Let them eat bugs…
Insects are closer to your table than you think.
In 1980, no one in the United States ate sushi.
Well, hardly anyone. But today, there’s plenty of us that are popping nigiri 3+ times a week. What was it that coaxed a hesitant public to consider going raw? Some say it was Ichiro Mashita’s California Roll that made the universe of raw fish more approachable to the American psyche.
Today, there are tremors of a what I believe is broad movement toward Americans engaging in widespread Entomophagy. That is, scarfing down crickets and mealworms like there’s no tomorrow.
So what’s the insect equivalent of the California conduit?
The cricket energy bar.
Made from a flour of dried crickets and a healthy serving of dried dates, the energy bar is the flagship entry into the western market.
Why crickets?
Three companies, Chapul, Exo.co, and Chirp have placed their bets on cricket energy bars scoring big. Of these 3, you can only currently buy bars from Chapul, which I was able to get my hands on. Exo just wrapped up a kickstarter in September, and Chirp has been somewhat silent since their appearance on Supermarket Superstar.
I’ve had Chapul’s bars. They aren’t bad, they taste a lot like LaraBars, since they’re chock full ‘o dates. Though, they don’t necessarily have a ton of protein at 7g per serving.
Raising bugs at home
Obviously, if bugs are such an efficient food source, you’d naturally want to cultivate some yourself.
Katharina Unger concepted this machine to harvest black soldier flies on your kitchen counter.
A new outfit Tiny Farms, is trying an open source approach that you can actually buy.
Whether you want to develop a product, start a farm, or you’re just curious about how bug farming works, we’re developing an inexpensive kit containing everything you need to start growing nutritious edible insects. Raising bugs is easy, and you could soon be producing enough to eat — or to sell.
No word yet on how much it will cost or how to buy one.
The future of food might look like this
…and it might not be that gross…
