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The food of the future

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The food of the future

Postby Pepper Pig » Sun May 09, 2021 9:29 am

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/m ... is-insects

I don't think I have knowingly eaten insects but I think I could be persuaded to try.

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun May 09, 2021 9:48 am

I've been saying for a long time that this should be the way forward. In parts of Asia they breed them in the back garden in old sinks and it makes a real contribution to the diet - especially for poorer families and utilised such a small space. I haven't eaten them but can only imagine them as a bit like crisps/snacks if fried until crisp. Then there's the 'flour'.

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Binky » Sun May 09, 2021 10:31 am

Well I shan't be eating insects. No sirree.

:vomit

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Re: The food of the future

Postby aero280 » Sun May 09, 2021 10:41 am

Locusts are very similar to prawns and lobsters…

I may have, unknowingly, eaten locust once. :o

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Suffs » Sun May 09, 2021 10:51 am

I remember Bro telling me that his son was quite keen to start an insect-farming enterprise as part of the family farming business when he left agricultural college ... Bro felt that it was too early for the demand to be there, but he said he was sure the time will come.

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Seatallan » Sun May 09, 2021 11:58 am

I can imagine that locusts would taste very like prawns. It's silly isn't it- I'm happy enough to rip a prawn or langoustine apart but somehow the thought of tackling a locust..... on the other hand, I think I'd be fine with witchetty grubs and things of that nature.
Food, felines and fells (in no particular order)

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Re: The food of the future

Postby liketocook » Sun May 09, 2021 12:03 pm

Seatallan wrote:I can imagine that locusts would taste very like prawns. It's silly isn't it- I'm happy enough to rip a prawn or langoustine apart but somehow the thought of tackling a locust..... on the other hand, I think I'd be fine with witchetty grubs and things of that nature.

Opposite way round for me, I think I'd be fine with locusts etc. but the thought of any kind of grub makes me squirm

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Re: The food of the future

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun May 09, 2021 1:27 pm

We all sat down for a cold beer in Culiacán, Mexico - where Frida Kahlo´s house is.
Drinks came, along with a plate of chapulines ( grasshoppers):
chapulines.jpg
chapulines.jpg (32.52 KiB) Viewed 2742 times

Can´t really say they taste of anything in particular; they´re just crunchy.
In the San Miguel market, however, there were trays of grasshoppers, centipedes, scorpions, worms and bugs. Talking to the stallholder, he said eating them, or not eating them, was all in the mind!!

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Re: The food of the future

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun May 09, 2021 1:51 pm

I think I'm quite happy for them to stay in the mind and for them not to find their way to my mouth .... :evil:

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Amyw » Sun May 09, 2021 2:30 pm

I’ve eaten a scorpion before ... pretty much the same as KKA, just crunchy

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun May 09, 2021 2:40 pm

I have seen an article on these lines roughly annually since I read New Scientist every week in the 1970s and it hasn’t happened yet

Personally I think it’s more likely that we will start by feeding insects to farmed fish and poultry to replace the wasteful and ecologically damaging use of wild caught fish in feed, at least at first

I’ve eaten the odd insect in novelty foods, and probably lots of aphids and weevils unintentionally

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Pampy » Sun May 09, 2021 4:18 pm

In the BBC climate change programme (which I've mentioned on another thread) there was a section about a high-tech enterprise which was breeding flies for animal food use. I admit it made me want to eject my dinner but in reality, if insects have nutritional value for the animals that they are being fed to, then it seems to make sense to utilise them rather than, as Sue said, anything that is ecologically damaging.

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun May 09, 2021 4:21 pm

I find the thought of fat legless grubs/worms/maggots (or tiny legs you can't see) more appealing than things with lots of spindly legs. I imagine them deep fried until crispy on the outside. All those legs and feelers on things like grasshoppers don't seem so appealing.

I wonder if farmed fish is going to continue to be a growing industry after all the unpleasant sides to it we've heard a lot about lately. I suppose they'll disguise it on some way.

The big thing about these creatures to me is that the poorest of families can raise them in a back yard or almost on a window sill to assist their diet.

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun May 09, 2021 5:35 pm

I don’t think they need to disguise it unless they continue fish farming in the current way, if they can change to a more sustainable method then they can boast about it, and there are farms trying to do this

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Re: The food of the future

Postby PatsyMFagan » Mon May 10, 2021 9:52 am

Stokey Sue wrote:I don’t think they need to disguise it unless they continue fish farming in the current way, if they can change to a more sustainable method then they can boast about it, and there are farms trying to do this


Since reading about the downside of farmed fish, particularly salmon, I decided to buy Wild smoked salmon to assuage my guilty pleasure .... however, aside from the ethical aspect I found it decidedly underwhelming with hardly any flavour :roll: :(

re eating insects and grubs etc. it's completely irrational I know, as I love prawns, shrimp and in fact all shell fish, however, I really have to work hard at not imagining a bowl of white rice as wriggling maggots .. I am only comfortable eating white rice in a risotto, rather than just plain boiled :roll: :( :thumbsdown

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon May 10, 2021 10:11 am

Most of the wild salmon on sale is
Alaskan sockeye, a different species to Scottish and Irish salmon, it’s slightly sweeter and I think otherwise virtually tasteless

Atlantic salmon is imho better, it’s the same variety as Scottish, but I think there’s less of it about

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Re: The food of the future

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon May 10, 2021 10:14 am

Stokey Sue wrote:I don’t think they need to disguise it unless they continue fish farming in the current way, if they can change to a more sustainable method then they can boast about it, and there are farms trying to do this


We can only hope.

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