Why crickets can be the food of the future

Eating insects is more common than you think

It's hard to believe or appreciate, but around two billion people in the world are eating insects! Most of those people are adding them to their meals, but insects are the main diet in some places. Now talking about that used to be a taboo not so long ago, but today crickets and meal worms are becoming more and more widespread, so there is an existing debate as to why. I'll try to answer this question as good as I can. Let's dive deep in the . . not so appealing world of the crickets.

Cricket salad

Cricket salad

Superfood

The nutritional value of a cricket is INSANE and that's not an overstatement! A single kilogram of dried crickets contains 200 grams of protein. Doesn't sound like much, until you compare it to a kilogram of fresh beef, which contains 190 grams. Pork's protein value is even less at 150 grams per kilo. And then the good old flour, which is not meat, but only provides 100 grams of protein for a single kilogram. Not even close to the cricket-made flour, which contains the astonishing 400 grams of protein per kilo! And that's because a single bug is made of between 58 and 85% pure protein. Presumably some of that is lost due to drying, but still - impressive nutritional value to say the least!

And the good news keep coming. Because of our ancestor's diet, our bodies are not just perfectly evolved to absorb that insect protein, but are actually capable absorbing more of it, compared to what you get from eating the same amount of peas, rice or oats. Gram for gram - your body gets more of the good stuff from crickets. Also they are rich in vitamins B1, B2 and B12, but even more interesting - crickets iron content is, gram for gram, higher than spinach! Then there's the fatty acids ratio between Omega-6 and Omega-3, which for a human food is near perfect at 3:1 and that is healthier for you than a salmon! Which brings me to cricket sushi...

Cricket sushi

Cricket sushi

Even Clarkson can farm them

Now that sushi is ruined for me FOREVER, we can move on with the cost of farming those creepy crawlers. Yes, they don't just catch them off the porch - crickets are actually farmed, because not all species are edible. The first upside of farming them, compared to any kind of meat-producing animals is space. Crickets require 38 times less of it for the same amount of usable product at the end. As for water, they barely drink - 20 times less water is used for keeping them hydrated. So the whole process is much kinder to the environment. But the biggest point for the cricket farming comes with their food. Gram for gram, compared to a cow, crickets would consume 10-12 times less feed! And with the constantly rising feed prices, this is a truly important aspect.

In other great news, caring for those crickets before they are ready to be served takes around 100 times less than caring for cows. Their life/growth/reproduction cycle is just faster. And then comes the part of what is edible. For the cow, the edible part is only around 40%. For the cricket, that's double - 80%. You lose only around 20% in moisture to make them dry and crunchy. No bones, no skin, no eyes and ears to scrap away - every bit is edible.

Chile-lime cricket taco

Chile-lime cricket taco

Truly beneficial

As with any living creatures, crickets do require some care, until they become a flavoured snack in a plastic bag. But actually it's easy and cheap to automate most of that process. Only the basic stuff like feeding and watering them require a person to physically put the food and water where they need to go. And to add more value - cricket frass (that's 🦗💩) is one of the best soil fertilisers . . (pause) . . IN THE WORLD! As it turns out - a pest for our crops can actually be very beneficial for us. Who knew?! Well, the farm owners knew. I've managed to get in-touch with two cricket farmers in my country and if I'm lucky, they will tell us more about the whole process. Stay tuned for that! Or better yet - post your question on the subject in the comments and I'll ask them your question!

My inspiration for this article came from Doug's podcast. Watching John Coleman devouring crickets like a Terminator (Coleminator) and Jane Fyffe's facial expression after trying them, while Doug puts out some solid arguments against it is one of the funniest thing you could watch right now. I'll link the whole podcast below. Enjoy and subscribe to Doug's channel for more.