What is everyone's opinion on eating insects?
Recently I've taken a class and one subject was food sustainability. Pretty much we learned that the US eats too much meat from domesticated animals. Insects was just an alternative discussed, but it got me thinking about cooking with insects.
How would you incorporate insects into your meals and which kind? I realize this type of food is common in other countries less developed countries, but I'm curious about what people could come up with from here.
>>7175214
My opinion on eating insects is that it's done out of necessity. So if you aren't from a backward primitive culture of brown people, you should be eating meat, vegetables, fruit, etc. It's essentially your duty as a white person. I mean, our ancestors didn't domesticate animals for nothing you know.
If you could process it and make it taste good then ya, I wouldn't mind an insect burger. But farming insects seems harder than farming cows to me
>>7175219
Also there is no such thing as "too much meat" in America you heathen.
>>7175219
>My opinion on eating insects is that it's done out of necessity
Which is exactly why I'm asking this question. If everyone in the world ate like Americans, we could only grow enough food to support ~2 billion people (we're at ~7 billion now).
>>7175221
I think it could be processed to be good, but things like the wings may give unpleasant textures. I think farming insects would probably be easier, put them in a big enclosed area and they don't require much food, water, or development time.
The future will probably be very dependent on yeast for a large portion of our diet.
I don't think insects are nearly as efficient as growing nutritional yeast.
>>7175231
What makes you say that? Like we'll be eating condensed super nutritious blocks/paste/whatever instead of full meals?
Look buddy I fucking bag just thinking about insects. I stepped on a beetle in the dark once and I threw up because of how disgusting that crunch they make is. I would starve before I would eat the fucking file things.
>Pretty much we learned that the US eats too much meat from domesticated animals
1) That's bullshit, meat is great.
2) If some sort of contrived cataclysm caused mammals, reptiles, birds and fish to no longer be available, but did not impair society's normal function in the process, Americans would still be too grossed out by insects for insects to become part of the normal diet. We'd switch to vegetable proteins instead.
3) I'd eat insects if they weren't an overpriced premium product. They're basically ugly land shrimp.
Psychology prevents this, people associate insects with death and rot. So disgust.
>>7175248
I'd imagine yeast is easier and more consistent. Plus it's easier to work with as a food product as it's something people are more familiar with than insects, and can be used and seasoned in a variety of ways.
Yeast provides all the amino acids we require as dietary intake. Also it's about 9g of protein per serving, so I think you get more from yeast per gram versus insects.
>>7175248
maybe it could be formed and flavored into shapes that resemble what we called meat before global warming destroyed the planets and forced us to live underground.
>>7175265
>1) That's bullshit, meat is great.
I'm not saying meat is bad, I'm saying the quantity in which we eat it is bad.
>2) If some sort of contrived cataclysm caused mammals, reptiles, birds and fish to no longer be available, but did not impair society's normal function in the process, Americans would still be too grossed out by insects for insects to become part of the normal diet. We'd switch to vegetable proteins instead.
Sure, that's an alternative to eating insect, but that's not what this thread is about.
>3) I'd eat insects if they weren't an overpriced premium product. They're basically ugly land shrimp.
They're overpriced now because there's not market for them. The resource cost of farming insects is significantly less than that of livestock, especially cows.
>>7175270
Yes, so how could this be changed? Could insects be incorporated into food in a way that people overlook that mentality? Like somehow genetically engineer giant grasshopper, fry them up, and put them in a hotdog bun? They could be called Hopdogs.
>>7175214
When I was a kid, I went out innawoods a lot. My grandfather was the kind of Marine Corps retiree where you could tell the only reason he wasn't still there was his age; he was a scary motherfucker in terms of what he was capable of, even if he was a teddy bear to basically everyone he knew.
One of the things I learned out there was how that if you have a pan and some grasshoppers, you're gonna have a good fucking time. Back at home, I experimented with rolling them in flour and all that fun shit, and basically it's like shrimp but better for you and it comes out of the fucking everywhere.
If you pop the head off right you can pull the whole gut through with it and avoid parasites, and then just pop off the wings and legs before you cook them, because that shit doesn't really work out well once you're gonna eat the fucker.
>>7175293
>hopdogs
cute, but Americans and Europeans are trying to get rid of GMOs so making a GMO of a product people already associated with wasted food and disease would not turn out well (especially if they were 12 inches long!)
>>7175293
>Hopdogs
That's fucking precious.
>>7175315
I thought about the whole guts thing, although cooking them at a certain heat would also destroy parasites like it does for meat.
>>7175319
Hotdogs are half that size, still pretty giant grasshoppers though. I think most people are against GMOs that are mammals that feel and express pain. That's just my opinion though and it's probably not what most people think.
>>7175344
You can, it's just the gut option makes cooking them a bit more lenient and makes it safer to just crunch a few raw while you're preparing them.
>made once a maggot burger for me and my gf
>had to ad food colouring becaus she hates insects
>she said it was so tasty
I make them now once a week. She still don't know she eats maggots now once a week
>>7175214
agreed.
America's and China's meat greed is a shame for whole humanity.
>>7175214
meat tastes better than bugs. Meat also has more favorable properties. Just one example would be using the fat to make other things. How am I going to make cockroach gravy?
Ive had one of the Exo bars made from cricket flour. Not bad I guess. ....Way to expensive for me though. They are very overpriced and not worth the expense imo.
https://www.exoprotein.com/products
>>7175702
get cockroach
crush cockroach
wa la, cockroach gravy
I'm planning on studying and reading about insects for next 2 years, I will even try to build an insect's farm. It will take a lot of time so by the end of 2017 I will come back and post my results. Maybe I can post some progress pics during the years if I not get banned for unrelated content.
>>7175214
You haven't eaten a Thai bug plate yet have you? You have pick off the wings and the antennae or they can stuck between your teeth. There's nothing like kissing your GF and having an insect antenna sticking out of your mouth. Bad times!
>>7175228
>If everyone in the world ate like Americans, we could only grow enough food to support ~2 billion people (we're at ~7 billion now).
I guess some people are gonna have to go.
>>7175228
I doubt it's more calorie efficient than chickens, I'd stick with chicken.
>>7175228
>If everyone in the world ate like Americans, we could only grow enough food to support ~2 billion people (we're at ~7 billion now).
So meat will get more expensive, those who still want it will buy it, those who won't will switch to eating something else.
You don't need to do any fucking social engineering. Face it, you and everyone else who makes these posts just wants to feel smug: "I'm eating insects because I'm so open minded, not like these biased plebs". Psst: your preferences are no more legitimate than anyone else's. Get off your high horse.
>>7175214
never eaten insects, but eaten one of those scorpions like they are in the background, wasn't good, but not terrible either,
>>7175736
Yeah the shitskined Africans who contribute literally nothing but AIDS and famine
>>7175822
Insects are a little unfair in that regard. 10 kg grain will net you 2.25 kg of chicken (4,500 cal) or 4.9 kg of crickets (23,520 Cal). Chicken also needs much more water than crickets.
>>7175835
Maybe I shouldn't have given context as to why I was interested in cooking with insects. This isn't about me trying to look down upon all the meat eaters, especially since I eat meat myself. This wasn't supposed to turn into a debate on the future of food sources, it was supposed to be about insect cookin. I argued back, so I'm partially to blame for this, but when someone is wrong on the internet I can't just not say something.
>>7175293
i think there is no way to stop people from associating insects with bad things so grinding them down would be the best method of making them edible
it would of course be much more expensive than wheat flour but cheaper than meat which it is supposed to partly replace
>>7175907
similar amounts of protein though which is why people eat chicken in the first place
I'd be open to it if they were prepared on the sort of scale beef is, but good fucking luck getting the first world at large to accept it given the knee-jerk reaction.
I think at the least processed foods like cricket burgers are the first step. You need to make the food look different enough that people will actually try it, then once they have the resentment will hopefully fade.
Also, by the time real traction happens on bug meat, in vitro meat will probably be a more appealing and almost as cost-efficient alternative.
>>7175214
I haven't tried it but I'd give it a shot for sure. Having not tried it I don't know how I'd incorporate it into other dishes.
>>7175947
I agree. With a steak you don't see the whole cow, its a strange disassociated feeling from the animal that provided the meat. With insects, nobody tries to hide it.
>>7175214
Stupid reaction to the world's food supply problem. Lab grown meat and nutritional yeast will largely offset things like ground meat, hot dogs, etc in the near future. Beef will continue to exist as a luxury item until something like a steak can be grown with an identical taste and texture profile.
The only people who truly advocate for eating insects are people who view being environmentally conscious as some sort of individual moralistic identity.
another protein dish with yet another taste, sure.
But like with shrimps, if i have to peel the shells myself then they can rot on the supermarket shelves for all i care.
Do that shit in a factory or just process ti into a sausage
>>7175907
So you eat them and while you're at it take some syrian refugees into your house.
>>7175214
Maybe if it wasn't such a taboo food you would have an entire, developed cuisine around them.
It's great. They're nutritious. They're cheap to produce. They're great for the environment. It's not cruel and susceptible to abuse because they don't have sentience.
Shit I wish there was a market for it in the western world. As it stands, it's a luxury food and really expensive.
>>7175248
S O Y L E N T G R E E N
>>7175907
I don't even have anything against eating insects. It's just I often see suggestions of doing so made with the justification, "everyone will need to eat insects because we won't be able to produce meat anymore, but they won't want to because they're stupid and closed-minded, unlike myself, so we're going to have to find ways to force them to do it :^)", which I find utterly insufferable. It's fun to play at imagining everyone is a moron and you're the only clever person and so you ought to be in charge of the world and get to tell everyone what to do. But it's incorrect. People are remarkably cunning, when it comes to doing things that are in their interest. A problem like "but what do we do if meat gets expensive?" does not need some solution created from on high. It will absolutely solve itself. People will not literally starve because they can't afford meat but can't bring themselves to eat lentils and veggies. It's a made-up problem.
>>7175729
That all looks disgusting, but I'd eat the french fries.
>>7176992
lol, I think those are grubs.
>>7176992
They might be mealy worms.
>>7176992
Those ain't fries
>>7175262
Pussy.
>>7175675
Chinese people don't eat a lot of meat at all individually. Most of the meals involve a tiny piece of meat (smaller than a steak) shredded or cut to pieces and stir fried with 1-3 vegetables.
The only problem is the large population. I don't feel like Chinese kids eat enough already on average, especially considering the lack of sleep they have due to the school system. The government really needs to fucking fix this shit.
>>7175214
The low environmental impact is good but I also just think it would be another good thing to add to have a varied diet.
Most taste nutty and not weird or bad at all.
>>7175214
tacos of chapulin (i think its grashopper) are goat
>>7175214
I like how high in protein it is, and how there's already flours of it out there.
I'm not going to bite into a deep fried tarantula any fucking time soon, but if it means the bread or cookies or whatever I eat has a ton of protein in it for cheap without any real taste difference then I'm not gonna scoff my nose at that. Plus, I heard some bugs are legitimately tasty as fuck so it's worth a try to me. Key word being cheap though. I'm not paying out of the ass for bugs just because it's progressive or some shit. It's bugs for fuck sake.
>>7178134
This. I've eaten chapulines (crickets), and escamoles (ants larvae) and they're pretty good.
The problem with insects is presentation. People love chicken nuggets and sausages but most of them would be disgusted to know what really goes into them. If insect food was made into nuggets instead of >>7175729 a lot more people would eat them.
>>7175262
I feel you, brother. I hope I'm either in the dirt by the time eating insects becomes a necessity, or that lab-grown meat becomes common before it happens.
Protein powder is cheaper
>>7175214
>The next play in the progressive playbook is to make white people eat bugs for equality!
I'd rather cannibalize progressives.
>sitting at outside bar things on last day in Thailand, killing time before I take plane home
>random vendors would walk up to me every 10 mins and try and sell me necklaces/trinkets and shit
>out of nowhere this thai guy with long straight black hair (he looked like he was from a movie) comes up to me with a tray full of jet black shiny scorpions on sticks, a large size and a smaller size, with a big smile on his face
>look at em for a little bit, the guy makes an arm flex as if to say "It makes you strong!"
>ask him how much
>he types a number into a calculator (about 8 dollars)
>say no, and he lowers the price more and more as I say no.
>eventually he offers roughly $1.50, at that point I accepted, because why the hell not.
>he lets me pick it, I assumed I would have gotten the tiny one for that low price
>buy it and he walks off
>sitting with a scorpion on a stick in front of me, unsure
>start eating it
It was entirely hollow shell, tasted like a super stale pork rind with plastic overtones and was quite tough.
But hey, at least I tried it.
>>7179052
Don't be stupid. I'm as far from liberal as they come (think the boats with the economic leeches coming should be shot at and sunk etc.) and support adding insects to our diets. If it helps our environment and nutrition then obviously I'm going to support it. Especially since the only counter argument seems to be "das icky.. for reasons!".
>>7179052
What is the point of this post?
I'd rather eat millet, barley, or quinoa a few nights a week in place of meat than bugs. But bugs won't be around until meat gets so expensive people can't justify eating it every meal
>>7175214
As insects I wouldn't eat them. I have no love for swallowing a cockroaches or crickets. I'd eat ants... maybe.
Now, a powdered protein suplement? I would.
>>7175231
Your mother is a proficient yeast farmer
>>7175214
If you can't clean it, I won't eat it.
>>7175214
was eating insects in china, but even the Chinese looked weirdly because it seems more like a tourist attraction in many places... nevertheless was not that bad, but I wouldn't eat it on a daily basis. before I only eat insect I even would becam a vegetarian
if you make a tasteless protein-powder out of it and mix it with some flawor compounds - it will have a future maybe in africa or a similar shitwhole
>>7181078
I'd eat honey ants, abos ate them as sweets
>>7175214
Fried crickets are fucking delicious
I am waiting the day they become norm here so I can just buy a bag of those tiny little cocksuckers instead of chips
>>7177031
>french flies
>>7175228
>If everyone in the world ate like Americans, we could only grow enough food to support ~2 billion people
and instead of asking "why can't we raise more animals", you ask "why dont we eat less"
The reason why we can't raise more animals is because clay is being occupied by people who can't into farming (see: zimbabwe, south africa). The reason why we don't eat less food is because we'll become weaker and probably die if we don't eat enough food.
>>7182019
Africa's population is exploding with no world benefit to show for it. We don't need to be supporting their overpopulation.
>>7182325
You don't need to eat the exorbitant amount of meat Americans eat to avoid dying. And insects also supply B12 and are a complete protein source making them a good replacement for meat, but requiring less resources to produce.
Americans should eat less period so they're not so fat, should eat less meat and more vegetables, and adding some insects couldn't hurt. This is for both their health and the environment.
Yes Africa is a shithole that could be better run but that doesn't mean eating insects and more vegetables couldn't benefit health and environment.
>Tried grasshopper before, was pretty good.
>Looked up where to get insect flour to bake cookies to eat/ prank friends.
>Thousands of dollars.
I would like to eat them, but damn.
>>7176992
I can taste the bait on this one.
>>7175219
>So if you aren't from a backward primitive culture of brown people
Chinese eat bugs
>>7182695
Koreans do too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWTWc57WOz4) and so do Japanese in some places.
>>7175214
grasshopper sounds k because they are crispy but i would never try some mushy shit like spider butts
I'd be down to buy a package of roasted crickets. They're apparently pretty calorie light and high in protein. Better than peanuts, I bet.
>>7175214
FUN FACT: chitin isn't digestible by humans and can sometimes cause massive gastrointestinal distress (like eating a Brillo pad laxative).
>>7175293
>Hopdogs
That's actually pretty cute.
Basically, you'd have to ground it all up so it didn't look like insects, like ground meat.
>>7175219
>It's essentially your duty as a white person
Hey, Johnny. Did the South rise again, yet?
>>7183068
that's actually been disputed as of late
>>7175214
I had bbq flavored crickets once. Didnt taste bad but the feeling of little spiny legs going down your throat isn't exactly pleasant.
I never eat protein sources that don't have large amounts of fat on their own, thus I will stick only to larve.
Honestly in all this discussion about creating the infrastructure and reduce stigma its funny no one talks about bee larve. They literally only eat honey, we have no fears eating bee digested pollen and its very common already in the west.
Drone larve need to be culled anyways and they taste merely like what they eat with high amounts of vitamins, fats and protein.
So its a no brainer, don't get that canned hochi whatever the fuck from Japan, that stuff is really inferior. Make friends with a local beekeeper and ask for drone blend them with cream, squeeze them though a cloth and scramble them like eggs or stir fry them.
Meal worms and crickets rely on big ag wastes, I'd rather eat a insect that's from decentralized systems but then again it's my own thing.
I don't really care about eating insects as long as they're nutritious. If they are healthy, cheap and convenient, I am all for it. Taste is a matter of habit and culture.
That said I really doubt if bugs are better than other kinds of meat. Chicken or yeast or bacteria.
Step 1: grind it up, mix with flour etc
Step 2: form it into patties
Step 3: develop sauces that go with it
Voila.
I wouldn't want to eat straight up fried bugs because it doesn't seem very convenient, removing the chitin etc.
>>7175262
Are you made entirely of vagina?
>>7175270
This is not correct at all.
>>7184517
I fucking wish there was a vagina organism.
Maybe once GMOs are advanced enough we'll be able to create vaginas that are a standalone organism.
>>7175214
>What is everyone's opinion on eating insects?
When you take a step back, it's not weirder than eating shellfish and snails.
POO
IN
LOO
>>7175214
Still classified as experimental food because we don't have the research yet to know if humans can get sick from eating insects.
>>7175454
That's interesting. Post the video of you breaking the news to her.
Also, where the heck are you getting maggots on a regular basis, and how are you getting enough to make burgers?
>>7175702
Another problem is that, while cheaper to produce, you have to put in a huge amount of processing in order to reduce the insects to just their edible components.
There's a lot of value in having a single large-ish chunk of edible meat that having to hand process dozens and dozens of insects simply can't match.
You also aren't going to get anything like insect leather from the process.
>>7185086
> you have to put in a huge amount of processing in order to reduce the insects to just their edible components
You can eat them whole.. Some people complain about the legs feeling weird but those people could just pull them off themselves before eating. I've heard recent studies that suggest we might be able to digest chitin to some extent but even if not it would just be like cellulose/fiber/roughage.
>>7184967
Leave.
>>7185120
Dude, even Bear Gryllis, Mr "I drink my own piss", makes it a point to emphasize removing all the legs and wings from insects before eating them, and finds it incredibly unpleasant when he notices that he missed a few legs when he's eating bugs by the handful.
>>7185128
It's not that bad. He's probably eating larger insects with thicker exoskeletons or just being a baby for drama.
If at least they would bother to make cooked insects look tasty and not exactly when it was alive I could eat it.
I guess insects are a source of protein but I usually find them gross. I don't know why I find them so gross. I used to eat ants I think when I was little I think I heard somewhere that there was some kind of ant that kind of tasted like honey. But I might try some insects. I saw on bizzar foods where they were eating grub worms that looked kind of good but they were cooking them alive which seems kind of cruel to me so I dunno if I would want to eat them or not. You would think they could kill them simply by skewering them through the head but I guess that takes too much effort or something. Cricket flour kind of grosses me out.
>>7185122
It just cross-board memeing, chill out nerd, just look away from the screen lmao
>>7185541
Indians aren't smart enough to do that.
They need designated looking away threads.
I've had roasted cricket. The taste is kinda similar to a burnt french fry but not bad by a long shot.
They're an excellent source of protein and could potentially be farmed at a much greater rate and capacity than cattle, plus it gets vegans to shut the fuck up about animal cruelty since it's a fucking insect. Really the only reason we aren't exploiting them as a food source is because "gross icky yuck" which is retarded.
In the distant future I could see them replacing cattle farms if overcrowding becomes a big issue.
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>>7185494
>some kind of ant that kind of tasted like honey
There are. Honeypot ants.
>>7186298
I've had these, they're good.
I would 100% non-ironically eat insects if they were cheap and widely available as a protein source.
>>7175702
same way you make gravy with lean sausage, pop some butter in there. I'd be ok with not eating cows if we can still keep some around for milkin'.
>>7186332
As opposed to ironically eating insects. God I hate that saying.
