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posted by cmn32480 on Friday November 20 2015, @04:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the stomach-bugging-you? dept.

Fast Coexist reports on the Edible Insect Desktop Hive, a kitchen gadget designed to raise mealworms (beetle larva), a food that has the protein content of beef without the environmental footprint. The hive can grow between 200 and 500 grams of mealworms a week, enough to replace traditional meat in four or five dishes.

The hive comes with a starter kit of "microlivestock," and controls the climate inside so the bugs have the right amount of fresh air and the right temperature to thrive. If you push a button, the mealworms pop out in a harvest drawer that chills them. You're supposed to pop them in the freezer, then fry them up or mix them into soup, smoothies, or bug-filled burgers. "Insects give us the opportunity to grow on small spaces, with few resources," says designer Katharina Unger, founder of Livin Farms, the company making the new home farming gadget. "A pig cannot easily be raised on your balcony, insects can. With their benefits, insects are one part of the solution to make currently inefficient industrial-scale production of meat obsolete."

Of course, that assumes people will be willing to eat them. Unger thinks bugs just need a little rebranding to succeed, and points out that other foods have overcome bad reputations in the past. "Even the potato, that is now a staple food, was once considered ugly and was given to pigs," says Unger adding that sushi, raw fish, and tofu were once considered obscure products. "Food is about perception and cultural associations. Within only a short time and the right measures, it can be rebranded. . . . Growing insects in our hive at home is our first measure to make insects a healthy and sustainable food for everyone."


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday November 20 2015, @06:59PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Friday November 20 2015, @06:59PM (#265910)

    Its all about Perception.

    Lobster, crab, shrimp, prawns. As a friend calls them "sea bugs". We consider them delicacies even though they are more closely related to cockroaches than than anything else humans eat.

    Clam, abalone, oysters. Most closely related to snails.

    Escargot, A common garden snail with garlic butter.

    In the Florida Keys you can get Conch chowder. Conchs are giant sea snails.

    There are some places where you can get an isopod (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_isopod) for dinner, they taste like crab. Closest land relative is the wood louse and pill bug.

    The only aversions to eating common insects like crickets and even cockroaches is our cultural programing. as children we are taught that bugs are "creepy, slimy and disgusting" so that is how we think of them as adults.

    Perceptions can be changed, we just need to keep an open mind about things.

    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
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  • (Score: 2) by quacking duck on Friday November 20 2015, @07:17PM

    by quacking duck (1395) on Friday November 20 2015, @07:17PM (#265920)

    I have friends who love meat but won't eat seafood because they can "see their face", or the texture is too rubbery, or other reasons. For some, this means no whole fish when the head is included.

    Meanwhile, I have no problem eating shrimp, lobster, and other seafood, but I *am* icked by the thought of eating bugs. At least if I can see them; maybe if it were mashed up and processed into something else like a sausage the thought of eating it won't turn my stomach.

    It's definitely a learned preference; if I hadn't grown up with seafood as a staple, would I also shy away from seafood?

    The current generation of westerners is very unlikely to pick up this new taste, it will take at least a generation of high prices on current meat before the west has a chance at accepting insects as a food source on a large scale.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @07:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @07:54PM (#265939)

      Bushnigger guy here.

      Your squeamish friends are missing out on the best part of eating fresh ama ebi or lobster sushi - that the still-live creature gets to see you eat its tail, with antennae and legs moving. Then, the chef deep-fries the heads and returns them to you to eat.

      Its also no secret that the head is one of the best parts of fish - the cheek meat is ethereal, just be aware that the eyes' lenses are hard. There are fewer great pleasures in this world than whole fish cooked by a Mexican woman. Every bite is buttery orgasmic goodness.

      Yup, eating animals. Fuckin' ROCKS!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 20 2015, @09:05PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday November 20 2015, @09:05PM (#265972) Journal

      I would sooner become a vegetarian than get my meat from bugs. Survival situation? OK, sure. But eating bugs is gross and pointless. Deep-fried scorpions taste like nothing. Silk worms taste like an even nastier version of brussels sprouts. Grasshoppers are usually (as I've had them) like eating sunflower seed shells.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 2) by albert on Sunday November 22 2015, @07:03AM

    by albert (276) on Sunday November 22 2015, @07:03AM (#266469)

    Nearly all creatures dislike eating poo. There are a few notable exceptions, but this is fairly universal.

    I'd probably enjoy eating bugs, except... you expect me to eat them whole, including the poo! No, I'm not doing that. Look, I eat chicken and pork and beef and crab and scallops... but you won't see me eating the poo. That part is removed, normally before my meat even reaches the store.

    Ditch the poo and I'll go for it.