This week I will be looking out the window of a car instead of staring at the screen of my computer. Enjoy what I think is the best of The Eco Niche in 2011.
Me with Harry from Harry's Big Adventure - a traveling insect exhibit. I wrote its teacher's guide.
I like to eat.
A lot.
And I am cranky when I don’t. Ask my parents. Ask my husband. Ask my dog.
So this week it is no surprise that the article I want to share are about what I spend most of my day thinking about – food.
But where the next meal is coming from may surprise you.
In The Atlantic, Daniel Fromson asks is the world ready for soy-glazed mealworms?
Ready? It’s been done. People throughout history – Romans, Greeks, geeks – have been eating insects for protein, pleasure and the gross out effect. (Remember How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell?)
Personally, I’ve had Chocolate Chirp Cookies with crickets, crunchy egg rolls with mealworms, fish fried dragonflies, an ant h’orderves. In fact, I once ate a live grub to prove a point which I have now forgotten. But not everyone hangs out at the Audubon Insectarium or has a boss that fancies herself a connoisseur
of critter cooking. (I just dropped every French word I know in this paragraph.)
Yes! Insects can be tasty or tasteless – just adding protein and texture to a dish.
In a time of economic and ecological stress on our nature resources and food systems, insects should be looked at as a serious food commodity - not just an oddity.
According to the USDA, crawfish are livestock so why not their slightly smaller arthropod cousins?
