Will Bug-Eating Ever Be A Part Of American Culture?

April 27, 2017

Although most Americans are still grossed out by eating bugs, many Americans are starting to realize that eating bugs is good for you health. It seems like cricket powder is available at every local grocery store these days. So the days of regarding bugs as inedible vomit-inducing food on shows like Fear Factor are now coming to an end. At least the attitudes that most Americans have towards eating bugs have probably changed for the better. Much of what the western world knows about edible-insects comes from Sweden. Much insect research has been conducted among Swedish scientists during the past couple of years. Now some of those same scientists are touting bugs as the next great food source. In fact, the researchers believe that bugs could even become an enjoyable snack, like Triscuits, if Americans would just give edible insects a chance. According to one of the researchers, and the author of a new book that describes edible insects from all over the world, Josh Evans, avoiding edible insects out of disgust does not make sense. Evans believes that insect eating can take off in about any country since each country contains many different social groups and cultures. Here in the United States, for example, we do not live under one monolithic culture. Instead the United States is particular ripe for an edible insect revolution. There are already many people who form a big part of American population that came from places where eating bugs was accepted and enjoyed, most notable people who emigrated from Mexico.   The way that different insects taste is also so expansive that there is probably no insect anywhere that nobody likes to eat. In order to make insects tastier you may have to travel to areas where insects have been a part of a culture of a while. But Evans is particularly fond of bee larva because it is 50 percent and 20 percent fat and it has a hearty taste.   Would you eat a bug for money? Or have you already developed a taste for bugs?