Sunday, May 8, 2016

Henry's Post: problems with agricultural innovation

Just starting off with the problems behind entomophagy may not make as much sense as it could if we all had an introduction to it. It would be helpful to read Michael's post before this one just to avoid restating anything or wasting anyone's time.

This post will be focused on the barriers to entomophagy and ,in a broader context, barriers to food and agriculture innovation. 

As we have heard in the Ted Talk that Michael has shared with us, insects seem like the next place we should be turning for our protein, much of the world has already been doing this. Western cultures have been slow to adapt to this idea for many reasons. Most of which being that insects are "gross" or "yucky" as though they are any more gross than other animals that we eat. In american culture we don't like to see the sources of our protein, I'll admit that I don't like the notion that something had to die in order for me to eat and I don't like to think of the animal as I am eating. We have touched on this before but I offer to you that if we can't see the insects as "bugs" then the same yuckiness that taking a bite of a whole cow or chicken is removed. This is what many people (including us at Colony Farm) are doing within the entomophagy movement are doing.

I realize that this reasoning doesn't make sense for people who do not already eat animal protein but the plants that are grown in traditional agriculture are just as unhappy as the animals. When it comes to insects however, they are more than accustomed to crawling all over each other. High concentrations of insects is not seen as inhumane unlike chickens being crammed into tight quarters with one another or row after row of the same plants all competing with each other and breeding pests and sickness. As we have already learned from Michael, insects are a much more sustainable protein source than traditional protein. This movement is also broadening our sources of protein and could be fed on food byproducts such as wheat bran.

The following is an article posted by an Icelandic company and their struggles with legal issues in their home country, please find your way to the comment section as well:

http://www.junglebar.co/blogs/news/84694276-what-to-do-with-jungle-bar-insects-legalizeit-europe

As of now there is no such legislation in America but we expect that there might be in the near future as this movement gains more traction and starts to threaten traditional protein.

The following ink is to an FDA website that shows the tolerance of different contaminates that are allowed in our food products. The first link is to the FDA website the second is to a condensed version of just some of the ones that contain insects on Wikipedia. CONTENT WARNING: you may find his disturbing but I urge you to at least take a quick look at what you are already eating.



After reading these few pages lease respond to the following questions to the best of your abilities.

First I'd like to ask who of you would be willing to try insects? Who would be willing to incorporate insect protein into their daily diet? If not what are your reservations (feel free to say "'cause it's yucky")?

Part of what we are trying to do at Colony Farm is keep a conversation with the public that we intend to serve. I ask that you offer some solutions to getting around the yuck-factor of eating insects.

Speaking to the legal issues that Crowbar Protein, what is your take on this? Please also respond to a few of the comments that people have posted to that thread. Do you see that we might see anything like this in America with the entomophagy movement?

If you were able to stomach the final two links, how do you feel about the federal regulations of what is allowed in your food? How does it sit with you that companies are not required to put these ingredients on the list of what is actually in your food? 

Lastly I'd like to open up the discussion on this forum and in class as to other innovative approaches to agriculture? Please draw from your personal experiences and bring your own flavor to what these new systems would look like and how they could be implemented.

11 comments:

  1. I'll try anything once. I'm not terribly yucked out by anything that crunches (aren't calamari or spring kind of gross?), though I might have a tough time with anything that oozes. Flour format, full speed ahead.

    As for getting people to try eating insects, I'm WAY more moved by the sustainability and non-sentient protein source arguments than I am the "you're eating it anyway" bit. I think part of this battle may be continuing to convince Americans to eat less meat, and to eat more sustainable meats when we do. A logical economic argument could be made here, but I think people respond more to emotional imagery. Most of us have shielded our eyes while being shown footage from mass meat production facilities, and yet most Americans can order meat from said sources because of price or whatever and feel okay about it. We can also be shown a nice pasture full of animals being given a good life, and somehow feel that those farmers are still wronging their animals by eventually killing them for food. In sum, we really prefer not to know about any of the unpleasant origins of our food, just as we would rather be bling to the plight of the migrant farm worker. Unsettling though it is, we evolved as a meat eating species, and the idea of eating meat from an animal that had one bad day is much easier for me to stomach than the miserable lifetime type. This meat is more expensive, though, and I'm a student who works but (apparently) would rather spend her money on good IPAs and tanks of gas and books and whatnot rather than steaks, so the cheaper complete protein option is either tons of lentils and rice or the cheaper meat. I'm inclined to choose option A, but I know that plenty of people would reach for B. I think a strong marketing campaign could make insect flours or protein powder (if one could be developed) very successful. Are bugs really grosser than whey proteins? I say no. You may just need a marketer.

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  2. I think that when it comes to eating bugs my main criteria are: in what form and for what purpose? If it is a normalized addition of protein I’m into it. If its popping a full cricket in my mouth, not so much. I think that a common thought process for consumers is not wanting to see whatever your eating’s eyes. This is problematic in itself as it disengages the consumer from the process of eating, but I would say that’s standard. I would also ask why should I buy cricket flour over all the other flours (coconut flour, oat flour, almond flour, to name a few)?

    When looking at the last few links I couldn’t help but think of our pig slaughter in Thailand. This was in no way done in an FDA approved manner. I can also pretty confidently say we at some pig poop with the fried intestine. However this was such intimate and organic way to go about food consumption. Ultimately, what I’m trying to say is that there is going to be other stuff in our food. So, I think what it really comes down to is how we want to consume our food and I think the way the FDA allows food to be produced is much more problematic than what else gets in it.

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  3. I would say that after thinking about these things in the way you both have presented them I would be open to the idea of at least trying bugs. I have not so much as tasted an insect but I think I would be willing to give it a shot. It is completely true that my reservations are based on the "ick" factor that doesn't actually make sense (as you said, biting into a cow is much more disturbing) so I think the best way to destigmatize this is to spread the word. I never thought that by not eating insects that was effecting as much as it is. As these videos and discussions have shown there are huge environmental impacts of eating insects and I just don't think that is something people think about. The more people learn about this the more I think they would realize it is a silly thing to be against.

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  4. Thanks for the informative post, Henry! I don’t have many reservations in incorporating insect proteins into my diet. Access to these products, though, seems to inhibit insects’ introduction into many people’s cuisines in the United States (as you all at Colony Farm know). I offered a suggestion (warning? rant?) about marketing and language in Michael’s post that might be helpful in normalizing entomophagy, so take a look.
    The links you shared concerning government regulation got me thinking about what entomophagy’s near regulatory future in the US might look like. One of the commenters to the Icelandic firm’s legal issues noted that “big business” was the culprit in the adoption of the 1997 EU law. Though I can’t speak to that specific Icelandic struggle, I know that food lobbyists have been and are an enormous influence in determining FDA regulations and nutrition recommendations. And this I see as the chief obstacle to insect-eating’s popularization. The industry supplying the primary protein source for many North Americans (meat) will likely be entomophagy’s “natural enemy” in the lobbying world. And, unfortunately, the meat industry is propped up (and literally fed) by our favorite (and exceedingly politically powerful) monocot: corn. This powerful partnership will likely contribute to regulations that limit (or hopefully not) ban edible insect production and sale, to recommendations concerning the protein section of the food pyramid (now plate), and to marketing schemes reinforcing the “ick factor” in eating insects. None of that sounds like a “good future.”
    However, another commenter suggested that Crowbar Protein should move to a country more friendly to this market and send a letter to the Icelandic government flaunting their economic success and emphasizing lost tax revenues. While that scheme seems a little hyperbolic, it does reveal a potential strength/source of leverage for insect growers. Entomophagy has the potential to be economically beneficial to the host country both in the short run (in terms of taxes, employment, etc.) and in the long run (in terms of environmental sustainability and low input costs).
    So, it seems that the regulatory future of the edible insect market might be a mixed bag. Perhaps a political or economic champion of the entomophagy world could steer the market in a preferable direction.

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  6. As echoed in some of the other posts I am always willing to try new food. What would keep me coming back to eating bugs would be all about taste. If I like how something tastes and it makes me feel good then I will likely purchase it often. As someone who does not eat a lot of meat, the positive environmental aspects of eating bugs is not something that on its own makes me want to purchase the product. I primarily get my protein from nuts, vegetables, and beans. If crickets can taste as good as all those things and be as multipurpose and easy to incorporate into meals I would be more likely to try them. Seeing the actual animal (something you discussed) is something that does deter me from eating meat or any living organism. Therefore somehow disguising the food in a way that would make it difficult for me to know by eye sight it was a bug would help me.
    The FDA regulations is an interesting issue that I really do not know much about. It is something I care about, but I also find to be cultural and things that are banned in certain countries may not be in others depending on cultural standards. I am more concerned with how we are growing food and what we do to the earth and put on the food in order for it to grow quickly. I feel that if we work to fix how we produce food and distribute food these issues with food and the FDA would not be as problematic.

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  7. I'm with Isabelle--if they taste good and make my body feel good after I eat them, then I'm all for it. As far as the "ick" factor--the images of factory farms are far ickier for me than popping a bug in my mouth. But I'm also someone that doesn't eat a lot of meat and doesn't crave meat, so I'm not looking for a meat substitute. I DO eat a lot of nuts, so a crunchy nut-alternative sounds appealing to me. For me, the idea of eating a whole bug is actually somewhat more appealing than a protein powder or additive. I think that's because I'm not really looking to boost my protein intake and also some of the processed protein products I've had in the past have just been awful. Anyone remember TVP--textured vegetable protein? What was that stuff?? Now, that was ICKY! I'm much more drawn to eating things that have been processed as little as possible. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't use an insect flour in baking every now and then, though, if it had a nice flavor.

    Regulations--yeah, as soon as the insect "industry" gets enough traction, it's bound to get regulated. My guess would be that in the US insect-products won't be outright banned, but there are a lot of ways that the govt makes life difficult for small farmers by layering on regulations that are complicated and expensive to comply with. What I'd say to people interested in this business is to try to get out ahead of regulatory action by forming coalitions that can have a strong voice if and when regulations are proposed.

    As far as the list of acceptable food "defects," I'm struck by how many rodent hairs are possibly in our food (also poo). But, seriously, one of the things that really bugs me about our US food culture is how freaked out we get about rodent hairs while happily consuming known carcinogens and processed sugars and fats that have been proven to cause debilitating diseases. There's some weird dysfunctional psychology there--perhaps connected to a fear of what is "natural" and a trust in the technological? I don't know and I don't entirely understand that dynamic, but I wish I did. It seems important.

    As far as agricultural innovation--we need it! I think what we need is more small farmers figuring out how to do cool and creative things in their own backyards and we need to bring the power to feed ourselves back in to the hands of our local communities. Agriculture is nothing if not localized and what works and makes sense in one region won't necessarily work in another. My movement in that direction this year is to work toward offering transplants through the CSA so that I can encourage more of my members and neighbors to grow their own food rather than rely on me to do it.

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  8. I’m proud to say that I have eaten insects! Our local science museum had an exhibit on ‘gross-out’ topics, and they sold boxes of flavored crickets in the gift shop. It’s easy for me at first, until what I’m eating sets in. Normally, I am very uncomfortable with insects. It’s something of a joke in my family.

    I think push back from skeptics is likely within the entomophagy movement, whether or not they have data that backs them up. As you and I talked about on Tuesday, the American consumer is easily swayed by their biases and public opinion. I hope that science can prevail, and that health codes can be established responsibly. There are drawbacks and advantages to any regulation of food production—definitely good at an industrial level, but they make it very difficult for people to break into a market (which, one could argue, could be a minor goal of the regulation). Industrial lobbies are a massive part of our political process, and until reforms are made at that level, I don’t think much will change. However, I don’t think it’s completely reasonable to list every ingredient in food—certainly not the insects. Like the man in Michael’s TED talk mentioned, insects are everywhere. We eat a lot of them. If more people knew that, it might create mass panic. I’m looking forward to seeing you two (and Riley) combat negative attitudes towards eating insects in the future! Good luck, you three.

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  9. I would for sure try insects, and am hoping that we get to in class on Thursday! (Hint hint).

    Lately it seems that more and more food trends are entering conversations about healthy eating and that people like the idea of being connected to the natural world when they eat. I think that this trend of eating insects could piggy back off of the paleo diet that certain people are trying now a days. I have no idea if it applies to the paleo rules but I think that it can be “sold” to the same mindset.

    I found the links about the hidden ingredients to be “icky” but I honestly was not too surprised. Maybe we can use this to our advantage? By explaining to people that they have been eating insects all this time they might feel comfortable trying it truthfully. I know this sounds goofy. I predict that certain food companies would not appreciate other insect sales people sharing this information for their company gain. I know that this project of yours has more to do with sustainable protein consumption than profit but it’s hard to ignore the potential backlash that you might receive from government regulations and other food companies. I honestly had not thought about it until your post, thanks for sharing!

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  10. First I have nothing against eating insects. However, I think one of the major differences between eating insects and cows is that while we eat only “parts” of cows, we need to eat “whole” insects, as insects are tiny and difficult to dissect them into apart. While I don’t have anything against eating insects, I feel slightly bad for eating whole organism, and sometimes this causes a slight “disgust” in my mind. Eating “whole insects” mean that I am eating everything, including eyeballs, guts, and feces of the insects. If we can somehow dissect them into different parts of their bodies and select certain body parts to consume, I think the idea disappears.

    One of the concerns I am having regarding to insect farms is that some people may start making GM insects (with varying characteristics, such as: large, calm, quiet, etc) in order to harvest insect proteins efficiently. If this happens, something similar to today’s meat industry may happen.

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  11. This post is exactly why I was so bummed out to miss last Thursday’s class! Your passion for this issue is inspiring, and it makes me feel like there is progress being made in some capacity toward a more humane world for food animals in America. In fact, your post makes me really want to seek out and try some gourmet insect recipes in the near future! In my transition to a healthier, more sustainable diet, I would be more than willing to experiment with bugs as a way to get my daily protein, mostly for the above-listed reason. In practice, though, I think I would still be wary when confronted with a full grasshopper. It really forces you to grapple with the idea that you are taking life to sustain your own; more than that, my inkling is they would taste like grass and dirt – two things I typically avoid in my diet now. One way to make that flavor change more seamless would be to supply the consuming public with recipes for the foods they’re receiving, in much the same way that Amy and John have done with their CSA. Because this is such a new concept for American society, this would serve as a nice stepping-stone into making the bug diet work for specialized pallets.
    I find the legality surrounding Jungle Bars ludicrous, especially in light of the FDA information on how much insect we’re already consuming in America. Maybe Iceland’s regulations are different, but if we take a moment to examine the meat industry here, I can’t see sustainably-farmed, non-poisonous, edible insects as being more disgusting and worse for the public than that.

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