2024 Bug Appétit

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock utilizes roughly 25% of useable land on Earth. A single kg of beef is estimated to require 22,000 liters of water to produce, and that’s on the low end. Insect cultivation for human consumption (known adorably as “minilivestock”) can reduce the ecological and economic costs of rearing livestock. Minilivestock uses less water and space and is a significant source of proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

In some parts of the world, insects are not only a valuable food source; consuming insects en masse can help reduce pest species. In Mexico, the grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens is a significant crop pest, but industrious farmers harvest the hoppers as a food source. They are commonly fried and tossed with garlic, lime, chilies, and salt (known as chapulines). The resulting snack is gaining traction outside of Mexico with foodies and even baseball fans. For Mexican farmers, the grasshoppers net an additional source of income while reducing the pest population.

This practice was adopted by farmers in the United States in the mid- to late-1800’s as well. The Rocky Mountain locust, a grasshopper species that is now extinct thanks to intense eradication efforts, was said to not only consume crops, but leather horse harnesses, wool straight from the sheep’s back, wood, clothes; you name it. As the farmers of the time put it, they “ate everything but the mortgage.” Frustrated and starving, settlers began consuming the insects at the behest of entomologist Charles Valentine Riley, who claimed that, when buttered and fried, the locusts tasted “just like crawfish.”

From Notes from the Lab, “Entomophagy,” October 27th, 2023 and November 4th, 2022