Credit card declined? You’re going to have to eat bugs, according to Infowars weirdo Paul Joseph Watson

There is actually a lot of investment now in using insects, especially mealworms, as a food source.

With the global population estimated to increase to 10 billion by 2050, and food production needing to increase by as much as 70% to meet growing demand, serious challenges are posed around the sustainability of our food production systems, particularly in regards to meat.

We continue this discussion with another option — insects. We see scope for insects to reduce the environmental burden of our food system as an alternative for both animal feed and food for human consumption.

Although there are numerous hurdles to overcome, notably regulation, price and cultural acceptance, we see insects as a viable middle ground for consumers wanting to make their diets more sustainable without going entirely plant-based, as well as offering a more sustainable source of animal feed. The insect protein market could be worth up to $8bn by 2030 (+24% CAGR) and we see upside if the supply and demand factors continue to develop favourably, similar to what we have seen in the plant-based space.

https://www.investmentbank.barclays.com/content/dam/barclaysmicrosites/ibpublic/documents/our-insights/InsectProtein/Leaflet%20Alt%20Meat_WEB.pdf

as the world’s population grows, and the proportion of the global population which can afford livestock products increases, then this competition would be expected to result in higher prices and increasing uncertainty with regard to supply chain stability. As such, if UK agriculture is going to continue to satisfy the demand for meat and animal products, then novel sources of protein will need to be identified and developed.

https://businesswales.gov.wales/farmingconnect/news-and-events/technical-articles/potential-sources-protein-animal-feed-insects

PJW does have some weird ideas about eating at restaurants:

https://youtu.be/McRSjIhxf0U

I rather suspect that carniculture is going to beat out insect protein in cultures that don’t currently eat them if meat gotten directly from vertebrates goes by the wayside. It’s a not uncommon scifi conceit that people from high tech cultures are perfectly happy to eat all manner of meat dishes, but won’t even contemplate eating anything that used to be a living animal. This is especially prevalent among stationers, belters, lunarians, and other folk who live in artificial habitats full-time.

@ dali

You ever read Arthur C Clarke’s Food of the Gods?

@Alan
Nope. Run across the idea elsewhere, though, and it will definitely happen. Not in secret, though, it’ll be their entire marketing program.

PJW: Nobody likes him, everybody hates him, he’s gonna eat some woooorrrrrms.

That’s all the brainpower I feel like using on this.

Have these people never heard of Fy?

I really want to try it myself…. microbe-fermented protein sheets, originally cultured from a strain of Fusarium fungus found in acidic springs in Yellowstone. Has all the essential amino acids humans need, apparently, and low in fat. Very easy to grow indoors in warehouses on carts that hold baking sheets, within cities, requiring only proper tool sterilization and appropriate culture handling techniques (same as for yogurt or any other fermented foods), temperature control, and a nutrient broth to ferment. It produces 5.4 times the protein per acre of crops as beef,1.3 times more protein per acre than plant protein sources, using 99% less water, and takes just 3.5 days to produce one full baking sheet of the stuff, which works out to one baking sheet being the equivalent of 30 whole chickens per year… so ONE cart that holds 20 sheets is 600 chickens in a year… I’m not sure if much cage space would hold 600 chickens in a year even at the worst factory farm.
The fungus also naturally produces a fibrous mat as it grows, that mimics the fibrous texture of meat, albeit less organized/without a dominant direction, because it’s not muscle. Because of that it requires less processing to be turned into seasoned food than many other microbe-based protein sources that require extensive processing and are used more as food additives.

IMO this is going to be the way of the future. If it tastes okay and is affordable, I’ll totally (mostly) replace meat in my diet with fungus protein.

I’m not sure why I find the idea of eating fungus mats preferable to eating bugs. Maybe it’s because I’ll also drink beer or eat bread?

[Y]ou tweeted a nasty thing about Jeff Bezos.

Everybody and her sister has tweeted nasty things about Jeff Bezos. It’s pretty much mandatory for a person with self-respect to say bad things about this robber baron/astronaut. If this becomes a law, they’re gonna run out of bugs.

Seth S:

The fungus also naturally produces a fibrous mat as it grows, that mimics the fibrous texture of meat, albeit less organized/without a dominant direction, because it’s not muscle.

So it’s essentially a lab grown mushroom. Mushrooms can indeed be a nice “plant” based alternative to meat sometimes. Remains to be seen if this is ecologically or economically more efficient than traditional mushroom farming.

Without going to the trouble of looking things up- about ten years ago I bought a book for a friend which was all about the use of maggots as a food source. The food producers used a bunch of flies to produce a heap of maggots and then ground the maggots into flour that could be used as food for animals, or of course for humans’ food – baking bread etc. Seemed an excellent idea, given the fast production of maggots and the ease of drying, grinding them into flour etc.

FYI I’ve made chocolate-coated honey-salted crickets and locusts once as a treat to a birthday party and they were pretty nice; I personally liked crickets better, but it turns out that thanks to my seafood & fish allergies, I’m also mildly allergic to both critters, so this is a no-go to me.

You will need some swift reflexes with this one.

1. Acquire a desired amount of crickets or locusts, freeze-dried; clean off legs, wings, heads.
2. Heat a pan, and start with high heat; put the creepycrawlies on the pan and stir. Let them brown a tiny bit, then pour in very runny honey and stir stir stir stir don’t let honey burn or else!
3. Put lumps of creepies on a baking sheet spread over cool large pan, either as singles or in small lumps; sprinkle with some fancy salt lightly and let them cool.
4. Once cool, either put them into moulds and pour dark chocolate over them, or roll in dark chocolate. Let them cool, consider the idea of giving them a spin in dark cocoa or powdered sugar (or blend of both, both is good too).
5. Feel free to improvise with all kinds of things, such as marshmallow dip before chocolate etc.
6. Finally, Watson is a screaming large adult baby.

My personal question, how desperate does the search for alternative protein sources need to get before red beans & rice becomes a common menu item?