Eating Bugs is No Longer Just a Dare, It's a Potential Revolution!

Last weekend, I went to the Seattle Mariner's game with a few friends and as we were walking around the stadium I noticed on more than one occasion that there were places to buy salted crickets. Yes, the little bugs that chirp, you are not reading that wrong! I knew I had had a few incredibly overpriced beers at the game but not enough to where my eyes were deceiving me This was a real thing and people were really buying them. I actually ended up getting the chance to try one and they were pretty delicious and far from what I expected them to taste like. I knew that people in other countries ate bugs a lot but I never expected that I would be able to buy crispy crickets at a Major League Baseball stadium just fifteen minutes away from where I had grown up.

I decided to look further into this cricket phenomenon and what I found is what brings me to this week's current event which can be found here.

Megan Miller who cofounded Bitty Foods, an edible insect company has tapped into a very potentially successful market. The basic idea is that the amount of humans on this planet is inevitably going to pass the capacity available to produce food for everyone. When this happens, there are either going to be a huge abundance of hungry people or there is going to have to be a new way to get the necessary nutrients to everyone in need of them. The concept of eating insects is not a new one seeing as millions and millions of people currently have insects in their diet today, it will just be a matter of expanding that to places where people aren't as accustomed to this practice.

There can be quite a negative stigma associated with eating bugs and that is where Megan and her company are having their largest struggles with. When a lot of people think of bugs, they think of creepy, crawly critters and have no desire to put those anywhere near their mouths. Bitty Foods and other bug food producers are really trying to eliminate the negative association and emphasize the large protein content to appeal to more people. The edible insect market has the potential to become a huge part of a massive portion of the Earth's population's diet so don't be too surprised or shocked if you see more products like this becoming popular. My best advice after trying a crispy salty cricket would be to not knock it until you try it!




















Sources:

https://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2015/05/cricket-food.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smart.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/99/1a/53/991a53fabc5b883391ae0bb2f8c075ea.jpg

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