Bug Nugget Fever

Have you had your BugNugget today? If not, you should go ahead and I am happy to give you my quota to eat as well. Eating insects, processed into coated treats or not, is quite common in the world, but it's a craze now in Europe. Food safety officials across Europe now are trying to establish guidelines and standards for some of the new exotic insect snacks that are becoming increasingly popular, such as crickets and worm chips. Yuk!

Health experts and officials in various individual countries in Europe say that they have no idea how safe eating that roach that is crawling across your computer monitor. So they are enlisting suppliers, retailers and natural history experts to help set up standards for safety. Apparently, common sense among the European population isn't one standard these days. Oh, the things people do just to be trendy. But eating insects when donuts are available? It is heresy.

Why is this buggy eating habit gaining popularity and being touted as the “food of the future” in Environmental circles in Europe? It's because roaches, spiders, ants and whatever else crawls by allegedly have a "low carbon footprint and high protein content" because bugs don't take farmland space, don't need to be fed and don't produce those greenhouse gasses that allegedly change the climate.. Hmmmm So does drinking one's own urine, but I want no part of that either. Bugnuggeting is yet another bizarre attempt to "save the planet" (How many times do the environmental nuts want to save the planet? They seem to do it all the time).

Some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein of raw meat and fish, while others are mostly unsaturated fat and contain important vitamins and minerals. Nice, if you like eating bugs. I don't. There is the matter of taste to add to the equation. Food should be enjoyed as to taste as well. Though eating insects is common elsewhere, particularly in Asia, with a reported 1,700 species of bug eaten in 113 countries, that is an acquired taste. I doubt Europeans or Americans will throw down their filet mignon and fries in favor of stir-fried crickets or sautéed caterpillars.

Europeans and Americans have a cultural aversion to "entomophagy" (eating insects) that is probably too strong to change. I think the insects must feel grateful for it.