There's a thin line between delicious and disgusting.
Most of us reading this would only ever eat an insect on a dare, or as part of an out-of-character experience abroad.
But when's the last time you looked at a lobster close-up? Or a shrimp? They're essentially aquatic insects. Yummy, yummy aquatic insects.
So why would we pay $40 for a lobster tail, but wrinkle our nose at a cricket?
According to Dr. Aruna Antonella, a big part of the reason is purely cultural, subjective, and eminently shiftable.
And she thinks that we should shift, that we must shift.
On Nov. 6, she'll be speaking at the
Centre for Social Innovation's Six Degrees event at their Annex location about the hows and whys of eating insects. And for $10, if you think cattle, pig and chicken farming is unsustainable or possibly even distasteful, you can put your money where your mouth is and help yourself to a serving of cricket kebab in golden berry sauce, a cricket brittle they're calling crittles (think Skittles, but with more legs), and Thai spoons (amuse bouche spoons heaped with greens and crickets), all prepared by Cookie Martinez, with crickets supplied by Big Cricket Farms.
"It's worth pointing out that insects are a normal part of the culinary experience in many parts of the world," says the CSI's Barnabe Geis. "Undoubtedly, producing insect protein is much less resource intensive and environmentally damaging than other sources of protein, especially cattle."
According to Antonella, insect protein is the future of food. All we've got to do is get over ourselves.
Consider Nov. 6 a first step.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Barnabe Geis