It may surprise you that we eat bugs everyday.
Colorado entomologist Mary Ann Hamilton says people in 13 countries eat bugs regularly as a source of protein. “Sometimes they like flash fry them in a wok, sometimes they boil them to get all the hair off and just gobble them up, sometimes they just roast them over a fire,” said Hamilton.
In fact, most cinnamon, chocolate and cereal have invertebrate legs, wings and parts. “We eat bugs because we have bugs that are milled into our flour that the Food and Drug Administration can’t control,” said Hamilton.
Patrick Crowley owns Chapul, a company that makes energy bars from crickets. He buys crickets raised for human consumption from a farm in Louisiana. He takes the crickets, mills them down to a flour and then bakes them. He says it’s a low fat, protein-dense ingredient. Crowley says at first his friends thought he was nuts.
He’s now busier than ever.
“Especially as they are aware of the unsustainability of our current food supply and the food systems we have,” said Crowley.
As a food, insects use up far less water than other sources of protein, like beef. Plus, scientists say that there are 200 million insects per every human on the planet. So eat as many as you want; the world’s supply isn’t going to run out.