Edible Insects Writing Assignment 1

湯阿娜 B09504076

When I think about eating insects, there are two conflicting images in my head. One of them is
a scene from Lion King (the animated, of course) where Timon and Pumba offer a young and
starving Simba a leaf with colorfully vibrant and enticing insects, and young me thought that
the “dish” looked marvelously rich in flavor. The second image is nothing specific, just an
impression I have of the type of person that would regularly eat insects. Someone poor and
homeless, lying on the dirt, picking up grubs and biting into them “ripe”. Of course, these are
two extremes of the spectrum and in reality, I’m taking this class because I’m more intrigued
then repulsed by edible insects, so I can’t say there’s anything morally wrong about enjoying
insects as some sort of exquisite, tropical cuisine, or needing insects as a source of cheap, quick
nourishment. They’re a class of animals, and we eat animals daily, so anyone who considers
themselves a carnivore should at least by willing to acknowledge that the practice of eating
insects isn’t something other-worldly. Of course, vegans should consider it as immoral as any
other product from the meat-processing industry, but I don’t view it as that much different
from eating beef, which I’m totally okay with. And although I can agree that the way we treat
animals currently is mostly cruel, I can’t shame everyone for not being vegetarian or vegan,
because we just don’t have the necessary infrastructure in place to feed 7.7 billion people (and
rising) without relying on chickens, cows and pigs. If the whole planet suddenly elected me as
queen, and my first ruling was to ban all sources of meat, I’d be condemning at least a billion to
people to starvation, and another billion to become unemployed because the industry they
depended on collapsed. I think that’s unequivocally immoral. The life of a person is more
valuable than the life of an animal, and that shouldn’t be a controversial statement.
So I could come to the early conclusion that if eating animals is necessary and moral, then
insects should not be viewed under a different lens, and anyone who disagrees is putting more
weight on the preservation of a beetle than on the welfare of a child. But I suppose, it’s not so
black-and-white if we starting talking about specifics.
Red pandas are my favorite animal. They look so fluffy and adorable, like a cross between a
panda and a fox, or like the animal best friend of a Disney princess. The issue is, they’re
endangered. And if I heard that someone had hunted one down for sport, I’d be as repulsed as
if that person had committed murder. So what if I heard that someone ate an endangered
butterfly or beetle? It sounds so selfish, inconsiderate and wrong, morally wrong. Do I value
their lives more than the life of a species we could permanently and irrevocably lose from the
face of the Earth? I’m not so sure what to think then. As queen – assuming there hasn’t been
an uprising to behead me yet – I’d have to allow people to eat any type of animal, regardless of
how much we may wish to protect it, if they had no other viable option available for their
survival. But I would ask them to hunt down or harvest the animal in a sustainable manner.
And sustainability doesn’t just matter for endangered species. A big con about eating insects is
that, if any one species becomes too popular worldwide, we might hunt them down with such
speed and efficiency that they don’t have the appropriate amount of time to maintain or
replenish their numbers, thereby rendering them endangered as well. I guess it could happen
with any animal that doesn’t live in farms, it’s happened with big species like the bison. Of
course, people wouldn’t realistically begin hunting down beetles or crickets “for sport”, but
even if we only do so for commercial reasons, insects are so small and offer so little nutrition
that we would need to gather a lot more of them to equal one pound of other, more readily
available meat. A whole cow could feel a whole family and there’d still be plenty left. A whole
ant would not even count as a snack. We’d end up doing unmeasurable damage to small
ecosystems if we started eliminating thousands of insects from small zones all at once. It
doesn’t exactly sound like an environmentally-friendly enterprise.
Another con of eating insects could be the fact, if we encouraged everyone to just eat whatever
insect they encounter out in the world, many of them might get sick from potentially eating
something not properly cooked, or from eating a particular species that is poisonous or toxic in
large quantities to the human body. The only way to prevent the accidental intoxication of
people is to first educate them on what species are edible and which ones are not, but that
would take forever, and truth is there is still much we haven’t discovered about the insect
kingdom (species we haven’t found or properly studied). What I mean is, everyone is familiar
with the concept of cows and chickens and we could all cook them over the fireplace because
it’s common knowledge. But the average, typical person isn’t as well informed about how to
cook stink bugs, for example. Is everyone really ready and willing to take lessons and practice
the art of cooking small animals they’ve probably never even held before? Not really, right?
The only really viable option is for a small portion of the population to specialize in collecting,
cooking and preparing the insects – the way it currently works – but more often than not, the
people who already had access to this information and who pass it on to their children and live
from it come from low-income communities. And like it was discussed in the videos, these poor
families often stop eating insects themselves and dedicate all their resources into selling them,
therefore switching to “city food” and losing a bit of their culture and identity that way. I’m not
saying only low-developed and poor communities should eat insects, because that would just
feed into the negative stereotypes and shame involved with the practice, but they should not
be forced into the position where they abandon this side of their identity. It’s almost a way of
cultural appropriation, because we’d be robbing them of something unique to them out of a
desire to own it ourselves, without proper appreciation or respect for what sacrifices they
might have to do to grant it to us.
On the other hand, there are some pros I have yet to mention.
For instance, if we did encourage everyone to go outside and collect insects themselves
(assuming they’re well educated about what they’re doing), then we’d be promoting a healthier
lifestyle in people. And that’s coming from someone who uses Foodpanda and Uber Eats way
too much. Sure, it’s less convenient to do everything yourself, but it’s a way to get some
exercise and be more connected with nature. It’s also a way to gain knowledge on the variety of
animals and plants that exist in the green areas around us, which in turn can help us bring more
flavor and diversity to our diet. And it’s a way to save some money too, so I’m sure many
people struggling financially could benefit from possessing the necessary skills to be more self-
sufficient with their meals. Not everyone who gathers insects might begin a business around it,
but it could grant them with the necessary liberty or expertise to launch themselves into similar
fields and advance in other professional areas. Even for some apocalyptic or survival-in-the-wild
scenarios, having previous experience on eating different insects could be beneficial.
Another pro of eating insects could be the normal counterargument for the “cultural
appropriation” debate which is that, without trading knowledge between cultures, we’d all
become more segregated and less tolerable of our differences. The only way to really remove
the bad mental image I and other people have when thinking about “the type of people who
eat insects” is to normalize it, and in order to normalize it, it has to become more worldwide
and less regional. Then those who already enjoy or live off of this practice can be more free in
where and how often they indulge on it. Then we could all become a little less judgmental or
prejudiced against them.
All in all, I still think insects is morally okay because I think restricting people of eating any type
of food because of moral implications is not very humanistic. What everyone eats is their own
business and I have no right to condemn them to starvation because I feel like they should start
eating completely different things. And since insects mainly benefit people from low-income
households, then with more reason I should not and could not criticize them for it. But I guess,
eating insects as a hobby is a more morally-neutral than morally-good. I think they need to
consider how sustainable and environmental-friendly the hobby is, and how it’s affecting other
communities involved with the market. If it’s done with the right intentions and through the
right means, then the result is surely net-positive.