Edible Insect Project

As a member of the Ecosave Club, I have been promoting edible insects as eco-friendly food of the future. Global warming has resulted in a food crisis that is becoming more and more severe every day and the answer to this problem can be edible insects as it being an excellent alternative source of protein which can significantly reduce our carbon footprint.    

By 2050, the earth’s population is presumed to be 10 billion and the demand for protein will exceed our ability to procure it. For our survival, it is necessary to increase our food output and decrease our carbon emissions at the same time. 

Insects require fewer resources (less land, less feed, less water, less transport fuel, and less human labor) than animal livestock while they process a much smaller carbon footprint. Plants do not produce greenhouse gases but they require machinery use, water use, manufacturing, processing, transportation, etc all of which carbon is emitted.

Edible insects such as crickets, certain ant species, and mealworms are known to be protein and calorie-dense stars. However, there is the biased notion that eating insects is “peculiar” and is a habit of primitive man or starvation food. I thought of a number of strategies to facilitate insect consumption such as processing insects into familiar products, using a role model, providing information about the benefits of edible insects, giving people a taste experience, and making it available.

Through research, I found out that the “disgust” reaction appears to be entirely acquired during the period between the age of bout 2 to 5 years.  Therefore I felt that making a board game designed with cute and friendly edible insect characters would help eliminate children’s dislike for them. Children can become familiar with the insects while having fun playing the game. After making the board game we sent them to public schools in 50 states of the United States, sent them to the children in the Philippines, handed them out as a promotional gift at the Food Expo, and sold them at fundraisers. 

Also, our members made cooking videos using edible insects as ingredients and uploaded them on the Youtube channel Bughouse365 to persuade people to try insects as gourmet. Recently, with these recipes, we published an E-book named Bughouse365 on Amazon, Apple, Google Playbook, Barnes and Noble, and Scribd. 

In addition, we made an iOS application called Bughouse that has information regarding edible insects so that people can search for the information easily. 

As one of the strategies, I thought that giving people a taste experience would help people to think positively about entomophagy (eating insects). Ecosave members baked cookies and muffins using mealworm powder, dried mealworm, and crickets to sell them out on the streets. We were able to promote awareness in people that edible insects are sustainable food sources and raise funds at the same time. I urge everyone to try edible insects and see for themselves how tasty they can be and you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in your everyday food consumption at the same time.