SEVEN TAKEAWAYS FROM EAT THE BEETLES
Eat the Beetles!: An Exploration into Our Conflicted Relationship with Insects By David Waltner-Toews ECW Press 368 pp; $19.95
David Waltner-Toews’s Eat the Beetles explores insects’ role in our culinary world – the palate-pleasers de rigueur in ancient cultures that are something of an up-and-coming North American foodies’ phenomenon today. Michelinstar prospects aside, according to this author, entomophagy ( insect- eating) might offer sustainable long-term solutions to food crises the world over. Here are your takeaways:
1. Entomology etymology Insects make up approximately 80 per cent of all described living species; about a million of those creepy crawlers have been formally named, but some researchers say another several million still await minting worldwide. Swimming in so big a pond, it’s hard to blame scienctists who’ve taken a liberal approach to branding the things: Pieza kake, a fly, begs saying aloud; wasp Tinkerbella nana offers a more obvious nod; Aegrotocatellus jaggeri comes courtesy of a Rolling Stones lover; and Heerz Lukenatcha is just for you, kid. Ellen DeGeneres, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Beethoven have all landed a hand on the insect walk of fame thanks to some creative entomologists’ etymology.
2. Avian assistance South Africa’s honeyguide bird does its name proud: the bird leads its human honey-hunting compatriots to the source of their sweet nectar with a series of peeps and flutters, pausing en route to gather troops and usher them to nearby beehives. Not entirely altruistic, the white- spotted honeyguiders rely on their unwitting human lackeys to do a little dirty work – smoking out, cracking open and raiding the inhospitable hives – so the bird brood can dive in for leftovers as dessert.
3. Penile polyphony Europe’s lesser water boatman (Micronecta scholtzi) sizes up at approximately the width of a fingertip, but the thing can nearly break noise barriers when it beats off. Rubbing his penis against the abdomen in a mating call, by body- weight this tiny fly produces the loudest sound of any animal on Earth.
4. Bugs bounty Grasshoppers are a delicacy in Mexico’s Santa Maria Zacatapec region and provide local farmers’ main source of income from May to September, when 75 to 100 tons of grasshoppers are yielded each year for sale and consumption. The annual reaping nets nearly $3,000 USD per family of collectors – for many the most they’ll make all year.
5. Margins to mainstream Insects have landed themselves a deadly distinction among Japan’s culinary culturists, bugs finding prominence in a burgeoning foodie landscape citing several local species as top-notch grub in the country’s best restaurants. Waltner-Toews wonders if the little guys might find fame similar to another cross- Pacific culinary expat, sushi, as they begin to appear beside other experimental menu items on Canada’s west coast.
6. Environmental entomophagy Brothers Darron, Jarrod and Ryan Goldin founded Peterborough, Ont.’s Entonomo Farms as a humble humanitarian pet project aimed at addressing the food industry’s environmental impact by cultivating minimally invasive protein sources for humans and livestock in North America. Marketed as equal parts do-good and delicious, Entonomo Farms boasts a mostly anthropodal menu offering delicacies ranging from mealworm doggie treats to BBQ cricket movie snacks and a few compelling recipes for each in-between. Mima, 35-year-old Alberta mom of three, says she likes sneaking a few critters into her kids’ favourite chocolate chip cookies, little ones none-the-wiser for mama’s insect infusion.
7. Pest patrol In the 1970s, Thailand’s Bombay locust seriously threatened local maize plantations found in former forest areas the bugs once called habitat. After aerial go- overs of government- issued insecticide failed to address the problem, savvy politicians began promulgating Bombay locusts as a local delicacy – today they’re deep- fried and called patanga, no longer a pest but popular Thai street treat. Weekend Post