That being said I’m not sure who these insect burgers are for, or what problem they solve. If you acknowledge that diet is big part of climate change solutions, then why not go directly to plant-based burgers? It’s not like crickets have anything in common with red meat in any way.
My cynical take is that it’s just a way to “do the right thing” without agreeing with the vegans. Gotta eat dead animals.
I think that’s a bad faith interpretation to imply that one eats animals exclusively because it being ‘animals’ is the point. Most people don’t think about it, their priority is making their daily life as simple as possible. They just eat whatever tastes good and is easy to get. And the people pushing for eating insects are thinking about it; they just have different priorities; they’re trying to make environmentally-sustainable food easier to get.
Insects are still a far better choice for protein. They don’t take remotely the amount of land or water that soy crops do, and they can be grown in areas of the world that don’t have as much freshwater. They can be fed off scraps and organic material that are waste to us. They also have a high return yield; they’re not being lost to droughts/weather/pests at the rate crops (especially organic) are. I’d posit that an insect-inclusive diet is probably more environmentally-friendly than the modern vegan diet is.
Humans are evolved omnivores. It’s both possible and noble to have an organic and herbivorous diet that meets your basic needs, but it’s difficult, often inaccessible, expensive; and it takes up huge amounts of land to grow the kind of crops needed (especially if much of them are lost to pests). Soy demands a lot of water, and avocados have been priced out of reach of the impoverished Central Americans they used to cheaply feed. Whether plant or animal, we are only alive by consuming life. There is no diet without some harm to somebody somewhere. Most vegan diets are too expensive (or unavailable), and are part of the deforestation for soy plantations overseas.
Ultimately now that principles have become a part of how we consume (and not just necessity, availability, effort etc), any philosophy requires compromise. If one’s primary concern is freshwater, the carbon cycle, deforestation for cropland, nutrition density, local food-chain, animal suffrage, animal consent, organic, local-grown, seasonal, etc… It’s not possible to follow them all, and it’s not reasonable to expect everybody choose a single specific one.
I have a preference towards attainable and environmentally-sustainable eating, which means that eating crickets (and mushrooms, yum) is less harmful ecologically than eating soy (deforestation, water), and far less harmful than cattle (magnitudes worse than any other livestock). I also avoid palm oil products (deforestation). I don’t disagree with any vegetarians or vegans who chose other principles; it’s excellent that humans are becoming increasingly mindful of what we choose to eat. We just have different priorities.
Plant-based food alternatives, at least in the U.S. are very expensive to the counterparts.
Poor people make up a majority of America. If we want change, we need feasible alternatives, not greenwashed ones that price out at the middle class. Impoverished people aren’t capable of making the same extent of changes sheerly because their survival is more important than not using cow milk.
I’m totally with you, we need to make efforts at culturally appropriate changes and to make efforts towards diversifying all of them. More options is only a good thing and I’ll never understand this idea that it has to be specifically one thing (usually some kind of plant based). If it can be made cheap enough, great, but don’t we also want lab grown, insect based, and locally farmed meat and produce? Let’s try and make strides towards making all of these as prevalent as factory farming, no?
Honestly, I foresee this angering people a lot more than plant-based food would.
Eating plants is normal, and even meat-eaters eat plenty of plants. Most of the ingredients of a conventional burger—the bun, the lettuce, etc—are plant-based. No surprise, then, that veggie burgers have gained some traction in the market.
Eating bugs is another story entirely. There are very few cultures in which that is considered anything but a desperate last resort when literally no other food is available. Tell most people to eat something made out of bugs, and they’ll take it as an insult; that you’re insinuating that they’re too poor to afford literally anything else.
There are. Ignoring, for the moment, that lobster and shrimp are sea-bugs that billions of people eat without complaint, there are plenty of North American cultures that readily incorporated bugs into their daily diets. Here’s a scholarly article on the topic (pdf warning)
I was even lucky enough to meet an Oneida man who gave me a recipe for cooking may/june beetles at a bonfire. They taste a lot like shrimp.
(The recipe: Catch a few beetles, shake them up in your hand to stun them, then toss them onto one of the rocks at the edge of the fire. Wait until they make a popcorn-like “pop” noise. If you like them less crunchy, you can peel off the wings before you eat them.)
That said, I think outlawing or opposing it is so absurd it’s ridiculous. Just like banning lab meat.
Don’t want to eat it? Then don’t. But why should you force that choice on others? I suspect this is nothing more than political shenanigans in most cases, just another topic with an easy gut answer to stir up the masses over nothing at all.
A lot of people argue over whether they would want to or not want to eat crickets and defend their decision. But if someone doesn’t want to eat crickets, they do not need to defend themselves. Not wanting to is good enough.
People who say we should eat crickets should start eating animals brains, eyes, testicles, and intestines if they really want to push this on people.
I’ve eaten and cooked with cricket flour! It’s honestly no different than most powdered protein supplements, and has a mild nutty taste that is unnoticeable or pleasant. As the article mentions, it’s great in pancakes and pastas! I expect that as climates and food availability changes, many more people will be including alternate protein sources in their foods!
“These products are garbage,” he says. "We are not used to them, they are not part of the Mediterranean diet. And they could be a threat for people: we don’t know what eating insects can do to our bodies.
As opposed to red meat, which we know causes health issues in large quantities…
People are afraid of change, I get it. The thought of eating bugs weirds me out too, but do it for a month or so and I’m sure it’s fine.
Vegetables in large quantities also produce a wide variety of toxins, plants don’t exactly want to be eaten. It seems odd to ignore moderation when it goes both ways.
It isn’t like humans haven’t been eating bugs for decades anyway. IMO they’re just ignorant of the fact that they’re already eating bugs inside processed food. Every bite you take could already contain some delicious bugs.
So, while we globally enjoy this heat wave, most of us hoping for lower temperatures. While some discuss the political aspect of this, which really is large, already established, economic interests resisting alternatives. I am just going to quote something near the end of the article.
Insect farming is arguably much more efficient than cattle production. One hundred pounds (45 kilograms) of feed produces 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) of beef, while the same amount of feed yields 45 pounds (20 kilograms) of cricket.
I had deep fried grasshoppers in Mexico. Just imagine eating a handful of popcorn with some peanuts. Same texture, more or less same taste. I did finish the plate and did not gag at all. I would't go out of my way to order it, but I wouldn't say no if it was offered again.
On the same trip, I tried a live beetle and OMG, it was disgusting beyond belief. Just think some awful chemical taste. Unfortunately that's the reality for some desperately poor people in less developed nations.
It’s bonkers to me that people who eat “normal” meat are so opposed to eating insects. Without exception, it basically comes down to not wanting to try new things, which is often tied to conservatism and being scared of change in general.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the politicians fighting this are right wingers who are against this on a cultural level - aka being afraid of change.
The only reason you don’t eat those meats is because you are not used to it. People ate horse meat in Europe regularly until WW2 and cats and dogs are eaten in other part of the world.
Cats and dogs are no more intelligent than cows but we have emotional attachment and historical use (herding and killing rats) for them so in the Western world we prefer to have them as pets.
I grew up eating seafood but I still hate dealing with it if I have to remove shells and clean it. Telling people to suck it up and eat something they don’t want to eat makes no sense to me.
No, insects are ground into a powder and essentially used like flour. You probably wouldn’t even know you’re eating it if someone didn’t tell you. No mouth feel to speak of.
Yeah, some people eat them that way, but when people talk about some vague conspiracy to get people to eat insects, they’re referring to the flour and being “forced” to eat things made with that instead of wheat flour.
I actually can’t eat lobster either, the giant sea bugs creep me out. Shrimp I’ll eat but not if I have to remove the shells and such. Obviously people are different and my disgust sensitivity might be higher than normal. I grew up in a household that ate a lot of seafood so it’s not due to lack of trying.
I’m pretty sure everybody removes the shells from shrimp before eating. It’s called a carapace, and roaches have them too.
Also, whether or not you specifically eat lobster or shrimp is only somewhat relevant. The point is that people in general eat those things. Lots of people. In fact, lobster is considered a delicacy.
These are essentially insects, and they’ve been a popular part of human cuisine for a very long time. It is hypocritical. Any difference between the two are entirely mental.
“hypocritical” may not be the best word for it but the point that there isn’t much of a difference between some of the foods we already eat (shrimp, lobster, crayfish) and insects and that the primary block to eating insects is a mental one seems pretty inarguable. (it’s honestly also likely people do eat insects and just don’t know they are–they’re everywhere, unintentionally, in the foods we eat.)
Also other than the inherent disgust to bug there is also the fact that since bugs are so small animals they can’t be cleaned and separeted to different parts of the animal. This means that part of what you eat is the intestines of the animal with all the fecal matter in it.
I simply don’t want shit (or processed shit) in my food. Is that too big of an ask?
Haha. Well I guess the silver lining is that so long it is not proven to be harmfull healthwise it should be ok. It still grosses me out though. Maybe one day I will be brave enought to accept 2% shit in my food so long it is well cooked.
Most fish, shrimp, lobster are prepared so that you aren’t eating the intestines. The closest seafood-with-intact-intestines I can think of off the top of my head that makes it to the table is crawfish, and de-veining them is a part of the eating process
Still by the nature o these animals being bigger it is practicality easier to separate the different parts. With everithing else being equal. No matter how bad it is, it is going to be less than 100% of the initial shit ammount unlike with the bugs wich I’ll imagine are being crushed whole.
I have tried it for the novelty but I see no reason to make it part of my diet. It is disgusting to me and getting used to it would take a lot of time and suffering, for what reason? I’ve been a vegetarian before, I’d rather eat peas than insects.
I’m not necessarily accustomed to eating insects… but even the packaged/processed foods we have today are allowed to be a certain percentage of hair/bug/mouse-poop so that it doesn’t become impossible to produce legal food :)
I really don’t get what the fuss over eating insects is all about, especially if they’re ground into a fine powder. It’s just another dead animal to eat.
I don’t know where you live, but here in France all the conspiracy theory folks have got the idea into their heads that they are already sneaking insects into our food. It is all part of the larger conspiracy theory that the government and the elite are going to impose a meat allowance, which will make the lower classes weaker and more prone to disease and blah blah blah. I don’t know any more — my MIL is in deep though, she is a bit of an ultra-conservative type who thinks vaccines make you magnetic.
Moving on…
There is one minor issue, and that is that some people who are allergic to shellfish can have allergies to some insects.
which will make the lower classes weaker and more prone to disease
Yes, the lower classes don’t deserve heart disease, and only the overlords can experience the pinnacle of health that is the fatty liver! Our plans are coming together wonderfully, mwahahaha!
Any deviation from the current norm inevitably ends up in conspiracy theories, most likely because it’s one of the most effective ways to avoid or delay change - aka enable the billionaire class to make as much money as long as possible.
Think about 15 minute cities, eating insects, covid vaccinations, eating soy, trans people existing, …
A lot of people are fundamentally afraid of change (or, more accurately, want everything to just remain normal), which the capital class gladly abuses to further their own interests.
I don’t fully understand transgenderism. Doesn’t mean I’m afraid of it. It’s a thing that happens to some people. 🤷♂️
So, I don’t know if fear of the unknown is an adequate explanation. I think people are being taught to fear these things; told that these things will hurt them
Think about 15 minute cities, eating insects, covid vaccinations, eating soy, trans people existing, …
My MIL is “anti” all of those things, as well as anti-EV. She also believed for a week or so that the situation in Ukraine was a hoax.
A lot of people are fundamentally afraid of change
For real. I ate insects for the first time many years ago when Ynsect launched. A wonderfully crunchy snack. They gave me the whole 1kg bag because I was the only person who tried them.
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