When I visited Oaxaca, Mexico, chapulines (spicy grasshoppers) could be found in every market and on every menu. I just couldnt get myself to try them. (I vacillate between vegan and pescetarian, sometimes eating eggs, cheese, and some environmentally friendly fish.) But the locals love them: after collecting them in a net, they are cleaned and then either fried or toasted on a comal with chili, lime, and garlic added for flavor, and then you eat them either by crunching them one by one or putting them on a tostada or in a taco with some guacamole. Why does this sound repulsive to so many (non-Mexican) folks, who will turn around and say mmmm, bacon as a knee-jerk response when someone points out that growing pigs for food causes more pollution than all the cars and trucks combined, as well as using up thousands of times more freshwater than would edible insects (or veggies and grains), and that pigs are smarter than dogs, yet tortured horribly in factory farms. Its got to be social conditioning. Mexicans told me they prefer chapulines to bacon. Now while I avoid all meat (except for some fish), these would pass my ethical standards, yet I was too squeamish to eat them. (Like fish, I dont think insects brains are developed enough for it to be a problem for me to kill and eat them, whereas the idea of killing a pig is just like a dog or dolphin or horse or elephant with me, so I find bacon repulsive, even though I admit it smells good). I read that caterpillars can also make for delicious delicacies. But were taught that this is disgusting (I have visual quasi-hallucinations of eating squirming Klingon gagh just thinking about eating caterpillars). Yet were taught to love bacon. It would be so much better for the planet, and the economy if it were the other way around. Maybe we will be forced to do that, and American versions of chapulines will replace pigs and chickens and KFC will stand for Kentucky Fried Chapulines, in another 50 years. For now though, it makes me go eww Which is too bad.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:48:29 +0000
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