© 2024 KGOU
News and Music for Oklahoma
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

From cicadas to crickets, bugs as cuisine

Mike Rothman (R) and friends eat periodical cicadas they prepared as part of the Hot One's challenge at home in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Mike Rothman (R) and friends eat periodical cicadas they prepared as part of the Hot One's challenge at home in Hyattsville, Maryland.

We recently did a show about the cicada double broodemergence.Billions of the bugs areabove groundthisyear. And the conversation… took a bit of a turn… towards whether they can be eaten. (They can.)

Some of you are certainly thinking you’d never eat a bug.But more than 2 billion people around the world eat insects as part of their standard diet. That’saccording to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

When we had thatconversation, our host, Jenn White, would havedescribedher enthusiasm to taste insects as… mild.Buta lotchangedsince our conversation with our guests for the cicada show. Including her willingnesstotry eating ants and crickets. 

Why are many of us so opposed to eating insectswhen humans havebeen doing it around the world for centuries?And how might changing our perspectiveon insect consumption benefitus and the planet?

Copyright 2024 WAMU 88.5

Barb Anguiano, Haili Blassingame
More News
Support nonprofit, public service journalism you trust. Give now.