EU to spend 3 million Euros to promote eating insects 'as alternative source of protein'

[Chinon00]

"Some academics believe that the expense and environmental cost of raising livestock means that insect-eating will be inevitable. . ."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

Honestly speaking, I'm ready!

[cacruden]

The stupid thing about this is not eating insects but some Eurocrat deciding what protein people should eat..... they would have been more than comfortable in the old USSR planning bureau..... although even they did not try to go that far!

[Chinon00]

So you don't buy the idea that there is or soon will be a food shortage and that alternative protein sources need to be looked at?

[cacruden]

When/if there is a food shortage, there will be lots of bugs for you to eat - you don't need the government for that.... government has to have priorities - and I don't see promoting bugs as one of those..... This is exactly why so many countries are messed up, try to do everything for everyone - and end up doing nothing well.

I eat crickets and hoppers sometimes as a snack with beer - the government did not create the marketplace, nor convince me to try them....

[Veggo]

Jiminy, I have not eaten an insect intentionally. Maybe I have seen Papillon too many times. Two geckos live in my Florida lanai (they have had ample opportunities to leave, but they seem to prefer it). They have a water dish/swimming pool, and it's fun watching them stalk insects. Or maybe I have too much time on my hands.

[tardigrade]

People have been eating insects in Mexico for centuries. I've had grasshoppers prepared Oaxacan style - marinated in lime juice and chiles, grilled, and tossed with salt. The predominant taste was the marinade: the grasshoppers themselves were just crunchy, tasting a little like popcorn. They seem to be a lot of work to prepare, since the heads, wings and legs were removed. I suppose if people started farming them they could be bred up to jumbo shrimp size.

[Tudor_rose]

It's an inexpensive alternative form of low fat protein, and many of us already eat "bugs" in the form of lobster and other crustaceans, which are related to insects. I can't complain because for many parts of the world, insects are a main source of food, and there's nothing wrong with it for them.

[EWSflash]

I wonder if that's part of the reason the EU's going broke.

[Chinon00]

I think it's a good investment. As the article states farming insects is cheap (relative to cows, chickens, etc), there are health benefits to consuming insects, and the increased demand for protein sources makes it almost inevitable.

[Harters]

Nope. We're going broke in the EU because of the well publicised excesses of American capitalism.

[RUK]

A bowl of Racht, anyone? Make sure it is nice and fresh.
I am not a Klingon.... :-)

[John Francis]

Back in the '50s, I remember my parents getting some chocolate-covered ants and grasshoppers, and I actually tried them. Even at 12 I wasn't a picky eater. As I remember, it was just crunchy chocolate, no other flavor that I could detect.

[Chinon00]

I might not wanna work at an insect farm but I'd be willing to try just about any culinary creations that come out of this exercise.

[cacruden]

Well, I eat them sometimes as a snack with beer.... it is all how they are prepared. For me it is supplementary - not alternative source - since I am not going to stop eating the bigger critters like cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, or.... rabbits.

[cacruden]

just have to remember to remove their hind legs first since those small hair like leg parts can irritate the windpipe....

[Harters]

Good to see the Daily Mail running true to form - running yet another story which allows its readership an anti-EU rant.