Have you ever tried Chapulines a la Mexicana? The name is rather fancy; however, this dish consists of grasshoppers topped with avocado and Oaxacan string cheese. Mostly, people react with ?Eww! Who would want to eat that?? Surprisingly, there are many people who comment, ?This is good!? Insect food is growing in popularity. There is a clear reason why people should challenge themselves by eating insects: For the survival of the human race.

Being coldblooded, insects are four times as efficient in changing feed to meat as cattle, while being eco-friendly. They have the same amount of protein as meat and contain a lot of iron and zinc, which are important for health. Also, being coldblooded, they do not need to be fed by humans. Warm-blooded animals need energy in order to survive, so humans must continuously give them food. Insects simply live off crops. Recently, scientists found that insect produce less greenhouse gases than do cows and pigs.

Insects are also a matter of survival. Insects make up one fourth of the world?s animals. In other words, they are found everywhere. These days, global warming and other environmental disasters are occurring. It is essential to find a way to feed humanity in a sustainable way. If World War III occurs or a huge natural disaster befalls us, there will be a struggle over food and water, and insects may be the solution to this problem.

Insects don?t taste as horrible as you may imagine. You may not realize it, but more and more people are taking an interest in insect food. Americans have some psychological difficulties with eating insects. So, chefs around the world are putting a lot of effort into making dishes that suites them. Branding the dish with another name is one possible way. Instead of calling a dish worm, we could call it Tenebrio, which is worm in Latin. It sounds fancier and is also part of marketing. In addition, by using other ingredients, chefs try to cover the whole body of the insect. Also, by grinding the insect, the form of the insect disappears, and only the liquid of the insect remains.

Another possible way is changing views on eating insects. Matthew Krisiloff, a chef who just finished his year at Chicago University, says that when eating a bug nugget, people think about the whole body of the insect not the steak. He and other chefs are putting effort into making views of insects change by inventing new kinds of dishes.

After people taste one of the marvelous insect dishes, their response changes from ?Eww!? to ?Yum!? Don?t discriminate insects from other animals by their appearance. There?s a saying: Don?t judge a book from its cover. Insects may look disgusting, but they taste really good!