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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Global Warming Will Force Us All To Eat Bugs
2008-02-14
If they don't eat us first:
Shortly after New Years, NewsBusters informed readers about a new horror movie wherein nature attacks oil workers in Alaska to prevent global warming.

To further scare people into sacrificing their financial well-being in order to stave off the liberal bogeyman, HuffPoster Kerry Trueman on Tuesday suggested that food shortages will be so rampant if we don't stop climate change that we'll all end up eating bugs.

I kid you not.

For those looking for a cut to the chase, this was the money shot (emphasis added throughout, h/t NBer lunaticcringeradio):

If the thought of eating bugs and roadkill freaks you out, consider this: competition for the world's dwindling resources is heating up right along with the planet, and global warming is worsening food shortages all over the world. In this land o' plenty o' processed foods, most Americans can't imagine an era when we'd be forced to subsist on weeds, bugs, and -- till we run out of gas -- roadkill.

I can see it now: Huff up to your favorite fast-food window in your solar-assisted pedal-car and place your order, "I'll have a Bug-Mac and an order of Flies, super-size those please."
And you thought I was pulling your leg, didn't you? Fortunately, Kerry had some great culinary ideas for us:

Is it time to start chowing down on some of those crawly critters we instinctively prefer to stomp on? The Feral Forager, a self-published 'zine excerpted in Sandor Katz's The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, rebrands pill bugs as "land shrimp"; grasshoppers are "surprisingly tasty and filling" and taste "something like popcorn"; crickets, "incredibly high in calcium and potassium." Roasted grubs make a fat-filled protein snack that, again, tastes "a lot like popcorn."
Earthworms make "a very nutritious flour," and ant eggs are edible, too; raw ant eggs reportedly taste "like couscous", but the author of the article confesses that "the only time I tried this it tasted like a hundred ants biting my tongue..."

Balderdash, that was just another LSD flashback.
Honestly, if this won't scare you into turning off your lights and selling your SUV, nothing will!
Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy

#23  OS, not ecessarily more arable land, but definitely more productive (if the farmer knows what he's doing).
Posted by: twobyfour   2008-02-14 23:54  

#22  Stupid bitsdh - more greenhouses and warmer temps generally means MORE arable land.

Global Cooling, on the other hand, which appears to be a very real possibility due to solar activity, will reduce the arable land, especailly in N Hemishpere
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-02-14 22:38  

#21  And now you know, Virginia, yet another reason why news like this show PAULA ABDUL WAS WRONG TO KICK A COCOCUT/TROPIC PLANT ON MTV BACK IN THE PRE 9-11, PRE OWG-NWO 1980's.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-02-14 22:27  

#20  Actually global warming will extend the growing season in areas that are only marginally productive - wheat growing in Canada, for example. Plants thrive in warmth. (And extra carbon dioxide.)
Posted by: Rambler   2008-02-14 20:30  

#19  PETB

People for the Ethical Treatment of Bugs

Have You Hugged A Bug Today?
Posted by: BUGSY   2008-02-14 19:20  

#18  I'm told chocolate-covered ants are quite tasty; formic acid gives them a little zing.
Posted by: Uncle   2008-02-14 18:29  

#17  philb-

So said Geisel in "Green Eggs and Ham".
Posted by: no mo uro   2008-02-14 18:10  

#16  man's gotta eat
Posted by: Alferd Packer   2008-02-14 18:01  

#15  I recall reading a food writer describing eating a dish at a restaurant in Thailand that had 2 kinds of live ants on it. It was hilarious. Wish I had kept the link.

You can buy at least a dozen different kinds of cooked insects in Thailand. I was once in Bangkok with a mmainland Chinese friend of mine. She tried everyone of the insects on sale on the street and then insisted we go a restaurant that specialized in insect dishes where she ate a large dish of deep fried bugs while I looked on.

She then told me Westerners were wierd because they would decide they didn't like some foods without ever trying them. How could you tell if you liked them or not without trying them first? I couldn't argue with her logic, but I still didn't eat the bugs.
Posted by: phil_b   2008-02-14 17:17  

#14  Red White and Blue Crawfish:


Must be all American Food!
Posted by: 3dc   2008-02-14 15:55  

#13  saw this bug comment elsewhere:

If you feed the crawfish garlic and butter and chives before you cook it and eat it, will it taste like scampi?
Posted by: 3dc   2008-02-14 15:53  

#12  Be sure to cook that Polar Bear as you would pork. Don't want any nasty parasites.
Posted by: 3dc   2008-02-14 15:52  

#11  As if everyone is starving in tropical regions. I'll miss the taste of Polar Bear meat; it goes good with Bernaise.
Posted by: Woozle Crusing9022   2008-02-14 15:41  

#10  new PETA meaning:
People
Eating
Toasted
Arthropods
Posted by: USN,Ret.   2008-02-14 15:05  

#9  Insects are arthropods. They might not be as big as lobster or crab, but grasshoppers, ants, grubs, and other insects have already been eaten by humans throughout our evolutionary history.

Think of 'em as small lobsters, or think of lobsters as big bugs. Either way, they're full of fats, oils, proteins, and lots of other good stuff that will keep you alive. Eating them live or uncooked would probably not be a good idea, primarily due to parasites, but there's darned few arthropodal bacteria or virii that can transfer to humans via the gastric processes.

I do tend to agree, however, that the pollinators and decomposers ought to be left alone to do the job they were designed for (though earthworms are routinely farmed for all kinds of reasons and could be farmed for food).

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2008-02-14 13:57  

#8  cont from above..

It gives a whole new meaning to eating vegetarian.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2008-02-14 12:56  

#7  He overlooks all the food stored in the bodies of anti-gun proponents. They should be easy to shoot, dress and grill seeing as how they will be defenseless.
Posted by: BrerRabbit   2008-02-14 12:47  

#6  Honey ants and witchetty grubs... gee I miss 'em.
They say you can get anything you want in NYC, but it aint true.
Posted by: Grunter   2008-02-14 12:45  

#5  BFD, many cultures on earth, and I don't mean just bushmen, but affluent south koreans, for example, routinely eat bugs, not out of desperation and hunger, but as part of culinary traditions. This may seem an huge leap for that writer, but it's just because it fits both into her provincialism and her end-of-capitalism worldview/hope.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2008-02-14 12:31  

#4  My survival instructor in Army training was big on bugs or anything else that swam, ran, slithered, or flew. The concern might be a girl thing cause iirc boys didn't think a second time of taking a double yellow dog dare to eat anything in the above categories. Most of us survived.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-02-14 12:18  

#3  The corollary to six billion humans switching to insectivorism would be utter devastation of the populations of birds and bats, and the end to most pollination of flowers and fruiting trees.

Earthworms are vastly more valuable as producers of rich topsoil than they are ground into flour.
Posted by: Seafarious   2008-02-14 12:17  

#2  Ya always gotta read the bio...

Co-founder of EatingLiberally.org, a netroots website & organization that advocates sustainable agriculture, progressive politics and a less-consumption driven way of life. Foodie, blogger & edible landscaping enthusiast in NYC's West Village and the Hudson River Valley. Would like to be the missing link between Martha and Jon Stewart.

Ah, she advocates a "less-consumption driven way of life". Must be why she has a place in the West Village and the Hudson River Valley. Spread the "less-consumption" around...
If I had to eat bugs to survive, I could probably do it. Whereas this broad would probably kill herself...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-14 12:08  

#1  mmm bugs mmm
Posted by: homer simpson   2008-02-14 12:04  

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