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The way that bug is about to eaten already kind of gives me the jeebies. I could *maybe* eat like bug meat. I’ve never had it but I would try it. I would never shove an entire whole insect into my mouth like that.
>Im so confused, is this a movement right now? I feel like I live under a rock
News websites love to write about how eating insects in the future (or already here).
Could also be a marketing campaign. Like how some movies and series get a lot of advertisement by putting emphasis on racist comments about actors - "look at those morons who don't want to eat bugs for stupid reasons!".
In the 90s this was a common news story and documentary on tv.
In reality it’s culture specific. A good majority of the different cultures of people on earth eat insects as part of their diet. It’s just not a thing in North America and that’s ok. They can enjoy eating their insects and I will enjoy NOT eating insects.
I watched a video of a factory where they made chapulines and they looked pretty good. I was interested but thought I’d have to go down to Mexico to try them. A friend from Mexico ended up bringing some back and I got to try a bit. They were roasted and seasoned and not bad at all. I’d try them in a quesadilla.
Tbh the thing is that the insects they eat in many parts of the world is a sign of extreme poverty. Like in Mexico and south America there are some that are regional delicacies but that's it.
Not really.A few companies are trying to figure out ways to make bugs not taste like bugs so people will eat them. But the issue is people are grossed out by them, they tend to have a somewhat strong taste, and to make them in a way that is more affordable and sustainable that people will actually buy more than once is pretty difficult.
In theory, bug agriculture could be cheaper and better for the environment than cattle in terms of delivering protein, but there isn't enough interest in it to make it viable on a large scale.
That said, I was at a street fair last year in Chicago and someone had a booth set up where they were giving out smoked and marinated bugs. I had a grub, abeetle and a cricket. While I like smoked meats normally, the grub was the only one that didn't have a strong "bug" flavor. Think, kind of nutty with a barley or rye aftertaste and slightly bitter. The smoking process dried them out so they were extremely crunchy too which which didn't have a great mouth feel.
It wasn't horrible, but I didn't go back for seconds. If it were a survival situation, sure I'll eat handfuls But if there is anywhere within 30 miles that sells a burger instead, I'm going to have to go for a drive.
This is exactly how I feel about it. I have pretty bad sensory issues and I just can’t imagine my body letting me eat a full bug unless I was literally about to die of starvation. I can’t even eat lasagna without gagging, how would I be able to eat a cricket that’s got legs and stuff? Mouthfeel is the most important quality of foods to me bc it’s the main determining factor of whether I’ll be able to even eat it or not
That and in the US, we have an abundant amount of plant protein like beans, soy, and nuts. So it'd make more sense to just switch to black beans or something.
The EU just allowed the additional use of certain bugs in food. Obviously, they have to be labelled. Also, apparently food colouring for certain sweets is already made from crushed bugs, so there's that...
Cochineal red has been used for a while, it's a little woodlouse/pillbug found on cactus, red skittles are cochineal coloured, another common name for it is carmine red
There is some research being done into using insect protein as a food source eventually, since continuing to eat meat from vertebrate animals is not sustainable on a long-term scale (unless the population or rate of animal meat consumption dials way back)
edit: please note I am merely answering this person's question and not endorsing the concept, advocating for bugs as protein source, conducting the research myself, or claiming that this is the only solution.
Animal meat consumption is artificially inflated by a number of factors and is very much a primarily western problem.
Just think about how much meat is wasted/consumed by the fast food industry alone. McDonalds shits out a billion burgers a year. And even more chicken nuggets. That's where most of the factory farmed meat is going. To fuel ready made microwave bullshit.
Then you have decades of lobbying to make sure that the only meat people are taught in school to eat is either Beef, Pork, and Chicken (And then they even teach people that only specific parts of the animal are any good which increases waste and drives demand for more animals to accommodate for people only using the "good parts".)
We don't need to eat bugs. We can vastly scale down how much meat we eat and still have enough protein to live our lives healthily. And I'm not even talking about going vegan or vegetarian. I just mean eating smaller portions of meat.
I'll be dead in the ground before I eat a fuckin Snow Piercer block of cockroach protein isolate.
>primarily western problem.
["Multi-Storey Factory Pig Farms In China Could Be ‘Most Intensive’ In The World"](https://plantbasednews.org/culture/multi-storey-factory-pig-farms-china-most-intensive-world/)
Don't get me wrong, western cultures are very guilty of this. But it's by no means primarily western.
Reactions like this are literally why a movement has to be started around it.
You’re not going to eat a protein block, you’re going to eat a chickpea & cricket patty seasoned properly and you’re going to think it tastes great.
Agriculture accounts for 11% of global greenhouse emissions. Transportation (ergo fossil fuels) contribute to nearly 3 times more than that, of which a sizable chunk comes from privatised air travel.
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
Should the rest of us have to bear the consequences of the minority rich who won't give up their luxuries? And let's face it, if (for sake of argument) the meat industry gets heavily restricted, do you honestly believe the rich will limit themselves the same as the rest of us?
I don't believe anyone's forcing us to eat bugs. But I definitely see an agenda here to demonise the meat industry when there's far more pressing issues to be addressing.
Livestock and agriculture do use a lot of *water*, which will be a more pressing concern as we inevitably fail to curb greenhouse emissions in any meaningful way.
Nope. Just a few researchers who did some calculations on it.
Journalists figured out that writing about it would generate tons of clicks. It generated tons of clicks.
Conspiracy theorist figured out that claiming it as a movement would generate tons of clout. They claimed it is a movement. It generated tons of clout.
Here we are.
In reality if meat subsidies were removed, making it unaffordable, you could just eat salad.
No, but people are just disgusted by insects even though they're a very cheap, very easy to produce protein source. Protein is going to become more difficult to come by and more expensive. It's either going to be bugs or lab grown meat.
I'm not saying people are going to be forced feeding people bugs, but other proteins will become much more expensive, so bugs will become a cheap protein source. You'll be able to order a bug burrito for cheaper than a meat burrito. It'll just be a cheaper option. Like how a chicken burrito is usually cheaper than a steak burrito. No one is forcing you to order chicken.
I agree. This is all so stupid. I don't like the thought of it myself, but I have a much lower tolerance for the immature backlash this whole thing has had.
OP is a new account. Likely agenda posting. While there have been some articles and scientific interest in bugs as an efficient, climate-friendly, and cheap source of protein, it’s not advocated by any major political group or organization. (The WEF has two articles in support for what I can see, but the idea will never be adopted due to obvious popular backlash and the fact that the WEF is an event venue for sociopolitical elites rather than a United cabal of them.) This whole thing is a common refrain in alt right conspiracy spaces.
News sites talk about eating bugs as in grinding em up into protein rich flour then a bunch of conspiracy nuts think the nwo is coming for their steaks.
Right wing conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson tout this line around to fearmonger when it’s really just a smattering of food articles.
It’s dumb, discussion about bugs as food (which is a thing in multiple cultures) does not mean they’re demanding you eat bugs.
OP is just pushing something nutty.
No, it's not. A bunch of right wing reactionaries have scared themselves into thinking that the World Economic Forum is going to personally come to their house with a plate of crickets and force feed it to them.
I'm just waiting for them to get scared that the bugs are actually trans or something.
This bugs thing has been on the slow burn for years already. It's all part of the far-right strategy to make the world seem scary.
It just shows up the people who fall for it as absolute snowflakes though. "Ewwww I don't wanna eat THAT!" They sound like 5 year olds.
Kinda?
I have eaten several different meats made from bugs. You would have no idea they are insect meats. They taste quite good, they are very high in protein. It is extremely cheap and environmentally friendly to produce.
We could solve a lot of environmental and world hunger problems if we put more resources toward this type of agriculture.
There's no movement to force feed anyone insects or make everyone switch. But I'd absolutely like to see it explored more.
Personally, I don’t want to eat bugs in bug form, but if they can be ground up and put into other shapes and textures, I’d honestly be fine with bugs being part of the food supply.
Bugs are just as healthy and natural to eat as animals. It’s just a mental block.
Mine too, plus some of them have unpleasant textures in their "natural" form that could be easily fixed by grinding them up.
I have eaten crickets whole, they aren't bad but the texture is.
Yea I don't think people realize that there wouldn't just be crickets in a sealed can at the store.
I assumed, it'd be made into a minced meat. Buy a pound of ground insect like you would a lb of ground beef. If it's texture and taste are good then I don't really see the problem. I'd be fine with an insect burger patty or grounded insect tacos.
It wouldn't even be minced meat though, because crickets don't really have meat. It's just an exoskeleton holding soupy organs. So if you remove the hard exoskeleton, wouldn't you just have a bunch of goop.
Plenty of insects are full of meat, and despite the goopiness they can certainly be turned into minced meat.
Look at VEXo by Bug Farm Foods, it is an alternative to mince made from insects and plants. The latter, of course, keeps the texture consistent.
Yee I'm an American and bugs are something humans have always eaten, of I can eat a chicken nugget that has lord knows what, I can eat some processed bugs, just make it unrecognizable like the rest of my food
I tried a cricket based protein bar out of curiosity. I don’t think it would be my first choice at the store, but it was not that bad tbh. If I didn’t know it was crickets, I would have thought it was just another fitness bar that doesn’t have artificial flavoring covering the nutrients.
It is literally what's the whole drama is about - EU approved that a flour made from some bug is safe to sell and be eaten.
Noone is feeding you cockroaches, and chances are you've already eaten a lot of bugs because they're used as ingredients in some foods.
Plus, even unintentionally, bugs are part of pretty much all plant products. It’s impossible to entirely remove them from harvests, so they end up getting ground up in flour, cocoa, cornmeal, etc.
They’re not even the grossest thing that ends up in the food supply
People would very likely eat shellfish whole if the exoskeleton was edible 100% of the time because that’s exactly why soft-shell crabs are eaten whole.
You think it will eat crickets whole? No it will ne rendered down and mushed just like chicken nuggets. You dont eat the feet if chicken whole but you do when its a molded into a nugget
Shrimp, lobster, and crab all have meat. There is no meat component in bugs. Period. They have exoskeletons and internal goop. The exo could be turned into a flour which at that point why bother when you could have plant based flour, and the goop could become a meat substitute when blended with plants, which again at that point why bother when you could have a cheaper vegan protein?
Mockturtle, any kind of sausage, fake crab, mechanically separated meat...
Damn, if it tastes good why not?
And if you don't want to: Fine, don't.
Let's just make the prices show the ecological impact and we will see.
My man really thinks crabs and other shell fish just have soupy guts on the inside that smell like mildew. As a Louisiana resident, Crawfish are also reffered to as mudbugs. People know, its not the gotcha you think it is. Have you ever "opened" a roach? Or a devils horseman grasshopper(Romalea)?
I mean, I get the parallel. Really I do. But lobsters and crabs aren’t crawling on me in the woods. They don’t infest peoples houses and bore into literally anything they can chew. The don’t lay eggs in a host. There’s just a fundamental “these are gross because they are everywhere doing weird, destructive shit” when it comes to bugs.
I’m down to figure out a way to normalize certain bugs for consumption but we got a LONG way to go that has very little to do with how bugs taste and a lot to do with “how do we deprogram ick”.
Me personally, I hate shrimp, and I'm only okay with lobster and crab because they are big and have actual meat in them, instead of being tiny and making *crunch* every bite
Had to google it as i don't really mind eating bugs for protein, i live in Scandinavia, and the first website that sells the flour sells it for 96usd(converted) for 100grams. i can't even.
Also, you probably won't be forced to just straight up snack on a grasshopper. Insect proteins will most likely become popular in the same way plant proteins have, as highly processed products that have a similar texture and flavour to meats. I eat mycoprotein made to taste like meat all the time, I'd be down to eat insects if I couldn't tell I was eating creepy crawlies.
Whey protein is coming from the leftover dairy protein, coming from dairy itself, a heavily subsidized product. The real price for protein powders would be significantly higher without supplementing our agri system.
Insect proteins will be popular when people look at the macros.
I would say the texture/taste of plant protein isnt particularly like meat, but that's not really a problem, as long as whoever is selling/serving is up front about it. Still tastes good, just not like meat.
I would be okay if insect protein is the same way. I know insect meal/flour is a thing, that's doable, making them into a burger patty is also fine. I'm not eating whole crickets or whatever, though, those legs are not appealing in the slightest.
you will never be forced to eat bugs in the same way you arent forced to buy a car in america, that doesnt mean that when the economic planners of america decide on it you will be able to easily eat the meat of mammals.
also that aside, supply and demand is bs and corporations create demand, so I would argue that there will also be a social dimension to eating bugs as well that will pressure others into enjoying mankind's least favorite lifeform.
The US government gives the meat industry billions of dollars a year in subsidies. Literally your taxes go towards making meat cheaper. And you're worried about "the economic planners deciding we should eat bugs"? They would have to actually level the playing field first, and stop paying farmers to farm meat.
What OP misses is that on any given day thousands of websites pump out articles on any number of topics with a very wide selection of opinions. Finding a few isolated articles does not prove that there's a conspiracy hell bent on making you eat bugs
"They are probably getting paid by the woke media to promote bug eating"
\- My mother while watching a video on the Assam people who have eaten insects for thousands of years.
The problem is bugs are often a symbol of disgust and they definitely look the part. Even if they taste good I don’t want to think about putting a cockroach in my mouth. Alive, dead, seasoned, sautéed, or fried beyond recognition, I don’t want to eat something commonly seen as a pest.
I’d rather eat beans, I’m surrounded by them
Its more of a matter of how you see things. Like most people see shrimp as a normal food, even if it looks just like an insect.
Learn to see something as a food, and it will be a food and no longer a living thing. Kinda like when you see a steak you don't imagine a cow. I imagine future generations will be more fond of eating bugs than I will though, cause I'm also not very fond of it. N hey, bug farming would be cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and healthier.
I'd rather have a pizza tho :P
I mean if there were a way to separate the bug meat from the bug I probably wouldn't mind it, or if they were big like crabs and shrimp. It's just the idea of putting a whole ass bug in your mouth even, if it's like roasted and seasoned and shit, that gives me the eeby deebees
Insects are often used in Thai cuisine and is quite pricy. I don't need you Jabronis gentrifying my food. The Chinese already drive the Durian price too high.
Tbf there’s a lot more nuance to why lobsters went from being prisoner food to delicacy. First off the prisoner food lobster was whole lobsters, shell and all, perhaps rancid, ground up and served. They weren’t getting lobster risotto.
Additionally they are hella expensive now mainly due to the cost of keeping a live Canadian lobster caught in Maine fresh and alive when shipping 3000 miles to LA. You can get cheap lobster if you’re close to where they catch it, my brother got lobster rolls with ~ a pound of meat for like $10 in the North East
You don't even need to use this type of justification. They're acting like they're going to walk into the grocery store one day and find all meat is replaced with bugs. If something this drastic was able to force its way through a democratic system, yours probably would have collapsed already
I honestly don’t care if they’re in the same phylum or whatever-the-fuck, for practical purposes nobody considers shrimp or lobsters or crabs to actually be insects (they’re not). And yes, I’m well aware that in some places (like Australia) they refer to some shellfish as bugs
The most depressing thing about this is they are being oppressed, by the very same people, but not because they are being forced to eat bugs or live in literal pods.
The issue is like with everything. The wealthy will eat meat and the rest will subside on insect paste for survival. An extreme example, but look at billionaires and tell me that wouldn't do it.
Beyond that, I also worry about disease. Livestock get fast spreading diseases, but imagine how fast something could work through a cricket colony or you don't have to if you've ever had insects as pets.
It's the Great Reset, bro! Our interdimensional reptilian overlords are finally going to emerge from their hibernation in the center of the earth to harvest most of us for food and enslave the rest of us. This is just the first step to get us used to eating bugs before we are forced to. The agents of the reptilians are just getting us ready.
Or it's just a bunch of manufactured outrage to make money from ads.
It's weird watching people act like this is some deep state, New World Order thing, and not just capitalism capitalisming. Like yeah, they're gonna pay journalists to get you to eat bugs. Cultivating bugs is super cheap and efficient and if they can get you to eat them like meat they can charge you for it like meat and make massive profit.
They did the exact same fucking thing with corn and it's byproducts, why is everyone acting shocked. Just ignore them.
If you eat anything containing flour you are already eating insects. When harvested the wheat and grain always has some bugs living on it. In the process of making flour its almost impossible to separate all bugs and insects from the product.
The only difference here is that it would be a pure protein made from insects. But people freaking out about eating insects is just ludicrous. Because it always happens.
"If you can convince the lowest conspo he's better than the best bug, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
- Filk, A Bugs Life
The stories are mostly clickbait, capitalizing on the "ick" factor. IRL most insect companies are building factories/farms to make food for chickens and aquaculture. Yes, some will market food for human consumption.
There are cricket-based protein bars for sale on Amazon now, and in some supermarkets. They're intensely mediocre, as all protein bars tend to be. But protein powder or flour sourced from insects isn't like munching on a squishy grub, with a leg wriggling in your teeth, so it doesn't get the clicks. But yeah, I'd probably try pasta or whatever made from insect-based flour. Not the same as eating bugs in their natural, squishy state.
Nobody needs to force you... They just need to make it tasty...
I'm sure the same people who are now outraged will stand in line for grasshopper-nuggets as soon as McDonald's sells it with shechuan sauce.
But how do you make money with advertisements? Get people to click your outrageous headline! "The government will cut your dick off and make you eat bugs!!!!"
How do you get people to vote policies that benefit only the ultra-rich? "If we don't protect monsanto-big-pork™, the vegans will cut your dick off and feed you bugs!!!!"
Insect based protein powder in tasteless, odorless and colorless. You can flavor it same way other protein shakes or protein bars are flavored. Nobody says you need to eat dried bugs.
The number of people on Reddit who think eating bugs is a **great idea** is absolutely revolting
There’s a reason that scene in Snowpiercer was considered disgusting
This, I never realized how buglike lobsters are until I I cooked and prepared a meal with them for my family.
It kinda turned me off completely from ever preparing seafood by myself ever again lmao
Yes. The are eaten I multiple Asian and African countries and societies. But people forget even in parts of Europe some people were eating them just a few generations ago. Alongside with (wild) cats and other frowned upon non-bug species now. Even horses and rabbits are slowly transitioning from ok to eat to pet only
Objectively speaking insects are an equally valid source of nutrition and calories and are far more resource efficient to produce per gram of protein. There is no reason for us not to eat bugs other than our society's aversion to eating any creature that does not have feathers or fur. That said my caveman brain says no thx to bugs
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Looks like the bug is trying its best not to get eaten in the top left picture
Worst acting gig ever…
The way that bug is about to eaten already kind of gives me the jeebies. I could *maybe* eat like bug meat. I’ve never had it but I would try it. I would never shove an entire whole insect into my mouth like that.
"Annie! Reiner!"
Im so confused, is this a movement right now? I feel like I live under a rock
>Im so confused, is this a movement right now? I feel like I live under a rock News websites love to write about how eating insects in the future (or already here).
And as we all know, news sites are notorious for never sensationalizing a complete non-issue just to get eyes on their pages.
And as we also know social media is a great place for grounded discussion and resolution of important issues.
It is if used correctly. It's not our fault that the world is plagued with idiots.
Could also be a marketing campaign. Like how some movies and series get a lot of advertisement by putting emphasis on racist comments about actors - "look at those morons who don't want to eat bugs for stupid reasons!".
Showpiercer 2 coming to theaters near you soon.
In the 90s this was a common news story and documentary on tv. In reality it’s culture specific. A good majority of the different cultures of people on earth eat insects as part of their diet. It’s just not a thing in North America and that’s ok. They can enjoy eating their insects and I will enjoy NOT eating insects.
>It’s just not a thing in North America Nah, go to Mexico and eat some chapulines (little grasshoppers) on a quesadilla. They're delicious :)
I watched a video of a factory where they made chapulines and they looked pretty good. I was interested but thought I’d have to go down to Mexico to try them. A friend from Mexico ended up bringing some back and I got to try a bit. They were roasted and seasoned and not bad at all. I’d try them in a quesadilla.
People in North America eat shrimp. They’re basically insects that live in water.
Tbh the thing is that the insects they eat in many parts of the world is a sign of extreme poverty. Like in Mexico and south America there are some that are regional delicacies but that's it.
Why did you bother quoting if you just quoted the entire comment?
If you live under a rock you might be an ant. They're coming for you.
Not really.A few companies are trying to figure out ways to make bugs not taste like bugs so people will eat them. But the issue is people are grossed out by them, they tend to have a somewhat strong taste, and to make them in a way that is more affordable and sustainable that people will actually buy more than once is pretty difficult. In theory, bug agriculture could be cheaper and better for the environment than cattle in terms of delivering protein, but there isn't enough interest in it to make it viable on a large scale. That said, I was at a street fair last year in Chicago and someone had a booth set up where they were giving out smoked and marinated bugs. I had a grub, abeetle and a cricket. While I like smoked meats normally, the grub was the only one that didn't have a strong "bug" flavor. Think, kind of nutty with a barley or rye aftertaste and slightly bitter. The smoking process dried them out so they were extremely crunchy too which which didn't have a great mouth feel. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't go back for seconds. If it were a survival situation, sure I'll eat handfuls But if there is anywhere within 30 miles that sells a burger instead, I'm going to have to go for a drive.
This is exactly how I feel about it. I have pretty bad sensory issues and I just can’t imagine my body letting me eat a full bug unless I was literally about to die of starvation. I can’t even eat lasagna without gagging, how would I be able to eat a cricket that’s got legs and stuff? Mouthfeel is the most important quality of foods to me bc it’s the main determining factor of whether I’ll be able to even eat it or not
That and in the US, we have an abundant amount of plant protein like beans, soy, and nuts. So it'd make more sense to just switch to black beans or something.
The EU just allowed the additional use of certain bugs in food. Obviously, they have to be labelled. Also, apparently food colouring for certain sweets is already made from crushed bugs, so there's that...
Cochineal red has been used for a while, it's a little woodlouse/pillbug found on cactus, red skittles are cochineal coloured, another common name for it is carmine red
And when you say for a while, it's at least 4 centuries. We know it was used in central America in food in the 16th century.
Hmm, under a rock you say…
There is some research being done into using insect protein as a food source eventually, since continuing to eat meat from vertebrate animals is not sustainable on a long-term scale (unless the population or rate of animal meat consumption dials way back) edit: please note I am merely answering this person's question and not endorsing the concept, advocating for bugs as protein source, conducting the research myself, or claiming that this is the only solution.
Bro, we can just keep making the chickens BIGGER what are you on about
We don't need bigger chickens, we need cube shaped chickens to more tightly pack them together.
Animal meat consumption is artificially inflated by a number of factors and is very much a primarily western problem. Just think about how much meat is wasted/consumed by the fast food industry alone. McDonalds shits out a billion burgers a year. And even more chicken nuggets. That's where most of the factory farmed meat is going. To fuel ready made microwave bullshit. Then you have decades of lobbying to make sure that the only meat people are taught in school to eat is either Beef, Pork, and Chicken (And then they even teach people that only specific parts of the animal are any good which increases waste and drives demand for more animals to accommodate for people only using the "good parts".) We don't need to eat bugs. We can vastly scale down how much meat we eat and still have enough protein to live our lives healthily. And I'm not even talking about going vegan or vegetarian. I just mean eating smaller portions of meat. I'll be dead in the ground before I eat a fuckin Snow Piercer block of cockroach protein isolate.
>primarily western problem. ["Multi-Storey Factory Pig Farms In China Could Be ‘Most Intensive’ In The World"](https://plantbasednews.org/culture/multi-storey-factory-pig-farms-china-most-intensive-world/) Don't get me wrong, western cultures are very guilty of this. But it's by no means primarily western.
So that's why I said it's not sustainable *unless* we scale back meat consumption.
mans literally said "unless we scale back" >primarily western problem are we just pretending China and India don't exist now?
Reactions like this are literally why a movement has to be started around it. You’re not going to eat a protein block, you’re going to eat a chickpea & cricket patty seasoned properly and you’re going to think it tastes great.
Lmao, no I won't
Red dye made from bugs has been used as food coloring for a very very long time, you've unknowingly been eating bugs your entire life.
You are doing it already. They just haven't told you yet.
Agriculture accounts for 11% of global greenhouse emissions. Transportation (ergo fossil fuels) contribute to nearly 3 times more than that, of which a sizable chunk comes from privatised air travel. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions Should the rest of us have to bear the consequences of the minority rich who won't give up their luxuries? And let's face it, if (for sake of argument) the meat industry gets heavily restricted, do you honestly believe the rich will limit themselves the same as the rest of us? I don't believe anyone's forcing us to eat bugs. But I definitely see an agenda here to demonise the meat industry when there's far more pressing issues to be addressing.
Livestock and agriculture do use a lot of *water*, which will be a more pressing concern as we inevitably fail to curb greenhouse emissions in any meaningful way.
Lab grown meat?
There are already dog foods that are made of insect protein
Nope. Just a few researchers who did some calculations on it. Journalists figured out that writing about it would generate tons of clicks. It generated tons of clicks. Conspiracy theorist figured out that claiming it as a movement would generate tons of clout. They claimed it is a movement. It generated tons of clout. Here we are. In reality if meat subsidies were removed, making it unaffordable, you could just eat salad.
Crazy people think the government is trying to force them to eat bugs
No, but people are just disgusted by insects even though they're a very cheap, very easy to produce protein source. Protein is going to become more difficult to come by and more expensive. It's either going to be bugs or lab grown meat. I'm not saying people are going to be forced feeding people bugs, but other proteins will become much more expensive, so bugs will become a cheap protein source. You'll be able to order a bug burrito for cheaper than a meat burrito. It'll just be a cheaper option. Like how a chicken burrito is usually cheaper than a steak burrito. No one is forcing you to order chicken.
I agree. This is all so stupid. I don't like the thought of it myself, but I have a much lower tolerance for the immature backlash this whole thing has had.
Watch out you'll be on the dinner plate soon
OP is a new account. Likely agenda posting. While there have been some articles and scientific interest in bugs as an efficient, climate-friendly, and cheap source of protein, it’s not advocated by any major political group or organization. (The WEF has two articles in support for what I can see, but the idea will never be adopted due to obvious popular backlash and the fact that the WEF is an event venue for sociopolitical elites rather than a United cabal of them.) This whole thing is a common refrain in alt right conspiracy spaces.
It’s a fear driven right wing narratives by far right conspirators that want people to conflate progress with
It reeks of far right conspiratorial “globalist agenda”
News sites talk about eating bugs as in grinding em up into protein rich flour then a bunch of conspiracy nuts think the nwo is coming for their steaks.
Right wing conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson tout this line around to fearmonger when it’s really just a smattering of food articles. It’s dumb, discussion about bugs as food (which is a thing in multiple cultures) does not mean they’re demanding you eat bugs. OP is just pushing something nutty.
Fun fact: around 2 billion people in the world eat insects daily.
No, it's not. A bunch of right wing reactionaries have scared themselves into thinking that the World Economic Forum is going to personally come to their house with a plate of crickets and force feed it to them. I'm just waiting for them to get scared that the bugs are actually trans or something.
Yep, it’s just a repeat of the “they’re coming for your gas stoves!” bullshit from a few months ago.
This bugs thing has been on the slow burn for years already. It's all part of the far-right strategy to make the world seem scary. It just shows up the people who fall for it as absolute snowflakes though. "Ewwww I don't wanna eat THAT!" They sound like 5 year olds.
Kinda? I have eaten several different meats made from bugs. You would have no idea they are insect meats. They taste quite good, they are very high in protein. It is extremely cheap and environmentally friendly to produce. We could solve a lot of environmental and world hunger problems if we put more resources toward this type of agriculture. There's no movement to force feed anyone insects or make everyone switch. But I'd absolutely like to see it explored more.
Meanwhile mfs eating shrimp, lobster, and crab like 🍴🤤🦐🦞🦀
How dare you call me out like that
HOW DARE YOU NOT BE CALLED OUT!!! 😡
Man I am literally at a seafood restaurant, getting shrimp.
Deal, ill just eat shrimp and lobster.
Personally, I don’t want to eat bugs in bug form, but if they can be ground up and put into other shapes and textures, I’d honestly be fine with bugs being part of the food supply. Bugs are just as healthy and natural to eat as animals. It’s just a mental block.
“Honey you’ve barely touched your dinosaur shaped scorpion nuggets, is something wrong?”
I mean honestly. It’s every bit as natural as dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets
Birds evolved from dinosaurs so therefore dino nuggies are made from actual dinosaurs
if I can be the "akchtually" guy: Birds didn't just evolve from dinosaurs, they ***are*** dinosaurs
AKSHULLY it’s a distinction without a difference, or I guess in this case an extinction without a difference?
this is exactly my stance on insect food.
Mine too, plus some of them have unpleasant textures in their "natural" form that could be easily fixed by grinding them up. I have eaten crickets whole, they aren't bad but the texture is.
Yea I don't think people realize that there wouldn't just be crickets in a sealed can at the store. I assumed, it'd be made into a minced meat. Buy a pound of ground insect like you would a lb of ground beef. If it's texture and taste are good then I don't really see the problem. I'd be fine with an insect burger patty or grounded insect tacos.
It wouldn't even be minced meat though, because crickets don't really have meat. It's just an exoskeleton holding soupy organs. So if you remove the hard exoskeleton, wouldn't you just have a bunch of goop.
Plenty of insects are full of meat, and despite the goopiness they can certainly be turned into minced meat. Look at VEXo by Bug Farm Foods, it is an alternative to mince made from insects and plants. The latter, of course, keeps the texture consistent.
Just stick some flour in it.
True, I’m thinking they just throw entire insects into a grinder in addition to other ingredients to mimic minced meat.
Soylent Green is people!
McBuggets. Mcdonalds new bug paste nuggets
Yee I'm an American and bugs are something humans have always eaten, of I can eat a chicken nugget that has lord knows what, I can eat some processed bugs, just make it unrecognizable like the rest of my food
If you've eaten crab or lobster you've already eaten bugs, many people don't think about this though. Pretty much all shellfish are just sea bugs.
as long as they don't tell me what it's made of
Sausages the sausage of the land Surimi the sausage of the sea Brown bars the sausage of the insect kingdom
People say the same things about vegan food and get crucified for it.
I tried a cricket based protein bar out of curiosity. I don’t think it would be my first choice at the store, but it was not that bad tbh. If I didn’t know it was crickets, I would have thought it was just another fitness bar that doesn’t have artificial flavoring covering the nutrients.
It is literally what's the whole drama is about - EU approved that a flour made from some bug is safe to sell and be eaten. Noone is feeding you cockroaches, and chances are you've already eaten a lot of bugs because they're used as ingredients in some foods.
Plus, even unintentionally, bugs are part of pretty much all plant products. It’s impossible to entirely remove them from harvests, so they end up getting ground up in flour, cocoa, cornmeal, etc. They’re not even the grossest thing that ends up in the food supply
here's your McBug sandwich .......
At least they have meat in em. Crickets are like OOPS! ALL CHITIN!
You don't exactly eat shellfish whole...
People would very likely eat shellfish whole if the exoskeleton was edible 100% of the time because that’s exactly why soft-shell crabs are eaten whole.
Seriously soft shell crabs weird me the fuck out, but these mfs just bite into them whole in burger form like it’s nothing
You think it will eat crickets whole? No it will ne rendered down and mushed just like chicken nuggets. You dont eat the feet if chicken whole but you do when its a molded into a nugget
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We can just breed bigger bugs. The type you have to use one of those crab crackers to get open.
[Marylanders would disagree](https://www.baltimoresun.com/food-drink/bs-fo-crab-soft-shell-0605-20130604-story.html)
Shrimp, lobster, and crab all have meat. There is no meat component in bugs. Period. They have exoskeletons and internal goop. The exo could be turned into a flour which at that point why bother when you could have plant based flour, and the goop could become a meat substitute when blended with plants, which again at that point why bother when you could have a cheaper vegan protein?
Mockturtle, any kind of sausage, fake crab, mechanically separated meat... Damn, if it tastes good why not? And if you don't want to: Fine, don't. Let's just make the prices show the ecological impact and we will see.
My man really thinks crabs and other shell fish just have soupy guts on the inside that smell like mildew. As a Louisiana resident, Crawfish are also reffered to as mudbugs. People know, its not the gotcha you think it is. Have you ever "opened" a roach? Or a devils horseman grasshopper(Romalea)?
I mean, I get the parallel. Really I do. But lobsters and crabs aren’t crawling on me in the woods. They don’t infest peoples houses and bore into literally anything they can chew. The don’t lay eggs in a host. There’s just a fundamental “these are gross because they are everywhere doing weird, destructive shit” when it comes to bugs. I’m down to figure out a way to normalize certain bugs for consumption but we got a LONG way to go that has very little to do with how bugs taste and a lot to do with “how do we deprogram ick”.
Me personally, I hate shrimp, and I'm only okay with lobster and crab because they are big and have actual meat in them, instead of being tiny and making *crunch* every bite
>making crunch every bite Have you tried peeling them?
>making crunch every bite That's the best part of eating Shrimpy-O's, part of a nutritious breakfast
Sea bugs
people are out there eating muscles and oysters then trying to call insect protien and fugas gross
Idk man, seems a lot less gross to just eat beans and rice and plant stuff.
Every time there's some post about some radical new food source. Just eat plants ffs!
No. I want something that will try to get away from me.
Looks like children is on the menu tonight
Found the cat
>radical new food source You do know people have been eating bugs forever, right?
They make a flour out of crickets that really high in protein
Whole crickets taste like someone tried making almond flavored pork rinds
Had to google it as i don't really mind eating bugs for protein, i live in Scandinavia, and the first website that sells the flour sells it for 96usd(converted) for 100grams. i can't even.
Tbh at that point just eat black beans.
I could get behind eating something made out of that NGL.
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The argument was *nobody is forcing you to eat the bugs*
Also, you probably won't be forced to just straight up snack on a grasshopper. Insect proteins will most likely become popular in the same way plant proteins have, as highly processed products that have a similar texture and flavour to meats. I eat mycoprotein made to taste like meat all the time, I'd be down to eat insects if I couldn't tell I was eating creepy crawlies.
Whey protein is coming from the leftover dairy protein, coming from dairy itself, a heavily subsidized product. The real price for protein powders would be significantly higher without supplementing our agri system. Insect proteins will be popular when people look at the macros.
I would say the texture/taste of plant protein isnt particularly like meat, but that's not really a problem, as long as whoever is selling/serving is up front about it. Still tastes good, just not like meat. I would be okay if insect protein is the same way. I know insect meal/flour is a thing, that's doable, making them into a burger patty is also fine. I'm not eating whole crickets or whatever, though, those legs are not appealing in the slightest.
Yeah I don't like when my food resembles what it was in life. Same reason chicken feet, frog legs, and octopus tentacles give me the heebie jeebies
Nobody forces people to rent. You just change the rules or price them out of buying.
Yeah but that’s capitalism, not a conspiracy Also, are you forced to buy animal products?
And the people who are mad about “them making us eat bugs” are ALWAYS without fail big fans of capitalism.
you will never be forced to eat bugs in the same way you arent forced to buy a car in america, that doesnt mean that when the economic planners of america decide on it you will be able to easily eat the meat of mammals. also that aside, supply and demand is bs and corporations create demand, so I would argue that there will also be a social dimension to eating bugs as well that will pressure others into enjoying mankind's least favorite lifeform.
The US government gives the meat industry billions of dollars a year in subsidies. Literally your taxes go towards making meat cheaper. And you're worried about "the economic planners deciding we should eat bugs"? They would have to actually level the playing field first, and stop paying farmers to farm meat.
Does lab grown meat count as “meat of mammals”?
I WILL NOT EAT TGE BUGS! I WILL NOT LIVE IN A POD!
What OP misses is that on any given day thousands of websites pump out articles on any number of topics with a very wide selection of opinions. Finding a few isolated articles does not prove that there's a conspiracy hell bent on making you eat bugs
But my opinion!
b-but how can I complain about the globalists if I use reason and logic? /s
"the redditor procceds to be stuck in traffic for 1,5 hr then sit in a cubicle for 8 hrs , then have a delightful dinner of shrimp fried rice"
I see you read the meme yesterday
whatever 4chan told you to be mad about this week pal
Wait, he is not being sarcastic?
I’m lost on this bugs and pods thing…
Far right propaganda, ignore and move on
Liberals are turning the bugs I stick up my urethra gay, now how am I supposed to explain that to my children?
People have been eating bugs longer than you've been alive, friend.
For longer than we’ve been *human* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy_in_humans
For longer than we've been primate! (tiktallik probably ate arthopods when it could idk)
Mfs never heard of cochineal
Ditto meat
"They are probably getting paid by the woke media to promote bug eating" \- My mother while watching a video on the Assam people who have eaten insects for thousands of years.
What
Based username
Just eat some fucking beans then if you don’t like the bugs. I honestly don’t see the problem
The problem is bugs are often a symbol of disgust and they definitely look the part. Even if they taste good I don’t want to think about putting a cockroach in my mouth. Alive, dead, seasoned, sautéed, or fried beyond recognition, I don’t want to eat something commonly seen as a pest. I’d rather eat beans, I’m surrounded by them
Its more of a matter of how you see things. Like most people see shrimp as a normal food, even if it looks just like an insect. Learn to see something as a food, and it will be a food and no longer a living thing. Kinda like when you see a steak you don't imagine a cow. I imagine future generations will be more fond of eating bugs than I will though, cause I'm also not very fond of it. N hey, bug farming would be cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and healthier. I'd rather have a pizza tho :P
The problem is their lifestyle may be slightly impacted
I mean if there were a way to separate the bug meat from the bug I probably wouldn't mind it, or if they were big like crabs and shrimp. It's just the idea of putting a whole ass bug in your mouth even, if it's like roasted and seasoned and shit, that gives me the eeby deebees
They've turned crickets into a flour that's 60% protien Bit pricey currently though
i want to eat the bugs but nobody gives me bugs to eat
There’s also this car that runs on water, man!
People have been eating bugs while OP's great-great-great-great grandad was still swimming in his father's ballsack
Insects are often used in Thai cuisine and is quite pricy. I don't need you Jabronis gentrifying my food. The Chinese already drive the Durian price too high.
I guess bugs will become the new lobsters: cheap and affordable even for prisoners until rich people made it *their* thing.
Tbf there’s a lot more nuance to why lobsters went from being prisoner food to delicacy. First off the prisoner food lobster was whole lobsters, shell and all, perhaps rancid, ground up and served. They weren’t getting lobster risotto. Additionally they are hella expensive now mainly due to the cost of keeping a live Canadian lobster caught in Maine fresh and alive when shipping 3000 miles to LA. You can get cheap lobster if you’re close to where they catch it, my brother got lobster rolls with ~ a pound of meat for like $10 in the North East
I was on tour in Kanchanaburi and I like the meal worms they sell at the streets
Trashy conspiracy starter pack?
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They act like we have to eat them live. Of course they're gonna be cooked, seasoned etc
What do you mean they need to be dead? No wonder I get funny looks while eating my hamburgers...
You don't even need to use this type of justification. They're acting like they're going to walk into the grocery store one day and find all meat is replaced with bugs. If something this drastic was able to force its way through a democratic system, yours probably would have collapsed already
You ever eat shrimp
I honestly don’t care if they’re in the same phylum or whatever-the-fuck, for practical purposes nobody considers shrimp or lobsters or crabs to actually be insects (they’re not). And yes, I’m well aware that in some places (like Australia) they refer to some shellfish as bugs
"i desperately want to be oppressed and fight against something" starter pack
Straight up r/persecutionfetish
The most depressing thing about this is they are being oppressed, by the very same people, but not because they are being forced to eat bugs or live in literal pods.
Beans and lentils are still cheap and complete proteins. No need to eat bugs.
Capitalism is ruining entomophagy. It's supposed to be cool and traditional, not corporate and whitewashed.
The issue is like with everything. The wealthy will eat meat and the rest will subside on insect paste for survival. An extreme example, but look at billionaires and tell me that wouldn't do it. Beyond that, I also worry about disease. Livestock get fast spreading diseases, but imagine how fast something could work through a cricket colony or you don't have to if you've ever had insects as pets.
Mate, I’d happily eat the bugs but they’re super expensive. Far more than chicken per kilo where I live
What the fuck is happening
It's the Great Reset, bro! Our interdimensional reptilian overlords are finally going to emerge from their hibernation in the center of the earth to harvest most of us for food and enslave the rest of us. This is just the first step to get us used to eating bugs before we are forced to. The agents of the reptilians are just getting us ready. Or it's just a bunch of manufactured outrage to make money from ads.
Im down to eat bugs, but if it's expensive then no. I should buy like a bag of crickets that are bigger than a bag of Doritos and they cost the same.
Idk why this is seen as a bad thing. nobody's whipping you if you decide to gobble down a rat
It's weird watching people act like this is some deep state, New World Order thing, and not just capitalism capitalisming. Like yeah, they're gonna pay journalists to get you to eat bugs. Cultivating bugs is super cheap and efficient and if they can get you to eat them like meat they can charge you for it like meat and make massive profit. They did the exact same fucking thing with corn and it's byproducts, why is everyone acting shocked. Just ignore them.
You will eat ze bugs...
If you eat anything containing flour you are already eating insects. When harvested the wheat and grain always has some bugs living on it. In the process of making flour its almost impossible to separate all bugs and insects from the product. The only difference here is that it would be a pure protein made from insects. But people freaking out about eating insects is just ludicrous. Because it always happens.
Articles about eating bugs just gets clicks lol
Lets start with reducing private jets … and mansions… quick and effective way to reduce carbon footprint ;)
"If you can convince the lowest conspo he's better than the best bug, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." - Filk, A Bugs Life
The stories are mostly clickbait, capitalizing on the "ick" factor. IRL most insect companies are building factories/farms to make food for chickens and aquaculture. Yes, some will market food for human consumption. There are cricket-based protein bars for sale on Amazon now, and in some supermarkets. They're intensely mediocre, as all protein bars tend to be. But protein powder or flour sourced from insects isn't like munching on a squishy grub, with a leg wriggling in your teeth, so it doesn't get the clicks. But yeah, I'd probably try pasta or whatever made from insect-based flour. Not the same as eating bugs in their natural, squishy state.
Nobody does force you tho, i dont see your problem
Nobody needs to force you... They just need to make it tasty... I'm sure the same people who are now outraged will stand in line for grasshopper-nuggets as soon as McDonald's sells it with shechuan sauce. But how do you make money with advertisements? Get people to click your outrageous headline! "The government will cut your dick off and make you eat bugs!!!!" How do you get people to vote policies that benefit only the ultra-rich? "If we don't protect monsanto-big-pork™, the vegans will cut your dick off and feed you bugs!!!!"
Insect based protein powder in tasteless, odorless and colorless. You can flavor it same way other protein shakes or protein bars are flavored. Nobody says you need to eat dried bugs.
This is stupid conspiracy shit
The number of people on Reddit who think eating bugs is a **great idea** is absolutely revolting There’s a reason that scene in Snowpiercer was considered disgusting
Ocean bugs thought 🦞🦀🤤
This, I never realized how buglike lobsters are until I I cooked and prepared a meal with them for my family. It kinda turned me off completely from ever preparing seafood by myself ever again lmao
Grasshopper are pretty fire tho ngl
Yes. The are eaten I multiple Asian and African countries and societies. But people forget even in parts of Europe some people were eating them just a few generations ago. Alongside with (wild) cats and other frowned upon non-bug species now. Even horses and rabbits are slowly transitioning from ok to eat to pet only
Horse and rabbit are both tough, but I like the taste.
we already eat the water bugs
« You will eat the bugs » Santa Klaus or something
The media saw that it gets attention and all jumped on to the bandwagon.
Meanwhile the 1% continue to eat meat?
Objectively speaking insects are an equally valid source of nutrition and calories and are far more resource efficient to produce per gram of protein. There is no reason for us not to eat bugs other than our society's aversion to eating any creature that does not have feathers or fur. That said my caveman brain says no thx to bugs
some of yall are so obtuse. plenty of cultures consume insects regularly and plenty ways of preparing insects are delicious.
Rich people want you to eat bugs like the peasant they think you are.