Posted on 06/18/2008 5:12:36 AM PDT by Zakeet
Bugs. They want us to eat bugs.
I speak of a recent article in Time that explains why eating bugs is good for the environment.
As it goes, bugs require "little room and few resources to grow." Bugs are cold-blooded invertebrates, you see. They are efficient. Much more of the grub they eat is converted into edible bug body parts than is the case with our friends the cows.
Cows are warm-blooded vertebrates. They need to consume lots more food just to keep their body temperature steady. Their food is grown on farms. Fossil fuels must be burned to harvest, process and transport it. Farming requires lots of land and water.
"It takes far less water to raise a third of a pound of grasshoppers than the staggering 869 gal. needed to produce the same amount of beef," reports Time.
True, but a hunk of steak is less likely to hop off your plate while you're trying to eat it.
Better yet, bugs are good for us. A 3.5 oz. portion of caterpillars contains 1oz. of protein. That's more than you'd get in the same amount of chicken -- assuming the caterpillars don't try to crawl out of you.
Water bugs have four times as much iron as beef. Of course, you need to be four times as drunk to consume them.
And bugs are tasty. People in other cultures have been enjoying them for years. We narrow-minded Americans wouldn't know that, though. We wouldn't know that chocolate and waxworm cookies are delicious (and I'm not making that one up).
If you find the concept of bug eating amusing -- if you find it icky -- you might want to think again. The way things are headed, you may be eating plenty of bugs soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
In the mid-1950s, there was a fad, for awhile, of serving french-fried grasshoppers and chocolate-covered ants at cocktail parties. A friend of mine served some left over from a party her parents had. Actually, they weren’t bad until you found out what they were. The grasshoppers tasted like french fried onions and the ants tasted like chocolate-covered raisins. It was the yuck factor that made us wince.
I used to do this when I was two years old ... usually had some dirt for dessert.
Ummm... No thanks. I’m a vegetarian.
When you can fillet an ant I am in. Until then I will stick with cows and chickens.
Crawfish etouffé?
Boiled in a spicy liquid.
Suck the head, pinch the tail.
I've eaten a few while in Southeast Asia.
They're not that bad but there are few that are good.
Just because Americans don't typically eat bugs doesn't mean they aren't a good source of food.
"Slimy, yet satisfying."
In Central America, the guide had us try tiny termites which tasted just like they said he would -- like carrot. They were really pretty good.
Enviro-wackos don’t just want us to eat bugs, they want to change our whole way of life. They would like all of us to live in huge cities inside little boxes. No cars, no motocycles, no lawnmowers (because you’d have no lawn to mow inside your little 12x12 cubicle) or other internal combustion engines. In short they would like to warehouse us all in strictly controlled conditions. Because at heart most of them are fascists.
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