[klodolph]

A comment was deleted, which said,

> For the same reason we don’t eat grass. We get them preprocessed by other animals and then eat them instead because they are tastier.

The reason we don’t eat grass is because our digestive system can’t really absorb much energy from it. Eating grass requires a very specialized digestive system, and we just don’t have those specializations.

The reason grass isn’t tasty is because our taste has coevolved with our digestive system so things we can digest are tasty.

Bugs are tasty. We can get nutrients from bugs. Do you like breadcrumbs on your macaroni and cheese? Try ants instead. They give the same crunch and a similar texture, but a bit of a different flavor. I think it’s a nice contrast to the load of soft carbs and fat in macaroni and cheese.

That said, I’m still going to use breadcrumbs. I’m just not that adventurous. Bugs are treated as novelties, not food, in mainstream US culture. If they’re not part of your tradition, you end up making a big deal out of them.

[kokokokoko]

I encourage you to research what percentage of bugs are actually edible and a reasonable source of protein in northern climates. And then research the eating habits in regions where the percentage of edible and protein rich insects is significantly higher. Within there, I imagine you will find an answer.

[preommr]

> Within there, I imagine you will find an answer.

The answer to what? The post you replied to didn't raise any questions like that.

Also, why not just say what your point is rather than being vague and cryptic. And your point about what percentage of insects are edible isn't very relevant because there are like 5k species of mammals and over 900k species of insects, and we don't need more than a handful of different species to actually eat.

[sametmax]

Also, insect are hard to find in the winter, and much harder to raise at a reasonable quantity than cows and chickens.

And if your 1000 sheeps escape in the wild, you have a chance to get some back, and you will be able to protect you fields against them.

It's practical.

Plusyou don't have to care about venom when cookinh lamb.

[Double_a_92]

> and much harder to raise at a reasonable quantity than cows and chickens.

Doubt that. Livestock eats up much more energy than its meat gives back (i.e. you would have to feed 7kg of soy protein to get 1kg of meat protein).

With insects such as Mealworms that's much easier. They basically eat anything and they turn it almost 1:1 into valuable protein. Also you can raise them pretty much everywhere, even in crammed indoor farms without it being cruel.

It's sounded more like you were imagining wild crickets being collected from grass fields or something... which is obviously not a good solution.

[klodolph]

> With insects such as Mealworms that's much easier. They basically eat anything and they turn it almost 1:1 into valuable protein.

I looked up the feed conversion ratio for mealworms, I found values around 5:1. This is comparable to beef. Chickens are much better, somewhere around 1.5:1. Some other insects are better or worse in terms of FCR.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4689427/

[AngryData]

With modern factory farming that is true, but older subsistence style farming is different. Cows eat grass and weeds, I however can't eat those. Chickens can be fed scraps and inedible seeds and bugs, I can eat some of that but not all of it and chickens will actively look for their own food if possible requiring little work on my part. Pigs will eat literal shit and rotten food like it was a jelly doughnut.

[sametmax]

The ratio is more like 5:1, beside, once you fried them, there is not much of it left because they are so small. But nobody wants to eat them raw.

[miluge]

My ex roomate was growing mealworms for his iguana and we even ate them.

Raising it was super hard, it was in a plastic box with a few lights, fed our food waste and kept in a closet.

The trick is to get people to eat them, I tried and it was tasting like chips but I wasn't too hard to convince, my girlfriend on the other end couldnt even look at them...We managed to sneak some one day and she liked it but lost any trust in the food my roomate or myself cooked.

[DrJosiah]

You should check out the industrial-scale cockroach farming going on in China. Mostly hermetically sealed buildings; you can put them in cold places, you pump food waste in one side, and get sterile, protein-rich cockroach out the other side.

No comment on the taste, but you can do similar things for a variety of non-cockroach insects that may have different taste / texture / emotional connections.

If someone makes a tasty product, I'll give it a shot. Until then, I am waiting for the vat-grown beef.