# Are Crickets the Food of the Future?



## Kyle R (Sep 30, 2015)

Some companies are touting crickets as the protein source of the future. They require less feed than cattle, pork, or chicken. They need less water. They provide more protein.

Essentially, they are said to be a more efficient, more nutritious source of food. They even produce less methane gas than other sources of protein, thus being less harmful to the planet.



















Cricket farms are already popping up, complete with humane methods of killing the protein-rich creepy crawlies. (http://bigcricketfarms.com/faq.html)

Insects are already a food staple in many countries, such as Mexico, China, Brazil, and Thailand. Will the rest of the world catch on?






What do you think? Will crickets be the food of the future? Will we be eating cricket burgers, cricket cereal, and cricket pasta? Cricket milk and cricket beer? Cricket powder baby formula?


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## Deleted member 56686 (Sep 30, 2015)

It would be a lot more economical. My basement is overrun with crickets sometimes :lol:


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## Sonata (Sep 30, 2015)

Kyle R said:


> What do you think? Will crickets be the food of the future? Will we be eating cricket burgers, cricket cereal, and cricket pasta? Cricket milk and cricket beer? Cricket powder baby formula?



If so then you are welcome to it. Not me though.


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## LeeC (Sep 30, 2015)

As always mankind shoots themselves in the foot 

Reminds me of a study of Mormon crickets (_Anabrus simplex_). Though it's actually a shieldbacked katydid, not a cricket, it is larger in growing to almost three inches. Anyway I was thinking of when they reach swarming stage. The outermost Mormon crickets don't move away from the swarm because they lack something to eat, but rather because those behind them will eat them for needed protein and salt. That is, they all move constantly forward to avoid attacks from behind. 

Of course, I see all kinds of parallels in the natural world when observing human behavior  


And as a food source for us, it's an old idea. Mormon crickets were part of the diet of Southwestern tribes long before the European culture arrived.


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## InstituteMan (Sep 30, 2015)

I'm sure they are delicious if salted and fried. :eagerness:

I'm not exactly eager to give them a try, but lots of indigenous peoples ate insects. The numbers certainly make crickets a more economical and environmentally conscious protein option than those I usually consume. I could probably manage to eat a cricket if I were sufficiently hungry or drunk. 

I hope to never be that hungry or that drunk.


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## Pluralized (Sep 30, 2015)

I would love to have my own supply right out back. But the government in the US will fight this to their dying breath because of all the big-money corporatists that back factory farming. It's the travesty of our lifetimes (or one of them, at least). 

Crickets. They're what's for .... brunch? In Uruguay, perhaps? 

Another fascinating way to feed people is fish. They can be bred in very small containers at very high density and feed people in urban settings using very little resources. 
[video=youtube;mCCN4nq7BlQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCCN4nq7BlQ[/video]


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Sep 30, 2015)

But most diets that are fish-heavy lead to mercury poisoning of some extent.


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## Kevin (Sep 30, 2015)

> they all move constantly forward to avoid attacks from behind.
> 
> Of course, I see all kinds of parallels in the natural world when observing human behavior


 Mm-hmm. Sad but true.



Mercury in fish is an accumulation due to fish eating other fish.


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## escorial (Sep 30, 2015)

That's just not cricket...


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## Terry D (Sep 30, 2015)

I think insect protein could be used in the future as a protein source for 'cultured meat' on meat farms, but we won't likely be eating cricket cookies anytime soon. I have eaten a roasted cricket, it was a bit like eating fried pork-rinds.


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## Allysan (Sep 30, 2015)

Most likely they will grind them up and use them as a food additive naming them something like Protein C. Then the big food companies like Kraft, Kellogg's and General Mills will put them in their sugary cereals and protein shakes and other overly processed foods and advertise their product as 'packed with natural proteins!' That is if they haven't already done so.


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## TJ1985 (Sep 30, 2015)

There are a few dietary choices I've made based on logic that I was born with. Silly little concepts like "Why eat things that are healthy but so disgusting that ya barf 'em up again?" and "Don't eat green furry meat." The second one is irrelevant here but the first fits neatly. Crickets may be a superfood, but by the time I'm that far down the food chain I'll contemplate vegetarianism with a twist: I'll grow chickens so I can have meat with it!


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## LeeC (Sep 30, 2015)

Terry D said:


> I think insect protein could be used in the future as a protein source for 'cultured meat' on meat farms, but we won't likely be eating cricket cookies anytime soon. I have eaten a roasted cricket, it was a bit like eating fried pork-rinds.


No offence intended Terry and I'm not suggesting this is what you were alluding to, but I find it humorous that humans might believe they can subjugate nature to the point of existing above and beyond its framework, considering as I do that we're but a liminal thread in the chain and diversity of physical life. It's an entertaining distraction though  

Anyway, you're spot on about roasted cricket -- fried over an open fire in my case as they're a good survival food if one has to make do in the wilderness ;-)


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## belthagor (Sep 30, 2015)

mrmustard615 said:


> It would be a lot more economical. My basement is overrun with crickets sometimes :lol:



Starting your own farm is an epic undertaking,

Are you sure you have the time?

(Also please hire me)


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## walker (Sep 30, 2015)

Mankind would still be better off eating rice and beans than crickets, because as you move up trophic levels some of the energy stored by photosynthesis is lost to heat. 

In other words, we're better off eating whatever a cricket eats than eating the cricket, because the cricket burns off some of what it eats, turning only what's left into cricket. 

Or put still another way, you're better off harvesting a wheat field than trapping and eating every last locust of the swarm that destroys the field. There is less energy in the locust swarm than there was in the wheat, by definition. It has to work that way. Energy is lost to metabolism.

A diet of rice and beans provides more protein than any human being needs, and, to me at least, is more palatable.


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## J Anfinson (Sep 30, 2015)

You guys enjoy. I don't plan on giving up the tasty critters I'm accustomed to. For survival it's a different ballgame.


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## Kevin (Sep 30, 2015)

At some point, Mankind will be reduced to crawling around on their bellies eating bugs....


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## am_hammy (Sep 30, 2015)

I suppose because of the world I've grown up in, I can't imagine eating a cricket, especially since I'm dramatically terrified of them, even though I know they are just doing their thing half the time and they're probably scared of me. They don't know the power they have over me haha. If I had to eat them though, and they were what was replaced with other things, I'd deal with it. I'm sure the food industry will find a way to market them so that people would be more inclined to switch over. It will be interesting to see.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Oct 1, 2015)

LeeC said:


> No offence intended Terry and I'm not suggesting this is what you were alluding to, but I find it humorous that humans might believe they can subjugate nature to the point of existing above and beyond its framework, considering as I do that we're but a liminal thread in the chain and diversity of physical life. It's an entertaining distraction though
> 
> Anyway, you're spot on about roasted cricket -- fried over an open fire in my case as they're a good survival food if one has to make do in the wilderness ;-)



Well, if you think about it, we're pretty much the only creatures that 'escaped,' in a way, the food chain.

Every other animal lives it's life in that state of survival... and we don't. 

I certainly don't believe we can completely control everything. But I certainly enjoy living without the constant fear of being eaten. 8)

And if it's more efficient to eat crickets instead of steak.... sure. If they grind em into a powder or make insect burger patties... that doesn't sound too bad at all. I'd eat em.


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## TJ1985 (Oct 1, 2015)

am_hammy said:


> I'm sure the food industry will find a way to market them so that people would be more inclined to switch over. It will be interesting to see.



Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! There any many meat cuts that are commonly included in certain products I won't name and most people wouldn't eat 'em if they knew. "Chicken Byproducts" are really commonplace in products and having worked for a short time on a farm that raised chickens for eggs and meat I can assure you, those "byproducts" aren't breast, thigh, or wing. If the world sank so low that crickets were considered good eats, pureeing would erase 90% of the recognizable features and pairing with a strongly favored rider would make it so most folks wouldn't know they were eating like a frog. How they'll get past the ingredients list will be the true challenge. "Okay, we've got to put the ingredients on it. Any idea what to do with the cricket issue?" (Awkward silence.) "Well, Gryllidae is a tidy little name. If that fails we can always title 'em Garden Byproducts, 'cause I'm always killing ten or twenty in my garden." "Eureka! Gryllidae Garden Byproduct! Now to new business, what are we having for lunch?" 

"Anything we don't manufacture..."


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## Sonata (Oct 1, 2015)

Kevin said:


> At some point, Mankind will be reduced to crawling around on their bellies eating bugs....



If I am not in my chair, I have to crawl around on my belly.  So what.  But I will not eat bugs.


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## Kevin (Oct 1, 2015)

'Insect burgers'... Mmm, yummy. 
_

Hey Mom, what's for dinner?
__
What, Kids?  Oh, I'm making Insect burgers.

Yay!

But these are special, they're Cockroach Burgers.

Oh, Boy! Thanks Mom. You're the best.

You're welcome, Kids._


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## Winston (Oct 4, 2015)

Two words:  Soylent Green.


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## TipGrundlefunk (Oct 4, 2015)

Well said Winston, Soylent Green's definitely the way forward...


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## Winston (Oct 4, 2015)

TipGrundlefunk said:


> Well said Winston, Soylent Green's definitely the way forward...



I'm a Walking Dead fan.  In "The Zombie Apocalypse" there will be a lot of available protein for those wiling to take advantage of it.

Pre-heat oven to 425F.  Bake for 30 to 45 min.  Season to taste.  Enjoy!  (I'm talking about crickets, of course...)


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## Mesafalcon (Oct 13, 2015)

I would rather not eat insects unless some kind of world wide food shortage occured. 

I just can't wrap my head around it. I just can't no matter how much logic I try to tap into.


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