• Maggoty@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 days ago

      I think the study didn’t say what you think it does. The solid filtrate diet worked according to the summary, and doesn’t conflict with feed for chickens. There are vegan and vegetarian options of course, but saying they aren’t economic isn’t true.

      • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 days ago

        “Economic” depends on the subsidies which exist regardless of the species of those organisms.

        There are many studies on these conversion ratios, I just wanted to point at one that gets into the “waste promise” too.

        Nothing is going to beat eating plants because plants are primary producers of calories, amino-acids, fats.

        What is going to happen, especially in the Western places where meat is in large demand and large supply, is that subsidies for insect farming are going to sustain the usual vertebrate farming.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 days ago

          Okay, but the problem most people are worried about is how much food do they need to eat to get their needs met. Growing in a far denser manner doesn’t matter to people if chicken and bugs carry a higher load in the grocery store. So there’s a compromise there. And crickets look like they slot right into it. In other words you’re confusing Economic with Efficient. They aren’t always the same.

          • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 day ago

            Efficiency is about physics. You can’t break the laws of physics. Economics are not physics and subsidies can go in many different directions.

            If we plan on using the land to store carbon, to restore ecosystems and biodiversity, then land use and land use intensity will have to decrease, which will mean that we have make sure that land is used to feed people, not to feed food.

            If you’re going to say “waste”, don’t bother. Waste firstly has to be reduced, and we need the rest for compost.

            Your appeal to density works much like the bird CAFOs now in the face of HPAI. You think you’ve figured out a cheat, but, over time, it averages back down.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
    53·
    3 days ago

    In Mexico, chapulines are a bit of an exotic delicacy from old Aztec cuisine, there’s a place in my town that has them, heated and tossed on a grill with no oil, then served on a corn tortilla with black beans, fresh chopped onions and cilantro, topped with a lime squeeze and green jalapeño salsa.
    They are delicious.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
      32·
      3 days ago

      Oh god that sounds disgusting! How can you eat that? I don’t think I could even get to the point of swallowing, let alone chewing it up. I feel a little nauseous just thinking about it. Cilantro?!

    • jg1i@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Uh, yeah, exactly. I’m like wat. Chapulines are delicious. At worst they kinda taste like walnuts to me. If people ate them blindfolded in a taco with other ingredients, I don’t imagine too strong of a reaction.

  • Lumidaub@feddit.org
    149·
    4 days ago

    I would fucking love to get my protein from insects - they’re prohibitively expensive.

    Also, outrage bait.

  • toothbrush
    96·
    4 days ago

    Crickets and other insects meant for consumption are actually pretty expensive, so that cant be real. There is so much cheaper food that you would actually want to eat.

    I love trying out insect based food, and every time it was a lot more expensive, drier, and tasted worse than other options, so I cant imagine something like this actually going mainstream.

    • Bonsoir@lemmy.ca
      33·
      4 days ago

      They are really expensive because no one is buying them but people who have time and money to spend on changing their habits.
      BUT! They are actually pretty cheap to raise yourself. Crickets can eat leftovers and parts of vegetable you sometimes don’t want to eat like potato peels. We used to do that to feed our lizards and spiders at home. I guess that preparing them for human consumption would be a bit longer (drying and grinding them, or whatever), but still much cheaper than store-bought meat.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
        21·
        4 days ago

        Man I can’t help but cringe when reading this and picturing myself handling and eating them. In principle, I’m all for it, but I’m kind of a somewhat squeamish eater and I think for me they would need to be integrated into something where you can’t really tell it’s there (protein bars, soups, whatever).

        • Bonsoir@lemmy.ca
          8·
          4 days ago

          Yeah, even visualization aside, I guess insects are not that interesting to cook compared to your usual animals. You probably won’t make yourself a “steak” from crickets alone. What is usually sold is flour. You can spread it on your salad to add proteins, or make burgers patties with them.
          I write all that as if I was an expert, but I honestly never tried it ^^. One day, probably.

          • jrs100000@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            Are they? Im sure they must be on an industrial scale. But if you are feeding them kitchen scraps…youve got to have a giant tank, it sounds like some sort of mill to grind them up? That means youll need to dry them out, which is either time and space consuming or it means more equipment. Is there some sort of sterilizing involved so you catch some sort of weird cricket fungus or something?

            Meanwhile, if you get the right breeds, chickens will mostly manage themselves and can at least partly make up for a less efficient metabolism by foraging independently. Also your house doesnt end up infested with crickets and you dont have to change any recipes.

            • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
              3·
              3 days ago

              Feeding destruents to a destruent? Two times the loss; crickets/chicken was supposed to save food money, not waste it.

  • HEXN3T
    2·
    2 days ago

    Now that’s what I call LITERALLY SNOWPIERCER

  • Pothetato@lemmy.world
    8·
    3 days ago

    I’ve never tried whole bugs, only protein bars. I feel like the texture of exoskeleton would be the worst part?

    • Aux@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      3 days ago

      It’s just crispy when cooked properly. Do you like chips? French fries? Crispy pork? You’ll be at home!

    • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
      8·
      3 days ago

      A friend of mine in Zambia taught me how to fry caterpillars. They are like squishy french fries. They are fine. They pair well with chibuku.

    • FlihpFlorp@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      I had dried cricket when my aunt hosted this insane trivia game as one of the “rewards” for guessing incorrectly, it actually wasn’t that bad, didn’t really taste like anything, just a standard salty burnt taste or a weird potato chip

      Not something I’m gonna go out and find to eat but it wasn’t bad

      • don@lemm.ee
        2·
        3 days ago

        Your first sentence says, “it actually was that bad,” but your second sentence says, “but it wasn’t that bad” so I’m going to assume you meant the latter.

      • SoleInvictus
        3·
        3 days ago

        I’ve only ever had one worse protein bar: the original powerbar. Made in Idaho back in the nineties, they were a uniformly brown (regardless of flavor), chewy, sticky, oddly grain flavored abomination. The OG version came in gold foil wrappers with black text, like it was out of a fancy MRE. They were awful.

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
      1·
      3 days ago

      I imagine they would have the same eating experience as those mini shrimps commonly used in Chinese cooking. Meaning, great tasting but very unpleasant texture due to the shell.

  • DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world
    7·
    4 days ago

    Words cannot express how much I hate this parent, why bother asking for good advice when you can feed your kids animal food, abusive.