Why Not Eat Insects?*

Is the title of a Victorian pamphlet, published in 1885 by Vincent M. Holt, an entomologist.
He starts his treatise with a quotation from the Old Testament:
These ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind.
Leviticus xi, 22

Why Not Eat Insects? goes on to challenge 'our' [Western] assumptions that insects are unpalatable and unclean, pointing out that they are relished in many parts of the world and, excluding those that live on flesh or dung, are as wholesome, if not more so, than many of animals we do eat such as scavenging pigs and foul-feeding lobsters. He recommends insects as tasty and nutritious supplements to the diet and reminds us that while we overlook the inadvertent consumption of such things as cheese mites, in the past spiders and centipedes and ladybirds were deliberately taken as remedies.

The same points are made, together with the prediction that global population growth will inevitably force us to seek alternative food sources before very long, by the contemporary Dutch entomologist Marcel Dicke is a compelling TED talk which ends with the serving of some delectable confectionery such as chocolates decorated with meal worms.

I do believe that this is a serious issue and one that our children or grandchildren will have to grapple with in the future as conventional food stocks run out. I've long had an interest in the subject though I must confess I don't indulge in entomophagy myself. But in many parts of the world it is taken for granted - just have a look at the images here.

I was reminded of this subject by Guinea Pig Zero's blip of a locust (or grasshopper). Vincent Holt writes
Cooked in many and various ways, locusts are eaten in the Crimea, Arabia, Persia, Madagascar, Africa, and India. Sometimes they are merely fried, their legs and wings plucked off, and the bodies eaten, flavoured with pepper and salt. At others they are powdered and baked into cakes; or, again, they are boiled, turning red, like lobsters, in the process. In India, like every other article of food, they are curried... In Arabia, Persia, and parts of Africa there are regular locust shops where they are exposed for sale; and among the Moors they are highly valued, appearing in the menu at the best tables. Their method of cooking is to pluck off the head, wings, and legs, boil for half an hour, flavour with pepper and salt, and fry in butter. As I can myself bear witness, of which more hereafter, this recipe applied to our English grasshoppers renders that despised insect a truly tasty morsel.


*OK, woodlice and worms are not strictly speaking insects but in a loose sense...