Edible Insects a Sustainable Food Source?
UNBC student Gerson Larios gets set to try his very first cricket – photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Which foods come to mind when searching for a good source of protein?
Meat, fish, eggs, cheese, tofu even? Probably not crickets, though the insects were promoted as such at UNBC today during the school’s ninth annual Green Day festivities.
Cricket samples were free of charge
“There’s a lot of places in the world where crickets are a delicacy,” said Aynsley Thielman, a doctoral researcher at UNBC. “There’s even one restaurant in England that just opened up where the whole menu is made up of insects.”
Thielman’s display extolling the virtues of eating crickets was by far the most popular. So why did she become interested in them?
“When a friend of mine, who’s a chef, starting cooking with insects,” she said. “And I’m a entomologist so it was very intriguing to me that people would want to eat insects but actually people all over the world eat insects as part of their diet.”
Thielman said that’s likely because they are a great source of protein. “Most types of insects have more protein in them than any kind of meat or eggs or nuts or things like that,” she said.
“But they also contain a lot of vitamins and trace minerals. They don’t have a lot of fat and cholesterol.”
And the verdict from the students brave enough to try them?
“It wasn’t bad. Just the thought of the legs and everything was kind of freaky but it didn’t taste horrible,” said first year student Tiana Mager. “It’s nutty, I could put it in trail mix,” added fellow student Gerson Larios.
Included in Thielman’s display were various cookbooks showing different ways to utilize the insect, be it used as gluten free flour or mixed into a salad.
Kryke Gaudreau, UNBC’s manager of sustainability, predicted eating insects could become mainstream everywhere down the road.
“Even if people aren’t eating edible insects today, I think within the next 20 to 30 years they’ll actually become an important part of our food intake as we have to deal with climate change, drought and soil erosion,” he said.
“Food sources will be scarce possibly and I think edible insects are actually a fun way to start talking about what the future food system could be.”
Comments
That headline question is easy to answer: nope.
Crickets are nice and crispy. You can nope it all you want, but those of us in the younger generations are probably going to see a day where we don’t have the luxury of nope.
Sorry I missed this. I haven’t had crickets, but I have had grasshoppers, in Japan. They were very good.
I have been told each of us unwittingly eats about 1\2 kilogram of bugs in processed foods each year.
More than 900 species of crickets are described; the Gryllidae are distributed all around the world except at latitudes 55° or higher, with the greatest diversity being in the tropics.
Prince George is at 53.9169° N, 122.7494° W
So we are at the northern most extent of their range.
Hmmm?
I’m pretty sure mankind could wipe them out if they tried.
Just know climate change would be thrown in there, how predictable the indoctrinated.
Too bad we can’t make a deal whereby the range of crickets is extended northward in return for a southward retreat of the range of mosquitoes and black flies….
We should have started eating the Pine beetle 25 yrs ago.
Quesadilla con Chapulines (crickets) is awesome. I had that last week in Mexico. I’ve also had them on a tostada, roasted with a “limon” spice mix.
Brother Gecko, do they serve Quesdailla con Chapulines in Puerto Vallarta?
billposer… It’s possible. I was holidaying in Huatulco. Best served with Oaxacan cheese.
This was a part of a much bigger story . It was part of Green Day 2016 . It’s featured on the UNBC website . Bit more on Twitter #unbc . Hartly2 I don’t eat processed foods but I do eat crabs , scrimp , prawns , crayfish and lobster . My wife says they’re bugs and she won’t eat them. I could live on them .
Brother Gecko, this story was part of UNBC’s “Green Day” festivities!
You might not want to mention your recent Mexican vacation to Huatulco? After all, flying to Mexico goes against the concept of “Green Day’, what with the huge amounts of fossil fuels consumed getting you to Mexico!
Some might object to you increasing your carbon footprint! After all, who do you think you are, David Suzuki, haha? ;-)
“Just know climate change would be thrown in there, how predictable the indoctrinated.”
Nothing to do with being indoctrinated when one mentions climate change!
Scientific analysis of gathering global temperatures reveals that the climate is changing when compared to previous years and decades.
I eat enough bugs riding my motorcycle thank you.
And they ain’t delicious, in fact they are usually quite bitter!
metalman.
PG, nope
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