Cricket Lollipops? More People Are Eating Bugs

Cricket Lollipops? More People Are Eating Bugs
Reported by Maryann Mott and written by Sarah Ives
National Geographic News
April 28, 2004
What if you looked in your lunch box and found a grasshopper sandwich and a cricket lollipop? That may make you feel sick to your stomach, but more and more people are eating bugs.
People in cultures around the world have been eating bugs for thousands of years. Today, probably more than half of people worldwide eat these creepy, crawly creatures.
People eat about 1,500 different species of insects. In Thailand, markets sell silkworms, grasshoppers, and water bugs to eat. And in South America, some movie theaters sell roasted ants!
"Once people try [bugs], they're going to realize it's not quite as scary as they think," Lisa Monachelli of the New Canaan Nature Center in Connecticut said. She teaches an insect-eating class to kids.
In fact, you probably already eat bugs everyday without knowing it.
"It's estimated that the average human eats one pound [half a kilogram] of insects each year unintentionally," Monachelli said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which watches over food safety in the U.S., allows a certain amount of insects in food. Every 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of chocolate can have as much as 60 insect pieces in it!
In the future, you might be eating bugs on purpose. Some scientists say that eating insects can be more environmentally friendly than eating other foods.
"If more people did their part to eat bugs and broaden their diets—and not just go out and eat chicken, beef, and pork—the planet would be better off," because raising and killing bugs can be less harmful to the environment than keeping and slaughtering larger animals, David George Gordon, a biologist and author of The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, said.
Think you could eat a cricket lollipop?
Questions for Discussion: