Hello All,
I thought some might find the following posts from the entomology list. 
interesting. The thread has been going for awhile but below is a few 
highlights.

Maybe we should gather our dead CCD bees and make food to help the starving 
masses.

I can post the date of the "International Conference on Edible insects" if 
the list wants me to. I personally will not be attending. Chocolate covered 
honey bees does not appeal to me.


Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: FW: International Conference on Edible Insects


>I was under the impression that many non-western societies use insects
> to supplement their diet and that insects are 'creeping' into western
> culture too, especially as international cuisine.
> We will have our 'Bug Banquet' in a few weeks.
> Scott Costa
>
> On 4/14/2010 5:54 PM, Doug Yanega wrote:
>> Edible insects as an answer to hunger is an interesting topic, but
>> one has to wonder about some philosophical/cultural issues. I can
>> think of a few:
>>
>> (1) if the goal is simply to obtain alternative sources of food for
>> people who would otherwise starve to death, proposing the use of
>> insects certainly seems objectively reasonable, but can one
>> extrapolate to people who are being given a *choice* as to what they
>> consume, especially if it's a culture where insects are not normally
>> eaten?
>> (2) it's not simply a matter of objectively identifying sources of
>> insects that can be used as food, and then proceeding to process them
>> and distribute the results; the fact remains that the people who
>> design and administer any such hunger relief programs are - with few
>> exceptions - (A) not themselves being asked to partake of the end
>> result, and (B) unlikely to find the idea personally appealing.
>> Basically, would a person who thinks insects are disgusting be
>> comfortable asking other people to eat them?
>> (3) No hunger relief program operates in a societal vacuum; there is
>> a larger public and political community whose opinions will be heard
>> - today maybe more than ever, thanks to the blog-o-sphere - and those
>> opinions are also likely to come from people who find the idea
>> disgusting.
>>
>> In other words, in order for this to work as intended, the people who
>> are hungry have to be okay with the idea, AND the people who oversee
>> the hunger relief program also have to be okay with the idea, AND the
>> larger global community ALSO has to be okay with it. I would imagine
>> that this triple hurdle is why this idea - which I can recall hearing
>> about as early as the 1970's - has never been put into action in all
>> these decades, and might never succeed. My own personal feelings
>> aside, I imagine that there are a lot of folks for whom this idea has
>> about as much appeal as starting a program to convert dead people
>> into Soylent Green. It will be interesting to see how the organizers
>> of this conference address this fundamental problem. For that matter,
>> if it comes to this, why not simply harvest krill? At least people
>> don't react with disgust if you tell them "teeny tiny shrimp", or
>> call it "okiami".
>>
>> As an aside, from personal experience, I haven't found many insects
>> to be particularly enjoyable to eat. I've been unimpressed by
>> waxworms, silkworms, mealworms, and wasp pupae - and I found
>> grasshoppers/field crickets to be awful. The only cooked insects I've
>> actually enjoyed to date are fried mole crickets from a market in
>> Thailand, and the only raw insects I've enjoyed are honey bee drones
>> and queen weaver ants. I've been told that roasted scorpions,
>> tarantulas, and giant water bugs are tasty, but haven't yet
>> experimented.
>>
>> Surely, with over 10 million species to choose from, there must be
>> SOME genuinely tasty non-crustacean arthropods that can be farmed or
>> mass-harvested. If not, then I'd argue we need to concentrate on ways
>> to simply process them into powder and mix that into flour and other
>> staples as a supplement.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> --
>>
>> Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
>> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 

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