313 sats \ 12 replies \ @jasonb 12 Jul \ on: Cricket bars for sale - You vill eet zee bugs! food_and_drinks
I don't get the whole anti-eating bugs thing. I definitely get the anti-being forced to eat bugs thing. I'm no fan of the WEF. But I definitely don't get the whole anti-just eating bugs because they're good to eat thing. It seems to me that the ideas of being forced to eat bugs and just eating bugs because they're healthy and cheep often times get conflated.
Insect eating is promoted by the same crowd that's really been pushing veganism and the ESG narrative. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN is promoting insects as a more "environmentally friendly" way of getting protein, and wants to replace what humans have been doing since we were human - eating meat and animal products.
I would suggest you take a look at the book Fiat Foods. There's some great references there about some of the organizations and forces that are trying to de-emphasize traditional foods, and push agendas like veganism and insect eating
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Yeah, this is kind of what I'm talking about. The people that push ESG are also into all sorts of random stuff that you and I are probably into as well. It doesn't mean that stuff is bad. Trying to control everybody and force what they're into is the bad part.
I'm with you on eating meat and animals (and plants too). Of course, insects are animals and when I was in Belize, the Mayans had a fun time showing me how their ancestors had been eating termites (tasted like mint surprisingly) for thousands of years. But yeah, I'm definitely a red meat eater and am against anybody saying we shouldn't do that. I just think it's kind of odd when folks are so vehemently against something that people have been doing since time immemorial.
I'll check out that book. We've been trying to move away from processed/subsidized food in my house for a while. I grew up right in the middle of corn/soy country, so I have a weird affinity for the landscape, but I know objectively that it's so destructive and needs to get cut off.
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If eating bugs was a good idea it would be a lot more common to see insect eating in cultural food traditions. Instead it's quite rare, and confined to fairly poor cultures, and only certain insects.
We do eat bugs indirectly: we raise chickens and other animals that eat them for us. Chickens clearly have digestive systems optimized for insect eating.
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hmmm...Good point! I actually never really thought about it from this perspective. The arguments I originally heard were about how all of these people groups all over the world eat bugs. ...but now that you mention it, I can't think of one off the top of my head that actually prepares them and makes it a part of their culture. You've really got me doubting my old opinion on this here.
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Think how common bugs are, and how desperately poor humans were in the past.
If, say, eating earthworms was a good idea surely there'd be some kind of "worm soup" or something in European culture? We've known how to collect and worms on large numbers for use as fishing bait since forever. Yet pretty much no-one eats worms. Instead we have a long tradition of raising chickens on top of compost piles and letting the chickens eat the worms for us, even though that gets you something like 1/10th the meat as eating the worms directly.
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Thanks! Rare to see someone admit new information and arguments changed their mind. Needs to happen more often.
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Stakes were low. I convinced someone in my community that worms taste terrible. Now on to Ukraine Russia and NATO
Plus if Jason ate a worm 🪱 or insect 🐞 he would realize his mistake.
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So to clarify, I've never been a worm fan and I've been eating crickets and grasshoppers (and chicken and beef and dandelions and fish) for years. They really don't taste bad. Termites are good too, but I don't trust the ones in my area like I do when I can go to the jungle. I doubt I'll stop eating these bugs. Most important, I've also always been against any big entity telling people what to eat.
What @petertodd has honestly debunked for me is the idea that insects are a viable protein alternative. Over the years, people have suggested lots of plant based protein alternatives only to find out after the fact that they lack a certain amino-acid. The whole combination was supposed to work on paper, but there were too many unknown-unknowns and the population ended up malnourished or with some other problem. This is where the traditional wisdom he mentions comes in handy. It's because of the combination of chicken being so boring by itself, and its nutritional value, that humans have figured out so many different ways to prepare it. So I'm still not convinced to avoid eating bugs out in the woods. I'm just probably not going to buy that power bar at this point. Thanks again @petertodd and @Signal312 for those insights.
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