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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."
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 20 2015, @04:45PM
I appreciate the parsimony of it, but it's still bugs. Bugs are not terribly fun to eat. Real yuck factor.
Alas I have been trying to cultivate spirulina, because eating an algae that's a perfect food is more appealing in a similar footprint, but have not had much luck so far. I would raise chickens or guinea pigs for food, but there are a lot of ordinances against that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by dmbasso on Friday November 20 2015, @05:43PM
Two days ago I manually cleaned whole shrimps, for the first (and probably last) time in my life. While I was doing it I couldn't stop thinking how similar that would be for insects. It is just a matter of how it is prepared and presented. If it is convenient (cleaning shrimp is not, at least with my n00b skillz) and the end result doesn't look like living animals (I find those roasted whole pigs highly disturbing... don't you think they look like babies?), then it is ok.
Cultivating spirulina is in my "someday in the future" todo list. Is it difficult? What's the problem?
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
(Score: 3, Funny) by Valkor on Friday November 20 2015, @06:39PM
I dunno what problem cmn32480 is having with it, I can't keep a fish tank WITHOUT growing the stuff like crazy. Just put it in some partial sunlight (or full sunlight if you're crazy) and in a week it'll be everywhere.
Of course I'm not 100% sure this is the same algae, I don't have the tools or skills to find out.
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Friday November 20 2015, @07:33PM
The problem I'm having with what? I am so VERY confused!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday November 20 2015, @08:48PM
I doubt the stuff growing in your fish tank is spirulina. IIUC, spirulina is a variety of marine (i.e. salt water) algae. Certainly every time (rarely) I've tried to eat it it was unedibly high in salt.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday November 20 2015, @07:12PM
I think one of the key things here is scale too. A shrimp is really close to the bottom on my scale. You manually cleaned and processed those shrimp by removing the head, legs, shell, tail, and finally devaining (poo removal). That just isn't doable with insects and so they lie below my "it is food" scale. One small caveat is that i am mostly expressing preferences here. You can obviously eat insects and even live on them. Just like you could probably eat other people and live on them too. To each their own : )
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 20 2015, @09:16PM
I've gotten the kit from AlgaeLab [algaelab.org] a couple times and simply can't get the starter bottle to scale up. All the nutrients at the proper concentration, a PH tester to make sure the alkalinity is in the right range. I tried big translucent plastic containers, with an aquarium pump bubbling air through the mixture, but they all go yellow and die. I tried an automatic stirrer powered by an arduino and solar panels, same result.
The second time around I sprung for a full on glass aquarium with water heater to keep it at the optimal 80F, but that died even faster.
I thought maybe the lumens in the tanks were too high, or too low, and experimented with different placements and screens to control it, because everything seemed to instantly die in full sunlight. I thought I wasn't filtering the water enough (to remove any residual chlorine), so I double-filtered everything the second time around.
No luck. After two fresh restarts I have one last plastic container that seems to have become stable, but I can't seem to scale it up.
It's quite disappointing. Dunno, maybe I'll have to find a way to go somewhere and learn by workshop or something, or maybe I'll pack it in and build an aquaponic setup instead. There at least seem to be more online resources for the latter than the former.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by jdccdevel on Friday November 20 2015, @11:36PM
Maybe there is some residual waste product from the alge's metabolism that's poisoning it, because it can't dissipate fast enough? (volume vs surface area?)
Could be that large amounts of alge dying (and decaying) at the end of it's life cycle is poisoning the stuff that's stil alive.
Just a thought, it seems like you've thought of everything else.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday November 21 2015, @12:40PM
Yeah, I dunno. If it was a normal fish tank you'd run a filter to get the waste products out, but in this case that'd get rid of the algae you want to grow. You look at pictures of commercial algae ponds and they're open-air. You'd think that a controlled environment like an enclosed tank would be easier.
It has given me something of a complex. I can handle the regular kind of farming/gardening with weeds, insects, moles, mercurial weather, fungus, but this I can't master. If I can't handle hydroponics they're never gonna let me live on Mars...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by jdccdevel on Saturday November 21 2015, @06:41PM
Not really, the closed environment has to maintain a perfect balance. In an open environment, waste products have somewhere to dissipate to. In a closed environment, they accumulate, and eventually kill.
It might be worthwhile to monitor the CO2 and O2 levels in the atmosphere around your algae tank if you can, since it sounds like you're using a enclosed tank. I suspect your algae is suffocating.
I guess that depends, how good are you at growing potatoes? ;-)
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday November 20 2015, @10:13PM
Randall has similar feelings about lobster:
https://xkcd.com/1268/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 20 2015, @10:56PM
Randall is a fag bitch and none of the women he's kneading his dick over have any respect for him.
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Saturday November 21 2015, @04:50AM
Shrimp are bugs.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @06:26PM
The vendor typically sprays some slightly salty sauce on it (maybe has msg and pepper?) and some vendors add some herbs/fragrant leaves. It's a bit like a slightly salty crispy chewier but noncrunchy fried bean? Not smelly.
Goes well with beer I guess - but I don't mind eating it without beer either. In fact I convinced a friend of mine to try it in Thailand (he ate a fair number) and now he and I both agree that every now and then we go "hmm I feel like eating some fried silkworms". Problem is it's not so easy to get it outside of Thailand.
I hope we end up in a world where we have more choices and can eat fried silkworm pupae or other stuff if we like it; not because we have run out of choices and stuff to eat.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday November 20 2015, @07:03PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 20 2015, @08:07PM
Actually I think you can get the Thai style ones:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crunchy-Critters-Silkworm-Pupae/dp/B011KWHU7C [amazon.co.uk]
But that's pretty expensive for just 20.
http://www.amazon.com/Fried-Bugs-Pupae-BBQ-Flavoured/dp/B014GVL9A8/ [amazon.com]
BBQ flavor? Would that really be nice? Don't like BBQ sauce with ribs.
Not so keen on fried crickets or grasshoppers (don't want to have wings and legs stuck between my teeth - if you think having vegetables stuck in your teeth is gross to others and embarrassing to you...).
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday November 20 2015, @08:36PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday November 20 2015, @06:59PM
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."
(Score: 2) by quacking duck on Friday November 20 2015, @07:17PM
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
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
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
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.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 20 2015, @07:34PM
http://hplusmagazine.com/2013/01/02/abundance-at-the-bottom-algae-based-nutritional-supplement-and-fuel-production/ [hplusmagazine.com]
I bet crushed/powdered insects could be used in ways that people would find palatable, but algae could rival it on nutrient content and ability to scale up..
What ordinances prevent you from raising and slaughtering guinea pigs?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 20 2015, @09:01PM
New York City and its suburbs have a lot of irritating anti-sustainability and anti-independence ordinances. You're meant to drive everywhere and buy everything. As such, you can't keep food animals on your property.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by pyg on Saturday November 21 2015, @02:45AM
The same to could be said of soybeans. Employ a skilled culinary advocate (when you pay them they like to be called chef) for some ideas. I can easily see mealworm "sloppy joes" coming off as well (better even) than soy based.
I withhold comment on efficiency/ethics/etc. I think soldier fly larva will be a big hit 5+ years after eating bugs becomes at least ok. Almost pure fat/protein and heavy on the fat it rivals a well marbled beef steak in terms of composition.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday November 21 2015, @12:52PM
So you'll be the guy in the scene from Dark Matter [wikipedia.org] who grabs everyone else's meal worm burgers when they find out what they're made of [mikesfilmtalk.com].
Washington DC delenda est.