Instead of pizza and Panda Express, U students dined on bugs Wednesday in the Marriott Library.
Pat Crowley, founder of the program “Chapul,” taught audience members about the benefits and nutrients that can be attained through eating bugs in an event called, “Eating Insects: From Past to Present.” Chapul aims to incorporate insects into Western cooking.
Marti Woolford, who is in charge of the Social Soup program, coordinated the event that attracted an estimated 65 people. This was one of their monthly events to educate people on different aspects of food.
The presentation taught participants that bugs have been edible sources of nutrition long before the modern American form of agriculture. Crowley said there are places, such as Thailand and Columbia, that have entire markets dedicated to selling insects as food. In Mexico City, bread with grasshopper grinds is sold for a higher price than “normal” bread.
Crowley suspects the fear of eating crickets and grasshoppers sprouts from the United States’ style of agriculture. He said bugs are seen as a nuisance to farmers and not a nutritious treat. He also said the psychological conception of bugs as “gross” has contributed to their lack of appeal.
But Crowley argued insects are actually more “green” than eating a piece of beef. He said grasshoppers are more bio-degradable than a cow and produce
more food. He gave the example that if a cow was fed 10 pounds of cow feed, then it would produce one pound of beef and be 40 percent edible. If a
cricket is fed 10 pounds of feed then it produces eight pounds of cricket, and is 80 percent edible.
Crowley has also invented an energy bar made out of dates and dehydrated crickets. The energy bar flavors include Chaco (peanut butter and chocolate), Thai (coconut, ginger and lime) and Aztec (dark-chocolate, coffee and cayenne).
Carly Gillespie, who works for Wasatch Community Gardens, said she initially did not want to try Crowley’s energy bar but was pleasantly surprised when she did. She said they were delicious and had a good texture, but she did not want to eat plain bugs.
Molly Mostert, a senior in biology, held three samples of the cricket energy bars in her hands and said she was “definitely convinced” the U.S. should change their eating habits after the event.
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