It’s not gross — it’s food fit for planet’s future

Ionce ate a cricket. At a restaurant. Just popped it in my mouth before my visual mind could react. It was breaded, which made it look less like a bug, and it was good, but as I chewed, my visual mind had its way. I swallowed with a shudder.

The thing I kept coming back to, though, was that the cricket tasted good.

Last week, the Association for the Advancement of Science invited me to join a web seminar for journalists called “Fit to Eat? Algae, Insects and Cultured Meat.”

Three panelists traced the threads of sustainable harvesting, environmental impact and production challenges in talking about their specific subjects. The push is on to develop foods that don’t pollute or require much land or potable water.

Julie Lesnik, an assistant professor of anthropology at Wayne State University, devoted her part of the discussion to crickets. The

Western aversion to eating bugs is cultural. Many people in the world have been eating insects for millennia.

But she acknowledged that we are in the midst of “an insect apocalypse,” so please, stick to farmraised insects.

Webmd.com reported in 2018 that insects in general are high in nutrients and fiber, and crickets may benefit the gut microbiome. A study out of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of Wisconsin has been cited as promising in bearing that out, although the cohort was small and the study lasted for just two weeks.

It showed that a diet of crickets in the morning helped one probiotic in particular, Bifidobacterium animalis, to flourish. This strain has been linked to better gut function.

The blood and stool samples of the Wisconsin research subjects showed a reduction in inflammation, which is linked to numerous diseases including cancers.

One-fourth of the world’s population already consume crickets. I found a recipe for crispy cricket tacos online by typing “cricket recipes.”

The fact is, our future holds in store for us crickets and other insects, seaweed and kelp, and cultured meat — which is produced via cell culture instead of from a slaughtered animal. Scientists are researching edible options that would reduce the harm that the industrial agricultural complex does to rivers and streams, soil, air, global temperatures, our health,

and the treatment of animals.

All the panelists said more research is needed to advance the viability of these foods for the mainstream diet. The need for research is critical on so many fronts, while we are saddled with a president who prefers ignorance to science.

Kate Krueger, research director at New Harvest, said the meat industry is pushing back on cultured meats by insisting that the term “meat” be used only to define products that come from a full animal organism.

New Harvest is a research institute advancing cellular agriculture. It has with offices in New York City and Cambridge, Mass.

She said opinions on whether cultured meats are better for the environment are “surprisingly mixed,” but there is enthusiasm for these products.

Algae — what Denise

Skonberg, associate professor of food service at the University of Maine, referred to as seaweed and kelp — are already in specialty stores as seaweed salad, seaweed snacks and as wraps for sushi.

They have high fiber content, are rich in vitamins and minerals, they suppress nitrogen and carbon, they grow fast, and they come in a variety of textures and tastes, she said.

Farm-raised seaweed is a $6 billion industry worldwide.

Asked about the impact of micro plastics on seaweed, Ms. Skonberg said more research is needed, including research on how heavy metals affect seaweed.

Warming seas are also a worry for seaweed aquaculture, she said.

“We are looking at developing species for temperate waters, but with water warming, are these species going to do very well?” Ms.

Skonberg said. “We need to look at diversity and genetic diversity, which is really key. It’s something the farmed-fish industry didn’t think about ahead of time.”

She brought up another aquatic species as an opportunity food — the invasive green crab. A European species, it now proliferates coastal waters from the mid-Atlantic to Canada and from mid-California to Washington state.

“They are predatory and they love eating things we eat, such as soft-shell clams, mussels and oysters. It’s a big concern for aquaculture,” Ms. Skonberg said.

Crickets enticed me to join the web seminar, but now I want to help rid the oceans of green crabs. If I can eat one, I can eat the other. They’re both arthropods, and this is no time to be squeamish.