this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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But really, though, insects are a very sustainable source of nutrition, and pretty damn healthy.
Plus, when cooked right, they're delicious.
Yeah the eating of bugs is a completely a seperate thing. Im not like you but when it comes to processed stuff protein is protein.
But we have literally no need to do it. Lab grown meat requires the same level of input as industrial cricket or worm farming per gram of protein and produces fat at the same time while being far more palatable.
There's no need to go back to famine era stone age practices to solve the ethical and environmental problems of meat eating.
I see no problem at all with lab-grown meat being the solution, but I would push back a bit on the notion that eating bugs is inherently unpalatable. The truth is that what makes eating bugs unpalatable is our current habits and inclinations think of this as being inherently "icky", save for certain species that come from the sea. Changing these habits would not only switch us to consuming animal protein with fewer ethical and environmental issues, but also would open us up to new culinary experiences which we are currently depriving ourselves.
Having said that, I have never tried hard to overcome my own habits and inclinations, even though I probably should, so I am not going to judge anyone else for not having done so; the above paragraph is a musing rather than me trying to dictate anything to other people.
That's fair but for a population to take to a previously forbidden food group requires decades to centuries of conditioning, and have to be better than not having them. Cheese, for example; even populations with high levels of lactose intolerance and without a strong culture of fermented foods tend to like cheese, because it fills a niche that's difficult to fill without cheese.
I've had a lot of traditional insect dishes as well as more modern takes where they just sub a random flavorless food for insects like the flavored dried crickets... None of them are that good. The sauces or seasoning makes them edible. Anything you can get from an insect based dish you can get using beans or potatoes or rice or literally anything else without a particularly strong flavor. They don't have a niche they fill.
Adoption without just making it a generic protein bar a'la snowpiercer isn't likely unless all other protein sources become out of reach... And we really shouldn't force it since we did crack lab grown meat. Lamb and veal are incredibly ~~delicious~~ unethical, but we can make that. Well likely be able to do seafood as well, bringing back whale, real tuna, even dolphin. And we if really want bugs well there's shrimp on the far horizon to be grown...
There's really no need to deal with the downsides of bugs. Like legs or exploding guts.
Fair enough; I appreciate the in-depth take!
Or we can simply eat beans, tofu or any of the dozens of plant protein sources. I don't get why people are so dead set on stuffing some animal part into their mouths.
Because it's tasty. Because we have a few million year history of eating it and it satisfies a deep itch in our consciousness.
The only issues with meat are the ethical concerns and the environmental issues, both of which are eliminated with lab meat. We get the taste without the pointless suffering.
Not everyone likes plant proteins as a sole source, and that's okay.