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| Deep-fried insects on sale at a food stall in Bangkok, Thailand |
Insects have been used for many purposes by humans for
as long as we have been humans. In ancient Egypt, Cleopatra used the dried
bodies of the kermes insect to produce the lipstick she wore. Kermes insects
are still gathered commercially for dye in Mediterranean countries and sold
throughout Europe. Nowadays a less expensive substitute is used from cochineal
(another insect). Dye made from cochineal is used in familiar foods like surimi
(imitation crab meat).
What I want
to talk about here, though, is insects as food or entomophagy. It may sound
strange, but human insect-eating is common to cultures in most parts of the
world, including North, Central, and South America; and Africa, Asia,
Australia, and New Zealand. Over 1,000 species of insects are known to be eaten
in 80% of the world's nations. 2 Billion of the world's people eat insects as
part of their normal diet. What may seem strange to you is a tasty treat for
others.
Some people
even think that it is the way of the future. Watch this video "Should we
all be eating insects?" by the guys at ASAP Science to learn more about
how insects could be the solution to the negative impacts of animal
agriculture:
More about how humans use insects:
How silk worms make silk (video by Vox)
The future of food (video from CBC News)
Oh well, I will first die that start to eat worms, I can´t imagine ME eat worms or grasshoppers; well, in the last Monday, I was going to class and I saw many centipedes, oh god I thought I´m going to die, that was the most awful insect that I saw in my life. They are terrible, and awful.
ReplyDeleteI can´t look to that insects than I don´t know what I will do when someone say to me that I must eat worms, centipede, grasshoppers or COCKROACHES.
I hope I'm not the only one thinking about this!!!!!
I'm totally in agreement with you!!!
DeleteOh,God. Strong feelings about this.
ReplyDeleteI can say certainly that I'm not going to eat them,maybe because of just the idea of them it's disgusting so imagine the insect fried or grilled prepared to eat and someone eating it. Gross!!!
Maybe it's because of our culture ,maybe not. The thing is that I prefer shrimps than crickets.