat.

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_rpd
To avoid a whole new class of zoonotic diseases?

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User23
This reads like a rhetorical question, but I’ll take a swing at it anyhow:
because it’s gross.

Edit: Sorry entomophages didn’t mean to offend.

~~~
pennaMan
For me insects are a symbol of foul and infestation. Those plates look like
they were taken over by what is on them. Can this strong repulsion be a
cultural thing, like so many prejudices are?

~~~
lookACamel
You said it yourself. A SYMBOL of foul and infestation. Where do we get most
of our symbols from? Of course it's a cultural thing.

