Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Tastebugs is a UK initiative to habituate children to the idea of preparing climate friendly insect protein for human consumption.
3D Printed Tastebugs Challenge Children to Eat Insects
by Hanna Watkin
Tastebugs is a 3D printed modular kitchen utensil to teach children about the benefits of eating insects. We may squirm now, but it’s likely that bugs will make it to our plates very soon.
Would you feed your children bugs? With consumers becoming more conscious of the impact of eating unsustainable food, it’s believed that we’ll soon begin turning to insects.
However, there is still a long way to go in terms of normalizing eating bugs. But one student from Northumbria University in the UK is using 3D printing to get the next generation on side.
…
Each component has a specific use for preparing bugs. For example, Cockrell designed dicer and mill to cut the insects, a funnel to get them in position, a compactor to make bug bars, and an infuser to create insect stock.
Components can all be detached or attached, making it possible to dice your bugs then turn them into a bar. Or funnel them into position before milling them down.
…
Read more: https://all3dp.com/3d-printed-tastebugs-insects/
The competition which produced this masterpiece was sponsored by 3dHubs, which appears to be a large consortium of 3D printing services.
25% of graduates of the UK education system struggle to read a bus timetable, but thanks to initiatives like Tastebugs, they will all have the insect protein preparation skills they will need for when the United Nations bans beef consumption.
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For some reason this bugs me.
+1
LMAO. Good one.
I’ll stick with hemp seeds and whey for my protein. To say this is unappealing is the understatement.
Well, that is certainly another whey to get it.
It is a bug. AND a feature. Appetizing? You decide.
In Thailand they eat bugs – you can buy them at the market.
I personally do not eat bugs, and suggest that the good people in the UK who promote eating them instead try shoving them up their other bodily orifice.
Bingo.
Have DiCaprio et al live on a diet of bugs before pushing it on children.
Hey, the Brits will eat any old shit, same why they accept any old shit the media feeds them.
I don’t eat bugs intentionally, but I’m not sure I can I haven’t eaten any bugs.
They may make it to your plate, not mine. I don’t even like lobster, because it’s a bug.
“I never ate a bug that big before”
(might not be the exact quote…)
Lobsters are not bugs. They are aliens from another planet,
They certainly are…..
Lobsters are good…lobsters are not bugs!
There is a regional slang term for crayfish “mudbugs”, though. All arthropods though, but shrimp, lobster, and crayfish do taste differently.
“…it’s believed people we’ll soon begin to turn to insects” . Another fantasy belief which wholly ignores cultural practices. But I look forward to the U.K.’s eco loons munching their way through platefuls of cockroaches to save the planet. Good luck with that.
I’ll gladly pay a carbon tax just to watch them.
What was that Japanese game show? “Endurance”? Much missed.
The one with the 15-foot long sushi roll eating contests? With a surprise wasabi section? :]
I am sure algore will dine on the bugs daily and serve them to his guests at dinner parties.
That is one giant “Bug Steak” Leonardo Dicaprio got going on there….delicious!
?
Must have been sliced out from one of these….
Darn, Eric, if you could take the “?” of the first link I hope it shows up (where’s the edit post link). Link still works nonetheless. If you get to it….TY
Here you go. Out of order in more ways than one
Cloaca Cola.
Kids in the U.S. don’t get a say in cafeteria decisions anyway such as portion reduction for health benefit so go right ahead. Just don’t forget the indoctrination classes that go along with the plan.
It’s a good thing Michelle Obama wasn’t aware of this when she was First Lady. She would’ve insisted public school cafeterias put MORE cockroaches in their meals.
I’ll never forget a National Geographic special from decades ago where they visited a half-naked African tribe who snacked on live cockroaches. While they ate, someone kept shooing the treats back into the bowl.
That was the ultimate in sustainable living, but oddly enough I’ve never seen Hollywood or Green activists serving giant hissing cockroach horsderves at Oscar or Grammy parties or revolutionary rallies…or anywhere else for that matter. They must really hate Mother Earth. 😱
If I’m going to eat bugs, it’ll be because they taste good and because they’re a healthy menu item (Paleo friendly!). It will NOT be because of any virtue signaling “climate” BS.
Has anyone polled the bugs to determine what they think ?
I dread the thought of the march they could put on, if they all got together.
Protest signs:
“Eating Bugs Is Insecticide!”
“Insects Are People Too!”
“Weevil Not Be Eaten!”
“Climate change alarmism drives insects towards extinction”
they’ve already go buggery normalized, so i guess…
Protest! Protest!! PROTEST!!! The bugs have a right to vote (citizenship NOT required) and they were discriminated against by being eaten first! Bugs Lives Matter
‘Bug Lives Matter!’
Perfect!
Yeah, I can see kids eating those. Maybe in a million years. Maybe not even then.
as I understand it protein rich cricket powder is being used now…tasty taco filling and crunchy, coconut-oil fried, fritters to be enjoyed by adding this powder…ground beyond all resemblance to bug legs and shell bits, right? To my reasoning, what with global population growth soaring and cost of cow meat and real foods, fresh fruits, etc it is very possible this WILL BE the protein of choice. The problem for now is SEEING the bugs in bug form. Years ago, for my ad agency work I read several types of consumer marketing journals, one in the food industry talked about all the BLEACHED dark chicken meat to fool picky eaters, as most Americans won’t choose anything but white meat,[where do millions of white meat chicken nuggets come from?] and then there was finely minced real chicken meat made into “fun shapes” like stars and moons-again for picky kids too spoiled to be grateful.
Right now teeny eco-groovy health food companies are being snapped up by the mega-big-food-corps without original ideas so they know how to position themselves for future customer demands. check out “Crik Nutrition: https://criknutrition.com/pages/why-cricket-protein-powder
My father in law (RIP) always recommended putting a little celery in egg salad just in case you did crunch on something, he would claim it was the celery. Same with a little black pepper in the mashed potatoes just in case you saw some little dark spots in there . No worries, just eat.
Interesting you say that…it is estimated that we have been eating insects and their eggs in dozens of foods we eat every day. In fresh food and in processed food. Bread and flour products have a lot of insects in them because it impossible to clean the grain in bulk to a high degree. Eating insects, especially after being cooked is no different in protein than any other source. It is estimated that tens of thousands of tons of insects are already in our food chain and you will probably be eating them in tonights meal. Bon Appetit!
I’m suddenly reminded of the scene in “The Pacific” when the soldiers are getting their chow on some Pacific island, the cook slaps a clump of rice into somebody’s mess tin, and there are maggots in it. The soldier grabs one and looks up at the cook, who says, “Think of it as meat.” 😛
I don’t want to be a nit picker so ‘Please, eat my share’.
I’m having venison chops with mushrooms on the side. A pinot noir should pair nicely…
Ever so many years ago I saw Good Morning America’s Bryant Gumbel eating a fried grub while visiting Australia. To this day, the event still sickens me. I have since stopped watching all news, especially the morning shows, on TV. All they do is clog the brain with fake news and shorten one’s attention span.
Good for you. Now work on the quality of other daytime and evening news fare.
There is even a song about it. La Cucaracha.
They don’t call it grub for nothing.
silk worm Pupae taste great
I think the BBC should set an example.
What makes anyone think that insects are a more sustainable food supply than what we currently eat? If they are, why aren’t they being taken advantage of in Venezuela, North Korea, and other food deprived locations right now?
What makes you think they’re not? I hear that roaches are very popular in parts of Calizuela.
This
There is even a song about it. La Cucaracha.
goes here.
Some societies have been eating bugs for years, but I’ve never heard about the tastiness of a species of insect, or insect dishes. Another thought — babies stick just about anything in their mouths, but I’ve never recall a baby sticking a bug in their mouth. BTW, if someone offered me a bug product to eat, I’d be curious enough to taste it anyway. My wife is Korean, and during one of our visits to Korea, I had sauteed silkworm larva — I didn’t think they were that tasty, but my wife said they tasted like they were “past their expiration date.” The mulberry wine they produced from the trees the silkworms feed on was much better. And on the label, they had a drawing of a grinning silkworm point at a bottle of wine.
I did. When my niece was two I pulled half a grasshopper out of her mouth. I almost didn’t puke.
Bondegi, Great street food, greatings from Seoul
Isn’t there a biological reason for our instinct that bugs are not to be eaten? I would liken it to our inherent fear of snakes…
No. It is cultural. It’s little bit sad to read this thread as it just shows how limited many of the commenters are. Either they just hate insects, which is lame, or they hate also cultures where some insects are consumed, which is worse.
Eric Worrall has done this before, and my judgement on the WUWT crowd on this topic is very low. Even the usual warmists don’t have soul to come in and tell how good grasshoppers can be. So what can I say?
If you just don’t like raw fish, it doesn’t mean you’re civilized. If you make a number on what you don’t eat, you’re lame. Safety of food is number one. After that, refusing to eat something is not something to brag on.
cannibalism is just a dietary preference. ignore the haters.
am i doin it right, hugs?
Agree gnomish. These people who won’t eat people either just hate people, or they hate cultures where people are killed and eaten – which is worse, muchhh worse! /sarc. One despairs for the future of logical thinking when something like Hugs turns up.
Gnomish, I see you have a problem. We need to work with your taboos a little bit, if you think eating insects somehow strongly associates with cannibalism. I mean, to find such a slippery slope argument requires an intelligent mind and motivated reasoning. For real.
I could counteract you by telling cannibalism is bad for your health, but then, the primary reason most cultures don’t accept cannibalism is not only derivable from that.
i’m just poking back, hugs; nothing serious.
you said: ‘If you just don’t like raw fish, it doesn’t mean you’re civilized.’ which invites some comical examples for a reductio ad absurdum. for example, suppose we imagine that indiscriminate eating anything at all earns a merit badge for sophistication?
what if a person whose metaphysical category for bugs is ‘Vermin unless proven otherwise’ instead of ‘oh god- can i stuff that in my bug hole?’ which must, of course, be considered most fashionable?
and on the other hand, what if coprophagia were to become a protected activity and people who crassly and coprophobically condemn it are nasties?
food stuff is probably the root of a million superstitions and taboos.
what is a definite symptom of civilization, though, is the surfeit of choice- and that kind of means that denouncing the choice is the truly degenerate outlook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUcR-_uqcmk
But Eric, if we eat the climate friendly insects, won’t that just leave more of the climate unfriendly ones?
That’s the truly comical part of this – if humans were to run with this and start eating “bugs” in a big way (I won’t say insects, because there’s other stuff too – spiders and their kin, for example, are not insects), the next thing you would hear is how we’re screwing up some ecological balance and threatening the Earth in a whole new way. “Oh god! You’ve eaten too many grasshoppers! Now we’ll be overrun with [fill in the blank]!”
With advocacy in the lead again, we will find out what the health safety issues are after the fact. That’s like the self driving car and the pedestrian victim count while regulators watch from the sidelines.
The 2nd Amendment was created to stop the Government from trying to make us eat bugs.
That will require a lot of ammunition. There are a LOT of bugs.
If the bullets run out, we’ll shoot bullet ants. 😉
If by “bugs” you mean the cockroaches of the political variety that constitute “government.” ;-D
My favorite — giant water bug! I like mine lightly toasted….
And next up will be the real life creation of soylent green ref. the Charlton Heston movie using the same rationale.
theres already a Soylent company;-/
Seems almost a yummy as Michelle Obama’s school lunch menus. I do remember a comment that some Indian vegetarians had deficiency diseases after moving to the UK, as their grain-based diet no longer had the insect content it had in India.
Heh, see my comment about a scene from “The Pacific” elsewhere in this thread…
Oh no! Bugs are probably healthier for children, and the planet, than Easter eggs.
Chocolate’s carbon footprint, cows, and farming GHG emissions.
———————————–
Is your Easter egg bad for the environment?
With Easter fast approaching, the thought of chocolate is probably on all our minds, but could the UK’s love of chocolate be having a damaging effect on the environment?
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/uom-iye032918.php
I can just see Bugortwo Creek restaurant chain opening up across the country now.
How will the health department know what to do?
Inspector: You’ve got roaches in your kitchen
Chef: Those are ingredients for tonight’s menu
Inspector: What about the silverfish?
Chef: Ingredients.
Inspector: The maggots, too?
Chef: Yep, ingredients
Inspector: Okay, I’ll need to go find some rat feces
Chef: Uh, okay, don’t look behind the fryer, okay?