Desperate times call for deep-fried roaches
To address the imminent worldwide food crisis, experts say protein-rich insects are the panacea. Have we got a choice if there is nothing else to eat?
There’s nothing left in the fridge. There is widespread famine; there is chaos in the fictional zombie land created by The Walking Dead co-makers Charlie Adlard and Robert Kirkman. As stomachs growl in hunger, survivors resort to killing each other for food.
But that’s fiction, and reality bites harder.
In desperate times and with empty stomachs, experts say insects may be the answer to the growing starvation, with projections that, by 2050, we would need to increase food production worldwide by 70 percent in order to feed the estimated nine billion hungry mouths across the world. The protein-rich locusts are groomed to be the next worldwide food superstar, thanks to their nutritional value (they are rich in protein, amino acids, and vitamins) and availability, plus they produce small carbon emission, the culprit for global warming and climate change.
In the recently conclu-ded four-day “Insects to Feed the World” conference held in the Netherlands, professor Arnold van Huis, in an AFP article, “Locust for Dinner?” says there are approximately 2,000 edible insects that can supply huge markets. But the more pressing question is, are we ready to trade pasta for cicada?
In the Philippines, where anything that moves—rats, frogs, beetles, ants, dogs, snakes, and cats—is whipped into creative cuisine, eating and cooking locust are next to ordinary, a folkloric, regional way of life steeped not just in necessity but in culture and tradition.
Our ingenuity and audacity to cook and eat exotic dishes are rooted in hunger, our need for survival, and, if you think about it, our aversion to letting anything go to waste. Think coconuts. In a typical Filipino kitchen, everything is used. A pig, for instance, can be cooked into numerous dishes, utilizing different parts. Its internal organs, blood, tail, feet, nose, ears, and cheeks are made into sisig, dinuguan, and other tasty dishes. In Central Luzon, insects are the alternative menu when the price of meat is beyond reach. In Pampanga, crickets, which share a common ancestry with cicadas and locusts, are cooked adobo-style, locally known as camaro. Although the crunchy insect gives off a hint of sweetness, Kapampangans pair it with desserts like halo-halo and leche flan to wash down the distinct taste. In Davao, Agusan, and Surigao provinces, meanwhile, woodworms or tamilok are the specialty. Live woodworms are either eaten raw or dipped in vinegar. Also in Davao and in Batangas, fruit bats are not spared from the hungry tummy of locals, who like them with tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, laurel leaves, and pepper.
Our neighboring countries also share the same culinary culture. In the streets of Thailand, a plethora of deep-fried, seasoned creepy-crawlers like grasshoppers, water bugs, maggots, black scorpions, ants, and crickets are available for the locals and tourists to feast on. The same goes in the streets of Malaysia, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam.
In TLC’s Bizarre Food, host Andrew Zimmern takes us into the world of “disgusting” and exotic cuisines, including Japan’s frog sashimi, Morocco’s pastilla with pigeon, Trinidad and Tobago’s cow heel soup, Taiwan’s fried bees, Vietnam’s silk worm, Alaska’s jellied moose nose, and who knows, more undiscovered, undocumented bizarre cuisines around the world.
But no episode features Western countries—like the United States and Europe—and their insect-eating culture. Insects are not part of their everyday fare.
The United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says in its Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security report, Western countries, like the US, have negative attitudes toward insects. “Insect harvesting has been associated with the hunter-gatherer era and in turn with ‘primitive’ forms of food acquisition,” says the report. FAO explains that in Western societies—where protein is derived from animals—insects are “virtually synonymous with nuisance: mosquitoes and flies invade homes, leaving unwanted bites.” Perhaps, they would rather die, or as depicted in the TWD comic series, kill their neighbors, than eat an insect.
But isn’t this also the case in the more Westernized, prosperous cities in the country? While FAO says that insect eating is widespread in tropical countries, including the Philippines, modernized Metro Manila’s city dwellers, most far removed from nature, will think twice before eating deep-fried locust or kalderetang cicada for lunch.
While we may paint a sinister picture, eating exotic insect dishes have health and environmental benefits. FAO says that edible insects have high protein, vitamins, and amino acids. They also have high food conversion rate. Crickets, for example, need six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and twice less than pigs and chickens to produce the same amount of protein.
It is also unlikely for insects, compared with farm animals, to transmit diseases to human beings. A huge plus: Since insects need little water and leave smaller carbon emission footprints, compared with poultry, pork, and beef, consuming them benefits the environment.
Insect harvesting, FAO also says, “needs low-capital investments option that offers entry even to the poorest sections of society, such as the landless.”
So, is it about time we eat these creepy, crawly insects for merienda or dinner? As Andrew Zimmern says in his show, if it looks good, eat it.
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