Going Buggy, Part II

Going Buggy, Part II

   If you've just joined this discussion, the first part of this posting dealt with the amazing amount of food that the world simply wastes.  From harvesting to delivery trucks to restaurants to our homes, the volume of food spoiling or being tossed out is summed up in one word...sad.  So, producers and non-profits, corporations and enterprising humanitarians are all looking for solutions.  And one of the most promising offerings is in the air all around us...bugs!

   Yuck, you might say.  But the truth is, eating bugs has quite a lengthy history, possibly dating as far back as 30,000 BC (based on cave paintings that appear to shown the collection of insects, and possibly because the tools for hunting hadn't yet appeared).  The term for it all --that of humans eating insects-- is entomophagy and is quite prevalent throughout the world.  Here's a sampling of what  National Geographic wrote in an article titled 8 Popular Bugs to Try:  Ants are sweet, nutty little insects, aren't they?  I'm not talking about their personalities, but how they taste.  Stinkbugs have an apple flavor, and red agave worms are spicy.  A bite of tree worm apparently brings pork rinds to mind.  This information will come in handy for those of us following the latest recommendation from the United Nations: Consume more insects.  A report released Monday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reminds us that there are more than 1,900 edible insect species on Earth, hundreds of which are already part of the diet in many countries...That helps to explain why 36 African countries are "entomophagous," as are 23 in the Americas, 29 in Asia, and even 11 in Europe.

   Often high in protein and minerals and also low in calories, bugs (and yes, we're talking everything from spiders and wasps to centipedes and moths) are everywhere, reproduce rapidly for the most part, and take up very little breeding space compared to our cattle, pigs and chickens (even farmed fish, if you get right down to it).  The cost to feed and raise them is minimal, comparatively;  and in some areas, the savings in capturing and eating these "pests" or their eggs is proving more beneficial and more efficient that using pesticides on the plants which in themselves, end up have a lower return (vs. the protein and mineral content of the collected bugs).  Here's how Wikipedia partially summed up the energy conversion:  Insects generally have a higher food conversion efficiency than more traditional meats, measured as efficiency of conversion of ingested food, or ECI.  While many insects can have an energy input to protein output ratio of around 4:1, raised livestock has a ratio closer to 54:1...Studies concerning the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) provide further evidence for the efficiency of insects as a food source.  When reared at 30 °C or more and fed a diet of equal quality to the diet used to rear conventional livestock, crickets showed a food conversion twice as efficient as pigs and broiler chicks, four times that of sheep, and six times higher than steers (oxen) when losses in carcass trim and dressing percentage are counted...Insects reproduce at a faster rate than beef animals. A female cricket can lay from 1,200 to 1,500 eggs in three to four weeks, while for beef the ratio is four breeding animals for each market animal produced. This gives house crickets a true food conversion efficiency almost 20 times higher than beef.

   Which brings us to the field (no pun intended) of crickets, one of the featured articles in the May issue of Popular Science.  Much of the article originated from a TED talk by entomologist, Marcel Dicke, a talk that has already been viewed over a million times.  From protein bars to chips, crickets are raised by the hundreds of thousands, producing millions of eggs and ultimately leading to a high protein flour once they are fully processed.  And the new producers are setting their sights beyond that of health food and organic food stores (some are already in stores such as Whole Foods) to that of large fast food chains such as McDonalds and even Pepsico.  Used in mass, cricket meal and other insect meal has already been quietly added to flavorings and colorings, the red in that fake crab meat, for example.  But the large producers are looking more at the beneficial protein and nutrients that might help feed the world:  “When we started ordering crickets to our dorm, we realized America isn’t ready for that,” says Laura D’Asaro, who co-founded Six Foods shortly after graduating from Harvard.  “We see our chips and cookies as a first step.  It’s useful just to have crickets on the ingredients list and have Americans eating them.  But we want to slowly introduce other products, with the ultimate goal of going to a restaurant where you can get a chicken burger, veggie burger, or ento burger.”  The culinary possibilities of ento food rest on a steady supply of the main ingredient, which is another reason crickets have taken off.  North America already has an industrial cricket infrastructure; the insects have been grown for decades as fish bait and food for pet reptiles. 

   Now comes the difficult part.  Already some scientists are concerned that once mass production begins (and here we're talking large factory production in different parts of the world),  it could threaten the insect population, at least of certain species, and possibly create a domino effect on the ecosystem.  Then there's the regulation side of production, verifying that the insects you're eating don't contain pesticides or toxic chemicals or that the plants the insects ate didn't contain such chemicals (although this doesn't seem to be much of a concern with our fruits and vegetables).  It might be a moot point since a certain percentage of bug and even rodent parts (untested bug parts, I might add) are already allowed into our processed food, the inspectors reasoning that a cockroach or mouse is bound to accidentally fall into the batch of peanut butter or soup, sight unseen (this even includes the occasional cigarette butt....allowed, albeit in small quantities).  Under the regulations in the FDA’s handbook, a hefty bowl of spaghetti is permitted 200 or so bug fragments—one for every gram of pasta—fifteen fly eggs, and a maggot.  Add a pinch of FDA-acceptable ground oregano and it might be spiced with one hundred itsy bitsy bug bits and a rodent hair.  And while hot dogs get a bad rap for the mystery meat parts ground up in them, you might want to take a closer look at the condiments.  A few spoonfuls of sauerkraut could include fifty thrips—a small, slender bug pointed at both ends.  Even chocolate is impure.  As you savor a chocolate bar, you might also be ingesting some sixty insect parts...Wheat can contain an “average of nine milligrams or more rodent excreta pellets and/or pellet fragments per kilogram.”  The shaker of cinnamon in your spice cabinet could have some 400 bug fragments and eleven rodent hairs.  In one eighteen-ounce jar of peanut butter, there must be more than six rodent hairs and sixty insect parts before the FDA considers it tainted...all of that from a page from Chef's Blade, a site where would-be chefs can read a bit more on food safety (or possible lack thereof).

   Still, the possibilities are promising.  Less land and water usage, less calories and fat, less costs both in start-up and facilities.  And the result?  Joining much of the rest of the world in a cultural change.  New flavors, less pesticides to use (we might just want to saute those bugs eating our tomato plants) and more molds to break.  We might even lose weight and feel good about it since we're also stepping in line and helping to partially solve the hunger problem.  Even famed astro-physicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson dined on a few insect munchies at the Explorer Club:  The historic club promotes scientific exploration of new frontiers, and Tyson was being honored with its prestigious Explorers Medal.  Appropriately, he was willing — if not exactly eager — to explore the cricket specialty.
Waiting for a moment to consider the taste, he said he liked the crunchiness but declared the crickets and other exotic appetizers — such as cockroach canapes, wax worm quesadillas and teriyaki grasshopper kabobs — "not as good as a rib-eye." 

   Still not for you?  Before you make that final decision, think about seeing pigs feet or beef tongue at your local meat department, or a whole fish being chilled on a layer of ice.  Is there much of a difference visually?  We now eat flowers and chocolate bunnies, worms in tequila (actually, those worms are a delicacy and commonly eaten before even making their way into a bottle of tequila) and now pillow sacks full of cricket pupae.  Feeding the world might force us to become blind to much more than roadkill.  And we may unexpectedly discover that the exotic word "taboo," a word once reserved for primitive cultures, is sitting right at our own doorstep.