Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Insects - the food of the future? (merged)

What's on your mind?
General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.

Unread postby Pops » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 09:37:14

Right now it’s about 28 degrees outside. If I had resorted to eating bugs this summer I might have put on some fat (maybe) - but what, I wonder, would I be eating this morning?

Red worm Jerky?

Bugs might be an alternative in some places but I think I’ll spend my time working on having something a little more substantial year-round.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
User avatar
Pops
Elite
Elite
 
Posts: 19746
Joined: Sat 03 Apr 2004, 04:00:00
Location: QuikSac for a 6-Pac

Unread postby Doly » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 12:39:43

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schneider', 'F')orgot to say : if TSHTF happen..one good way to survive could very well be eating unusual food !

Where most people will not see any food ,like a border of road with a sandy wet ground ,dandelions and grasshopper all around..You will see a land of plenty :evil: !


Well, the reason most people eat cultivated stuff instead of wildlife is because wildlife isn't as good food. The most promising wildlife has been domesticated already. I don't think anybody could survive on grasshoppers, dandelions and the like.
User avatar
Doly
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 4370
Joined: Fri 03 Dec 2004, 04:00:00

Unread postby seahorse2 » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 13:16:33

I also hope we don't ever, or I don't ever, have to resort to eating bugs to survive. However, reemphasize the fact that many bugs, especially grasshoppers, are known carriers of parasites that should never be eaten unless boiled. Plus, grasshoppers or any other flying jumping bug is not a good survival source of food bc it takes more energy to catch than you get by eating them, net loss, kind of like the EROI argument for PO. Stick to worms, beetles, grubs, ants etc, where you can sit your fat ass in the dirt by an old log and snack.
User avatar
seahorse2
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 2042
Joined: Mon 18 Oct 2004, 03:00:00

Unread postby Tyler_JC » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 13:25:48

Bingo!

That's exactly the point. We used to hunt cows/boars/goats. Now we domesticate them and raise them like...cattle. Most of the stuff that is usefull to use is already being used. We don't have to eat bugs because we have other sources of food. If it comes down to eating ants, most of us wouldn't make it past that first winter. With a reduced population, we could go back to eating the normal stuff (corn, wheat, beef, apples...).

But regardless, I'M NOT EATING A GRASSHOPER. End of story. If I'm ever that starving, I would have nothing left to sell for food (except for the gun + bullet). If I had no option other than eating insects or eating the bullet, I'll save that insect for someone else.
Tyler_JC
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 5438
Joined: Sat 25 Sep 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Boston, MA

Unread postby smallpoxgirl » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 22:04:27

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seahorse2', 'S')tick to worms, beetles, grubs, ants etc, where you can sit your fat ass in the dirt by an old log and snack.


:lol:

That was a great line!
User avatar
smallpoxgirl
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 7258
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2004, 04:00:00

Unread postby marko » Fri 25 Feb 2005, 23:32:15

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'T')here is an enzyme called trehalase that is made by every human intestine. It's only job is to digest trehalose. Trehalose is a sugar that is found in only two places...mushrooms and insect blood. At some point in our history, we ate an awful lot of one or the other. I'd bet mostly insects.


Actually, most primates eat lots of grubs and insects. Humans are primates, so this is part of our genetic heritage. And as others have pointed out, some human cultures include insect consumption.

I personally have eaten fried grasshoppers. They are quite tasty. They are a typical dish in the Oaxaca region of Mexico, where they are known as chapulines. I would be quite happy to make grasshoppers a regular part of my diet. Since they are so widely consumed in Oaxaca, I think that it must be possible to farm them.
User avatar
marko
Coal
Coal
 
Posts: 443
Joined: Mon 31 Jan 2005, 04:00:00
Location: Massachusetts

Unread postby seahorse » Sat 26 Feb 2005, 00:05:13

Almost anything taste good fried, but if you are having to survive, you probably won't have the luxory of oils and/or breading to fry stuff. Again, if you have the time to prepare and grow stuff, why not just grow normal stuff that everyone can eat, like potatoes. Grasshoppers are very destructive to gardens, so keep that in mind. You may cultivate a disaster.
User avatar
seahorse
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 2275
Joined: Fri 15 Oct 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Arkansas

Unread postby marko » Sun 27 Feb 2005, 00:29:29

Seahorse, the Oaxacans use only a little oil, some garlic, and some ground red chilis to fry those grasshoppers. No breading.

But I am guessing that they would be fine baked or roasted. They are basically shrimp that live on land.

Still, you are probably right that there are better things to put energy into farming.
User avatar
marko
Coal
Coal
 
Posts: 443
Joined: Mon 31 Jan 2005, 04:00:00
Location: Massachusetts

Unread postby JBinKC » Sun 27 Feb 2005, 01:54:37

I saw a show on survival and they ate worms by purging the center and boiled them. They tasted bland and chewy according to the tasters on the show so it appears eating low carb pasta is like conditioning me to a worm..
(and believe me low carb pasta and blue cheese is my least favorite thing to eat).

Regarding grasshoppers I would worry about the potential diseases they may carry however, if they are purged, boiled, fried, then salted it probably would taste no different than a potato chip but I am sure by the time you do all that to it 3/4 of the potential nutrients are gone.
User avatar
JBinKC
Lignite
Lignite
 
Posts: 254
Joined: Sat 14 Aug 2004, 03:00:00

Insects - the food of future?

Unread postby Wolfeyes » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 20:07:23

If PO will hit and we will not have some save-a-day way to produce energy there is now way we can still breed animals (pigs,cows,chickens).It takes huge amount energy just to feed them.And if you have already bought hunting equipment - forgot about it - all eatable game will be killed out in a few months.So I think maybe we will have to get used to eat insects.They don't make much energy to produce or breed.In fact you people eat a lot of them.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')S regulations allow for 75 insect fragments per 50g of wheat flour, two maggots per 100g of tomato sauce or pizza, 20 maggots for canned mushrooms, 60 fragments per 100g of peanut butter and so on). It's estimated that the average person consumes about a kilo of insects a year.


Insects can be nutritious and it will be all we need.In fact they are eaten in many parts of the world.

Small grasshoppers (100g)
Protein 20.6g
Total fat 6.1g

McDonald's® hamburger (107g)
Protein 12.0g
Total fat 10.0g
User avatar
Wolfeyes
Peat
Peat
 
Posts: 55
Joined: Sat 16 Jul 2005, 03:00:00
Location: EU, Poland

Unread postby The_Virginian » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 21:12:15

Just cook em' real good to kill parasites.

Locusts and grasshoppers are considered a delacacy, keeps the crop losses down as well.
[urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watchv=Ai4te4daLZs&feature=related[/url] "My soul longs for the candle and the spices. If only you would pour me a cup of wine for Havdalah...My heart yearning, I shall lift up my eyes to g-d, who provides for my needs day and night."
User avatar
The_Virginian
Heavy Crude
Heavy Crude
 
Posts: 1684
Joined: Sat 19 Jun 2004, 03:00:00

Unread postby killJOY » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 21:16:45

You know, I've often wondered about this, and I'll try just about anything....

My chickens just L O V E these:


Image


Could they be on to something?
Peak oil = comet Kohoutek.
User avatar
killJOY
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2220
Joined: Mon 21 Feb 2005, 04:00:00
Location: ^NNE^

Unread postby MicroHydro » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 21:41:22

If you have an electric bug zapper, bugs are easy to catch - unless you live in a desert. That is another reason to have a reliable power supply.
"The world is changed... I feel it in the water... I feel it in the earth... I smell it in the air... Much that once was, is lost..." - Galadriel
User avatar
MicroHydro
Heavy Crude
Heavy Crude
 
Posts: 1242
Joined: Sun 10 Apr 2005, 03:00:00

Unread postby turmoil » Mon 25 Jul 2005, 23:21:27

It's my humble opinion that anything tastes good with a little A1. 8)
"If you are a real seeker after truth, it's necessary that at least once in your life you doubt all things as far as possible"-Rene Descartes

"When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains however improbable must be the truth"-Sherlock Holmes
User avatar
turmoil
Heavy Crude
Heavy Crude
 
Posts: 1088
Joined: Fri 13 Aug 2004, 03:00:00
Location: Richmond, VA, Pale Blue Dot

Unread postby lcm » Mon 11 Dec 2006, 05:52:14

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'T')here is an enzyme called trehalase that is made by every human intestine. It's only job is to digest trehalose. Trehalose is a sugar that is found in only two places...mushrooms and insect blood. At some point in our history, we ate an awful lot of one or the other. I'd bet mostly insects.


well we are omnivores.
:) If give you a grasshopper ,a mortar ,stopwatch,10%sucrose solution,3.2pH,4.0pH,5.2pH,6.0pH,7.0pH,8.0pH buffer solution and a benedict 's solution to investigate the effect of pH on enzyme activities.What would you do ? How to carry out the experiment ?Please tell me ,thankyou very very much !
User avatar
lcm
Wood
Wood
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 11 Dec 2006, 04:00:00
Top

Unread postby smallpoxgirl » Mon 11 Dec 2006, 20:12:17

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lcm', 'I')f give you a grasshopper ,a mortar ,stopwatch,10%sucrose solution,3.2pH,4.0pH,5.2pH,6.0pH,7.0pH,8.0pH buffer solution and a benedict 's solution to investigate the effect of pH on enzyme activities.What would you do ? How to carry out the experiment ?Please tell me ,thankyou very very much !
I think I'm also going to need a spectrophotometer to complete the experiment.
"We were standing on the edges
Of a thousand burning bridges
Sifting through the ashes every day
What we thought would never end
Now is nothing more than a memory
The way things were before
I lost my way" - OCMS
User avatar
smallpoxgirl
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 7258
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2004, 04:00:00
Top

Unread postby megawatt » Fri 15 Dec 2006, 13:34:46

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'T')hat ..... I'd eat those ants and learn to properly hunt them and learn to like them...... :)

EastBay


I don’t know if this is practical, but we used to catch large red ants (many years ago as kids)by digging a hole next to an ant hill/hole placing a large glass jar in it, then back filling the hole around the jar to ground level. Ants would crawl over the lip fall in, and then not be able to climb back out of the jar. We would go back several hours later and have 1 gallon of red ants. What we did with them is not relevant to PO, but it usually involved someone’s major discomfort, or vehicle interior. I don’t know the nutrition factor of a gallon of ants, but it seems this could be done on a fairly large scale very easily.

Insect harvesting, lights, jars, and nets, the food could come to you.
megawatt
Wood
Wood
 
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu 23 Mar 2006, 04:00:00
Top

Unread postby Pretorian » Fri 15 Dec 2006, 17:46:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'B')ut regardless, I'M NOT EATING A GRASSHOPER. End of story.


Well you can always stick to cannibalism, especially with that rifle you always talk about.
Pretorian
Light Sweet Crude
Light Sweet Crude
 
Posts: 4685
Joined: Sat 08 Apr 2006, 03:00:00
Location: Somewhere there
Top

Insects as FOOD. Ingenius method from Cambodia!

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Thu 05 Mar 2009, 01:43:13

link

This story describes some of what is going on in Asia, how people are keeping themselves alive, using insects as food. These contraptions can easily be solarised .
I know this irks a lot of people; but it is highly relevant to post collapse survival strategy. Is anyone doing any of this in the west?
Last edited by Ferretlover on Thu 05 Mar 2009, 09:31:49, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Moved to the Open forum.
SeaGypsy
Master Prognosticator
Master Prognosticator
 
Posts: 9285
Joined: Wed 04 Feb 2009, 04:00:00

Re: Insects as FOOD.

Unread postby joewp » Thu 05 Mar 2009, 01:53:24

Not yet.

I think people will eat almost anything if necessary, and it will become necessary sooner rather than later.

That's why I'm having fun now. :-D
Joe P. joeparente.com
"Only when the last tree is cut; only when the last river is polluted; only when the last fish is caught; only then will they realize that you cannot eat money." - Cree Indian Proverb
User avatar
joewp
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 2054
Joined: Tue 05 Apr 2005, 03:00:00
Location: Keeping dry in South Florida

PreviousNext

Return to Open Topic Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron