Ellipse Magazine - Pass the Cricket

PASS THE CRICKET

DIMARCO | MURPHY

 
          Meat has long been a status symbol. Expensive and
              delicious, it was something only the rich could afford.
              This is one reason why in English we have different
              words for the animal and the food it produces: ‘beef’
              and ‘cow’, ‘pork’ and ‘pig’, etc. This vocabulary helped to separate the classes during the French invasion of England in 1066. But the valuing of meat dates far earlier than that. For hunter gatherers meat was central to survival. Hunting built relationships, communities and status. Later, livestock were valuable capital as a sign of wealth and security. Sacrifices in
              various religions have often included meat. Meat has been prized and lauded over for centuries.

 
          In Western culture, meat is our dominant source of
              protein. Poultry, pork, beef — you name it! After
              animal flesh, our next go-to is other animal products: milk and eggs. This is also for good reason. Dominant religions in Western culture have had few dietary restrictions concerning meat and eating animals was
              practical in an agrarian society.  Meat, eggs and dairy are all complete proteins, meaning they possess all
              12 amino acids your body needs. They also are a good source other necessary nutrients, like B12, iron and calcium. However, meat is     also high in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories that your sedentary, first-world ass may not need. 

              As the world’s urban population increases and modern
              production and shipping methods make products more availabile, more and more people are turning to meat as their primary source of protein. 
              People are now able to purchase delicacies
    they once could not afford or that were not available to them.⁹ 

              As more people begin to live in urban areas, their access to cheap meat increase while their access to other necessary parts of a healthy diet decrease. Why would you
              spend your $5.00 on one cup of cubed
              melon when you could get twenty McNuggets with the same dough?

              Like many industries, the meat industry is embarrassingly bad for the environment.⁴ Meat production 
              is responsible for one fifth of all greenhouse gases. Cows and other animals emit methane, which is twenty three times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.¹ Creating land and feed for livestock causes 
              massive deforestation, further crippling the environment’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide.² 
              Two thirds of the world’s arable farmland is 
              used for livestock production. 

              This land could be used for farming other nutrient-rich and environmentally friendly crops instead of producing fancy sirloins for the rich. In the United States, we currently consume more than the recommended amount of meat for our health, while millions of impoverished nations go without. It’s a situation in which nobody wins. The prizes are either heart disease or nutritional deficiencies.

 
          The United Nations has been
              recommending that we significantly decrease our meat consumption for the last ten
              years.¹² In October of 2018 they reiterated this
              warning in their newest report on climate change.¹⁰
              The report stated that the planet has only 12 years
              to decrease our carbon emissions to prevent global
              warming from increasing another 0.5 degrees Celsius.
              This level of increase could plunge the planet into the next stage of the environmental apocalypse.³

              Our planet can’t keep up with the taxing strain of
              meat production. With the world’s population growing
              and being able to afford more meat, it is impossible for our planet to produce enough meat to satisfy the daily nutritional requirements for all of those people. Thus, we must find another source.¹¹

              Don’t despair! Lo and behold, there is an answer: crickets! Crickets are a complete protein and high in iron. They are 65% protein by volume, whereas beef jerky is only 33% and chicken is merely 23%. Crickets convert biomass to fuel much more efficiently than traditional livestock. Only one and a half pounds of feed is needed to produce a
              pound of cricket, while it takes twenty pounds of
              feed to produce one pound of beef. 100% of a cricket can be eaten as food, whereas only 40% of a cow ends
              up at consumable meat.⁸ Modern companies have begun grinding them up into flour, showing their versatility. Cricket flour could even potentially be
              used as a therapeutic food for malnourished children.

              Eighty percent of people in the world already eat insects regularly.⁷ Over 1,000 different types of insects are eaten globally as tasty delicacies, common treats, or even full-fledged meals. Colonization and ethnocentrism have contributed to changing perspectives in which insects have become less common in cultures where 
              they used to often be on the dinner table.⁴

Most meat doesn’t look like the animal it comes from by the time it makes it to our plate. Plus, usually we don’t eat something with eyes and a face.⁶ However, crickets aren’t that strange compared to other things we eat, like mollusks and escargot. In fact, crickets are arthropods and therefore cousins to lobster, shrimp, and crab, which we already agree is fit for gourmet.⁸

Capitalism will spare no chance to turn a profit, however, and the young cricket industry is no exception. Already cricket products are touted at ridiculously high prices, making them into yet another health food fad for affluent hipsters instead of an affordable nutritional source for society.⁷ Companies mark up their prices because of this fad — just like a lot of those fashionable, exotic fruits and vegetables you see at Whole Foods. If crickets don’t become more affordable, they’ll never become integrated into our diet. Access is not a problem, as a network of cricket suppliers has already been established in the West for pet food. Crickets have also already found their way into Michelin-starred restaurants and cookbooks on Amazon. The question is — when will they be affordable enough for you to serve at your dinner table?