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 A growing need for more food sources as well as a desire to
treat animals more humanely have proponents predicting
entomophagy, or eating insects, will eventually spread more
heavily to western and developed countries. They envision
pancakes made with cricket flour or falafel chocked full of
mealworm goodness will be just as desirable as sushi.
"Sushi took 30, 40 years to really become a normal thing, but
kale took like five years and kale's not even very tasty," said
Allen, head of Austin, Texas-based Little Herds, a nonprofit
founded to educate the public on the nutritional and
environmental benefits of edible insects.
Allen and about 150 others are gathering at Wayne State
University in Detroit through Saturday to talk about edible bugs
and how to grow the nascent industry. The conference is being
billed as the first of its kind in the United States.
They want to overcome what one speaker called thusene "yuck
factor," a feeling shared by many in the United States and other
developed countries.
From ants and beetle larvae eaten by tribes in Africa to
crispy-fried locusts enjoyed in Thailand, almost 2,000 insect
species are dined on by about two billion people globally today,
according to a 2013 United Nations report. With the world's
population growth indicating food production will need to almost
double by 2050, people need to check their revulsion and give
bugs a second look, the report said.
Since food scientist Lee Cadesky envisions a huge food sector
over time, he and his brother founded C-fu Foods in Toronto, an
ingredient company that makes meat, dairy and egg alternatives
from insects.
Under the brand name One Hop Kitchen, they will launch this week
the sale of two kinds of insect Bolognese pasta sauce made with
mealworms and crickets as the stand in for the traditional
ground beef ingredient. Cadesky said it fooled most consumers in
taste tests at food trade shows.
Edible bugs are already gaining traction with niche markets like
those wanting a gluten free diet or wanting to better protect
the environment because farming insects uses less land, water
and feed, and results in lower greenhouse gas and ammonia
emissions, industry officials said.
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Bugs also offer higher protein than other meat alternatives like soy
or even some meats, they said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration demands edible bug products
are safe for human consumption, including farmed rather than
harvested from the wild due to contamination risks, Allen said.
Products with bugs also must clearly be labeled as such and carry
allergy warnings given many bugs share the same genetic
characteristics as shellfish.
However, the industry remains in its infancy. Five years ago, few
products or bug farms existed, and even now the numbers are small.
The money invested only totals in the millions of dollars due to
further regulatory uncertainty, Allen said.
To help the cause, attendees will gather Saturday to form an
industry trade group to better promote the industry's interests and
urge more clear federal regulations.
"We know there's a lot of hurdles, but our message resonates," Allen
told attendees at the conference on Thursday.
"The public wants something," he added. "They just don't know it's
us yet."
Conference organizer Julie Lesnik, an assistant professor of
anthropology, said entomophagy was not a fad given the practice's
long history, but the industry needs to sell itself better.
To that end, one attendee's T-shirt carried this message: "Crickets
are the new kale."
(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Diane Craft)
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