
The Joys And Ethics Of Insect Eating - tellarin
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/04/03/297853835/the-joys-and-ethics-of-insect-eating
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chimeracoder
Interesting article. I've always found it amusing that insects are so taboo in
most cuisines, yet we already eat all sorts of weird creatures[0].

However, I agree with the author at the end. This is a weird statement by the
interviewee:

> If you're a vegetarian, I can't imagine a reason why you wouldn't want to
> adopt insects into your diet

I can think of a lot of reasons.

Some people just don't want to eat living creatures capable of sentient
thought and pain (even if the process used to raise and kill them is
painless). I'm painting with an incredibly broad brush, but in my experience,
vegans tend to be more focused on farming practices - I know several vegans
who say that they would be comfortable eating eggs or dairy that they
themselves farmed (so that they could be sure that the hens/cows are being
treated properly).

But vegetarians (and vegans) have a number of different reasons for their
dietary preferences - some of them are also interested in the treatment of
animals, but they may instead (or also) have a vegetarian diet for reasons
related to health, religion, etc. Most of these reasons would apply equally to
insects and to birds/fish/mammals.

[0] obligatory xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/1268/](https://xkcd.com/1268/)

~~~
mikestew
Well, if one can't imagine why a vegetarian wouldn't eat insects, one needs to
expand the imagination. While not speaking for all vegetarians, one of the
reasons I don't eat animals or insects is that I hold to the idea that no
creature should have reason to fear me. Sure, insects get killed in the
harvesting of plants, but I don't harvest plants for the expressed purpose of
killing insects.

As with most things it is typically more complicated than "here's a single
reason, making it easy for you to mount a counter argument that you think
quite clever."

~~~
aaronem
Does it matter, to a cricket, whether it dies so you can put it on your supper
plate, or merely so you can fill said plate with roughage?

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droithomme
_Before clicking:_

"Insects, huh? Shark Tank had a cricket meal business funded a couple weeks
ago and they said they could help them with a PR campaign advocating cricket
eating. What do I bet that this article I am about to click on will not be
about the more common sorts of insects eaten such as grasshoppers and worms,
but will prominently feature crickets and cricket meal, proving the author,
whoever that is, is a stooge for Big Media?"

 _< Click. >_

"Bingo. The Shark Tank guys are good. Really know how to play the game."

~~~
ChuckMcM
I'm not sure I'd go all 'stooge' on them. Its an interesting story and it
resonates with a lot of current issues (Warming, farming, PETA, Etc) Of course
if the story comes from some young hippie looking guy, as a reporter, you're
less likely to report on it than if it comes from some 'known successful'
person. Its a characteristic of our society that things the 'cool people' are
doing is worth talking about. Is that stoogeism? Or is that someone vetting
the idea for some reporter who doesn't want to waste time on otherwise suspect
idea?

~~~
GuiA
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

------
gmisra
I have tried these, and they are surprisingly delicious:
[http://www.exo.co/](http://www.exo.co/)

They are labelled as "Made with cricket flour", but other than that you
wouldn't know it was any different from the dozens of similar
protein/nutritional bars out there.

They are a bit expensive, but I highly recommend getting the sampler pack at
least once if you're at all curious about the taste, texture, etc:
[http://www.exo.co/products/pre-order-multi-
pack](http://www.exo.co/products/pre-order-multi-pack)

This is the other "major" brand of cricket-based protein bars:
[http://chapul.com/](http://chapul.com/)

~~~
cgh
I'd love to try some of these. One thing though: the bars from both brands are
relatively low in protein (10g for Exo and only 5g in the Chapul bars). I
wonder why that is?

If they want to appeal to the high-protein/power athletics crowd, they need to
bump up the protein a lot. As of now, there's not much to distinguish these
from a much cheaper Clif bar.

Higher protein bars, like the BioX bars, use a lot of soy protein, which is
sub-optimal. It would be great to get a ~20-30g protein bar with cricket
protein.

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whiddershins
I clicked through to one of the retailers and grasshoppers are >$36/lb ... I
can order more nutritious steak for less. Seems like the pricing is way off
thus far.

~~~
SwellJoe
I've talked to one of the folks at Little Herds here in Austin
([http://littleherds.org/](http://littleherds.org/)), and he explained that
he'd like to eat a lot more bugs than he does, because he enjoys them and
they're nutritious, but the cost is still prohibitive even for him (who is
involved in the farming of bugs for consumption).

I'm not sure I understand why that is. The argument is that scale is the
biggest limiting factor, but I would think achieving scale would be so much
easier. A million crickets is a lot easier to house than even a few hundred
steer. I really want to see evidence that insects are sustainable and
affordable as a food source before I dive too far down into that particular
rabbit hole.

I'm a vegetarian for ethical and environmental reasons, but I'm not sure my
ethical stance extends to include insects and arachnids (though I do take them
outside rather than kill them). I already occasionally eat clams and scallops
and oysters. I'd probably eat bugs, if they were sustainable to farm and if
they were not for economic elites only; I also tend to opt out of luxury
economies on ethical grounds.

~~~
aaronem
You take arachnids outside? But they keep insects down! I'm perfectly happy to
cohabit with them, so long as there's a clear and evident understanding that
where I go, spiders don't, and _vice versa_ \-- I mind me of my childhood
home, which we shared with a sizable black widow who made good use of the
space behind the toilet tank; as long as you didn't go carelessly sticking
your fingers in dark crevices, you had nothing to worry about, and that's a
good rule in any circumstance. (And black widows really are lovely creatures,
once you know how to treat them with proper respect -- not at all like the
false widows now cropping up here in Maryland, which are so godawful ugly as
to make you imagine they spring full-grown from the forehead of David
Cronenberg.)

But don't take my word for it; try it for yourself -- next time you find that
a spider's spun her web in a corner, leave her be, and you'll likely find
yourself less frequently called upon to escort importunate insects out the
door; she'll be happy to take care of the problem, to the benefit of both of
you.

~~~
judk
More importantly, indoor spiders don't thrive outside. They'll just try to get
back inside. Outdoor spiders are different species.

~~~
SwellJoe
Well, they should go buy their own motorhome. If they cause me trouble (like
landing on my face, crawling across my food, hanging out on my pillow or
toilet seat, etc.), they get a ride to the outside. Them's the rules.

------
hcarvalhoalves
Many cuisines involve insects, but they are all traditional. It's just not
more widespread because, unfortunately, cattle replaced all other protein
sources in most places, specially in the west, where we apparently created a
beef addiction.

Here in Brazil there's a dish that involves flour and fried ants. It's
delicious, tastes like shrimp, but I only tasted once since it's rare. Ant-
eating is an influence from native americans. In Cambodia there's also deep
fried tarantula. I never ate it, but apparently it's also delicious, tastes
like crab.

Basically, most insects once deep fried will taste like shrimp or crab, so not
bad.

There should be more available, since they are apparently way more efficient
(and clean) to produce than cattle. Cutting down the forest to raise beef on
grass, or cramming a bunch of mammals in a warehouse then wasting money on
antibiotics _doesn 't make any sense_.

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JasonCEC
My company[1] did a bit of flavor profiling research for a few Ento farmers
and startups. Once you get over your aversion to the idea of eating crickets
or mealworms, their actually quite good! The crickets always reminded me of
french fries (and I don't even eat fries....).

We have a vegetarian on our team who felt fine eating them. No pain, no harm.

Lobsters on the other hand... jury is out on weather they feel pain.

[1] www.Gastrograph.com

~~~
failrate
When we were in Shanghai for ChinaJoy, we stopped at a Yunan beer bar called
Southern Barbarian. Our appetizer was a plate of deep fried crickets, meal
worms, and bees. They all had a nice potato chip feel and taste. The bees made
my lips numb, so I stopped eating them.

~~~
JasonCEC
Gotta love China; I had Wasp Larvae when I was living in Yunnan, and loved it!

The numbing was probably from Sichuan Pepper Corn [1] not the bees themselves!

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper)

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erikstarck
There's a few startups in this area, like
[http://www.chirpfarms.com/](http://www.chirpfarms.com/)

There's lots of opportunities around food. Supermarkets and grocery stores are
a $522 billion business in the US alone.

We are planning a hackathon around food in the South of Sweden after the
summer. Check out [http://hackformaten.se](http://hackformaten.se) if you're
interested.

~~~
henrikschroder
> Hack för maten

Haha! I see what you did there! :-D

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ams6110
I've tried raising crickets to feed our bearded dragon. It's damn hard. As
easy as it is to find them under leaves etc. in the garden I was never able to
maintain a breeding colony. And they smell pretty bad too.

~~~
DanBC
Pig farms can smell pretty bad too!

I imagine there will eventually be a market for units that click together to
create insect farms. Heating, lighting, food and water, with different shelves
for different bugs.

I haven't seen anyone talking about the killing process. Do you just throw
them into a deep fryer and hope for the best? Gas them?

I have a strong aversion to the idea of eating insects. I don't know how
serious my hunger would have to be to overcome this. And that's for already
dead and cooked insects. Give me a cage of wriggling moving bugs and I would
have a really hard time killing cooking and eating them.

(I don't eat shrimps or prawns or lobster or similar for this same reason).

~~~
babuskov
There were guys on Shark Tank with this idea for crickets. They had it all
figured out. I can't find the exact episode on YouTube now, but here's the
story:

[http://sharktanksuccess.blogspot.com/2014/03/cricket-
energy-...](http://sharktanksuccess.blogspot.com/2014/03/cricket-energy-
bars.html)

~~~
T-hawk
The full episode is on ABC's site, probably up for another week or two.

[http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-
guide/season-05/5...](http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-
guide/season-05/521-chapul-garage-door-lock-morninghead-packback)

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doesnt_know
The strangest part of this story is that the author ate some cookies some
random stranger sent her. I'm not sure if I'd be that brave.

------
guard-of-terra
I try to avoid eating invertebrates as a general rule. The only exception is
crustaceans perhaps.

~~~
Double_Cast
Out of curiosity, may I ask why you avoid eating invertebrates?

~~~
guard-of-terra
They are disgusting, or arent't tasty, or a combination of both.

