Do NOT let Morimoto make ice cream out of them

By etee on Feb 24, 2008 | In Spotted on the 'Net..., Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot | Send feedback »

After reading how U.N. Conference Promotes Insect-Eating for Everyone From Famine Victims to Astronauts, I am not sure I will ever be able to eat Thai food (or anything coming out of the UN cafeteria) again!

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists.

As is so often the case when scientists are involved, they are so busy figuring out if they can do something, that they fail to ask if they should do it. Although, who knows: maybe we will finally figure out what goes into those McRib sandwiches!

Of course, there are several barriers, some of them logistical -

The infrastructure to raise, transport and market bugs is almost nonexistent in most countries.

while others are cultural (that's right, blame everything on the USofA):

Prof. Arnold van Huis, a tropical entomologist known as "Mr. Edible Insect" in his native Netherlands, blamed a Western bias against eating insects for the failure of aid agencies to incorporate bugs into their mix.

Of course, the bars would have a field day if someone figured out a way to make Buffalo Wings out of millipedes. And I guess that, if a plague of locusts is busily chomping down on next year's harvest, turnabout is fair play: but, when it comes to cockroach sushi... I think I'll pass.