“Try finding a landlord that lets you raise 5 million crickets in his building…” I hear a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. “Yeah – we’re excited to expand but there’s a lot to consider!” I’m speaking with James Williams, owner of Crunchy Critter Farms. Williams, along with Sean Schultz, Brian Battle, [...]
Ken Navarro, creator of Rule of Yum, did not hesitate when he received the strange offer. “Want to come to a wine & cheese pairing? Well, minus the cheese. With bugs instead.” Where most would have been hesitant to challenge their pallets, Navarro is no stranger to experimenting with flavor and taste. He is the [...]
Want to know how to get people to eat insects for the first time? I’ve found the secret: throw them a bug-themed birthday party. No really - crickets, chocolate chirps, edible insect puns, and all. As someone passionate about sustainable food systems and normalizing entomophagy, I’ve experimented with all kinds of ways to introduce insects [...]
The horizon is vast, and the journey will be long, but I'm excited so many edible insect companies are coming along! Wendy Lu McGill, CEO of Rocky Mountain Micro Ranch, made a great point during her presentation at Eating Insects Detroit. She mentioned that most of the entomo-enthusiasts in the room had something in common: they [...]
Class is in session! The rustling of eager students settling into their seats softened as the lights in the auditorium dimmed. "Let's set the stage to discuss the U.S. regulation of insect-derived foods," began Ricardo Carvajal, director at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara. He was about to take us on a journey touching on what is [...]
So... we have this weird proclivity to refer to food as "grub," but get turned off by the thought of eating a grub. Ironic much? As the cost of animal protein continues to rise and food and feed insecurity becomes more problematic, we need to get serious about addressing our food choices. Thankfully, most of the [...]
And entomophagy continues to collect momentum in the press! The Digital Journal released a nice piece a few days ago titled, "Are insects better than Italian cuisine? Some people think so!" In it, they discussed a valid point: what we consider food is largely influenced by culture. Something completely normal to you may be offensively gross to [...]
I don't know about you, but it makes me thrilled when I read about entomophagy more and more in popular media sites. The Huffington Post released an article today about reinventing entomophagy for the 21st century, and I couldn't agree more. "'Entomophagy is an evolving term in need of review," says Afton Marina Szasz Halloran, Ph.D Fellow [...]
A bit ago the news was been abuzz with Shailene Woodley's behind-the-scenes video (accompanying her new cover of Nylon magazine) where she predicted that the future of food is insects. She said, "I've eaten ants...and June bugs." It seems that celebrities are getting in on the insect-eating fun. The other day I came across an Instagram post [...]
Meet Sengthong. Whether he knows it or not, he is playing a vital role in improving food security in Laos, a country where over 40% of children are undernourished. Sengthong explains, "I started to collect when I was 35 years old. No one taught me; I did it myself. At first when I was collecting, [...]
