Entomophagy Anthropology
JULIE LESNIK
Associate Professor
Dept of Anthropology
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI
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Insects to Feed the World 2018 in Wuhan, China

5/25/2018

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I had the great privilege of attending the second Insects to Feed the World conference held this time in Wuhan, China.  The first one was four years ago in the Netherlands, spearheaded by Arnold van Huis and the University of Wageningen.  I did not attend in 2014 so this was my first opportunity to meet Arnold van Huis, which was a bit of a starstruck moment for me. He was first author on the 2013 UN FAO statement that I think of as a rocket booster for my career.  It was an amazing feeling that in his opening keynote address he mentioned my research on an ancient termite mound at Olduvai Gorge, so it was a bit easier to introduce myself to him after that.  It gave me a talking point to tell him that that paper won't be out for some time still and that the news picked up my talk from the Paleoanthropology Society meetings although the articles never credited it as such.

The conference was an amazing experience and I want to share some of my takeaways:

So many black soldier flies!

This conference, like all edible insects conferences thus far, including my own, featured insects as both food and feed.  And it was the first time that I started to wonder how much longer this joint effort would continue, at least in terms of conference programming.   The food side of things was still lamenting issues of consumer acceptance and legislative barriers while the feed side of things was presenting cutting edge research on rearing insects (most commonly black soldier fly larvae) as feed for livestock.  It was a little too familiar of a "late bloomer" feeling - watching your friend hit a new life stage while leaving you behind in the dust.  

Ultimately I think the momentum the feed crowd has is good for all.  The technology that they are developing with their better-funded research is transferable in many ways to food insects.  So once of the food side of things catches up in normalization, there is a lot of groundwork that has already been laid.  The problem with this on the conference programming side is that all the industry players from both sides - farmers, companies, and agriculture researchers - were tied up in these talks and the parallel programming that was specifically focused on the social aspects of insects as food were not as well attended.

Ethno-entomophagy

I presented in and chaired the session on ethno-entomophagy.  And I shouldn't say the session wasn't well attended because it probably had 50 people or so in there.  But I personally feel (and whether this is warranted or just my ego speaking is a debatable) that everyone who works with edible insects in any way would benefit from understanding their cultural significance around the world.  So I am going to take the time to give shout-outs to the ethno presentations here:

Research and development of Ophiocordyceps sinensis
R. Han and L. Cao

Ophiocordyceps sinensis is a fungus that grows on caterpillars on the Tibetan plateau and is used in traditional Chinese medicine for a wide range of aliments (News to me!  So cool!).  Han's talk emphasized the importance of this resource for local people and presented his research on large-scale cultivation of host insects (Thitarodes armoricanus and T. jianchuanensis).  They have had success rearing these long-lived species, infecting the adults with the fungus, and harvesting the resulting blooms.  

Domestication of African gourmet caterpillars
D. Ambühl

To start, I loved  Ambühl's decision to use the word "gourmet" to reflect that these caterpillars are not just edible, they are greatly enjoyed as food.  He presented the work he has been doing with Congolese biologist Augustin Konda to domesticate saturniid caterpillars and rear them as agricultural livestock in a region of the Democratic Republic of Congo where they are no longer found.  This project works closely with local people and the children are especially excited to be involved.  You can follow their progress on their youtube channel.  Definitely go check it out!

Review of past and current status of insects for food and feed in Kenya: reintroducing entomophagy
M.A. Ayieko 

I was lucky to be in two sessions with Dr. Monica Ayieko.  She is brilliant and well-spoken and everyone should be in the room any time she is presenting.  Her talk reviewed the historic use of insects as food in Kenya, current scientific work being done on the topic, and the future prospects of edible insects in human and animal nutrition in Kenya.  The main point of her talk was a call for collaboration.  There is much that needs to be done in order to rear insects on a scale that can be useful for alleviating the challenges of food security.  The many different edible species require a specific understanding of their life cycles, etc., and she wants anyone who is interested to come and help them figure these things out in Kenya!

Women and edible insects: a deep, deep history
J. Lesnik

I presented next and can I say that I am most proud that I was able to keep my own talk within the allotted time?  It's a weird piece of pride I have to not go over time, even when I don't have someone holding up signs.  Anyway, I digress.  I used the 15 minutes to present the overarching theme of my upcoming book (I will present on the Olduvai termite mound at the upcoming Eating Insects Athens (Georgia) conference August 13-15.. Register here!).  Women in foraging societies consume insects more than men and this pattern is not restricted to humans, it is also well represented in the great apes, especially chimpanzees, and can be found across the Primate order.  Therefore I think it is safe to say that our ancient ancestors were likely displaying a similar pattern.  The fact that females rely on them so heavily is a testament to their utility and we should celebrate edible insects as such.

Settlement behaviour of new queens of the weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina
T. Phusakhon and D. Wiwatwitaya

Phusakhon presented her research on the ecology of weaver ant queens establishing new colonies. This species is a prominent and important economic edible insect of Thailand and if they are ever going to be cultivated then it is important to understand how new colonies are established in the wild.  It is important to remember that social insects like ants, bees, and termites are architects of their homes and that temperature regulation is a major factor to consider.  Her work was fascinating showing how the queens are highly selective in choosing their settlement sites with the majority of queens being found on the west sides of trees and on leaves that are superimposed, not curled.  If cultivation is to be successful, it is important to consider such factors in creating habitats for captive colonies.


I was very proud of this session and I believe that familiarizing ourselves with the different ways people consume insects is an important step to helping people see them as actual food, not just something "others" eat.  To that point, I am grateful that there was a special side session dedicated to understanding how our colonial histories affect edible insects research and industry.

The Importance of Decolonizing Edible Insects

Thanks to Charlotte Payne and John Kinyuru for organizing a panel titled "A discussion of neo-colonial approaches to edible insects and how we can work to decolonise the field in both research and industry."  This is a topic that I think every single person attending the conference should have been exposed to, but of course, only the people who already had some familiarity with the concept were the ones that attended the discussion.  Therefore I am glad that we were able to record it so that everyone can see.  You can watch it here.  

The panelists were:
Dr. Komi Fiaboe.  Senior Scientist, Leader of the Insect for Food and Feed Program, ICIPE
Dr. Afton Halloran.  Consultant - Sustainable Food Systems, Former GREEiNSECT PhD Fellow
Dr. Monica Ayieko.  Consumer Scientist, Jooust- Kenyan University
Dr. Amy Franklin, DVM.  Farms for Orphans
Dr. Julie Lesnik.  Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University

Each of the participants spoke for 5-10 minutes on their personal experiences with overcoming the bias against insects as food that comes from our colonial history.  I then wrapped up the presentation part of the session with a very short anthropology-professor lecture about the topic (26:45-32:55) before we opened the discussion to everyone in the room. 

A few key takeaway points: 
  • How we talk about insects as food matters because we are currently limited by a vernacular that portrays them as an "uncivilized" food choice.
  • Funding opportunities for edible insects research is greater in "Western" countries, but we should not be leading the conversation.  We need to collaborate with and give credit to researchers in the countries where we conduct our research.
  • As industry grows we need to be mindful of how it impacts the small-scale farmers that have been making this their livelihood for generations.  

Please check out the video of the panel.  I also highly recommend you watch my lecture on Why Don't We Eat Insects in Western Culture if you are new to this concept and want to better understand the impact of our colonial history on edible insects today.  I also have another blog post that discusses the topic that you might find useful.

Associating with Associations!

 The last thing I want to mention was just how awesome it was to see representatives of the different regional associations come together to discuss their programs and share knowledge.  There has been some speculation on whether a "world association" should be founded, but I think that no one needs an additional annual membership they need to keep up with, and that all the benefits of such an association can be had by making sure these sorts of collaborative conversations continue.  I foresee that this will be a highlight of every IFW conference from here on out.  I will not attempt to summarize the session as this was outside of my area of expertise (you can read a bit about it here), but I do want to give you links to the associations that were present:

The Asian Food and Feed Insect Association- AFFIA
Insect Protein Association of Australia - IPAA
International Platform for Insects as Feed and Food - IPIFF (Europe based)
North American Coalition for Insect Agriculture - NACIA

Final Impression:  Energizing

After attending my first edible insects conference in Montreal in 2014 I was so inspired by the energy and commaraderie I felt that I offered to host Eating Insects Detroit in 2016.  Some people, including myself, sometimes look at this decision as one of naivete, but it was just something I felt I had to do.  I needed to bring this group of people together again.  Four years later I still feel the same way after saying goodbye.  I am excited that Eating Insects Athens is just around the corner and look forward to being an attendee at the next IFW conference, wherever it may land.  
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Reflections on Eating Insects Detroit

7/13/2016

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"No one knew quite what to expect" 

That quote rings very true and comes from the Entomo Farms blog that reflects on their time at the conference.  Entomo Farms was one of my earliest supporters for the conference.  I received an email from Jarrod Goldin early in my planning stages asking me how they could be involved.  My answer at that very early time, and truthfully it was the same to almost everyone until just before the event, was "just show up."  

My biggest fear was that no one was going to come.  I knew if I could get people here, that I could put together a great event.  But the truth is, before this, not very many people knew who I was.  Why would they come?  I was hoping that the city of Detroit would be a draw, and that people would want to come just to see the food and art revolution that is driving this city forward.  Additionally, I had faith in the passion of people interested in edible insects.  I put out a call for abstracts in the fall of 2015 and then waited.  And waited.  Amazingly, by the early deadline in January, I had a good number of submissions and knew I could make this conference run with just that if need be.  By the final deadline, it was clear that I would have a jam-packed program.  

All of this came together because of social media.  The only reason I even have a twitter account is because the ento community is so active on there.  So I relied heavily on it, and ultimately it worked to bring together 200 people in Detroit.  

We had three days of programming and I was completely in charge of what that would look like.  I have been to A LOT of conferences, so tried to pick-and-choose things that I liked, and overall, I think it worked well.  I am especially proud of the following decisions that I made:
  • ​All of the program was mixed and held in a single session.  Although parallel sessions allow for more presenters and more specialized talks, our field is still young and we have so much still to learn from each other.  It was one of the first things I wrote when I created the conference webpage:  As pioneers in this movement, we are each responsible to portray the benefits, realities, struggles, and potential of insects as food the best we can to our peers.  It is the goal of the conference to provide everyone, whether experts or novices, with a better understanding of the culture of insects as food so that we can each go forward and inspire change.
  • I did not just have one keynote speaker, instead I had seven, and they were spectacular: 
​                          Ana C. Day (4ento, Switzerland)
​                      Meghan Curry (Bug Vivant)
                      Jarrod Goldin (Entomo Farms, Canada)
                      Paul Vantomme (FAO, Italy)
                      Jeff Tomberlin (Texas A&M Dept of Entomology)
                      Pat Crowley ​(Chapul)
                      Ricardo Carvajal (Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C.)
  • There was a discussion panel dedicated to ethics.  I figured if we start having these conversations early about how to best handle issues surrounding labor, equity and equality, environmental consciousness, cultural appropriation, etc, then we will be able to adjust as need be as the industry grows and changes.​
  • The vendors expo was open to the public.  We had at least 50 people come to the expo that were not at the conference or involved with edible insects in any way.  This was my chance to engage Detroit directly in this movement, and the variety of foods that the vendors had available helped to make one hell of an impression.
  • Finally, I worked hard to support the travel and accommodation of international participants, especially those traveling from countries that are traditionally underrepresented in academic programming but where edible insects have long been a part of their culture.  Presenters at the conference represented 12 countries, providing a valuable diversity of perspectives.

Looking back, putting together this conference was a behemoth of a task!  I don't think I realized how much work I put in until the conference was here and running, and running smoothly!  I definitely had help from my department and my students, and I leaned on Robert Nathan Allen, Marianne Shockley, and Wendy Lu McGill for guidance along the way.  I am ever so grateful to everyone who helped, and honored that so many people showed up.  I honestly believe that this gathering of minds in Detroit will leave an indelible impression on the future of insects as food.
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You can still see the full conference program here.
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Thought For Food Challenge  - Insect "meat product" in the Top 10

12/17/2014

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Thought For Food is a movement dedicated to developing solutions to the challenge of feeding the world's growing population.  Every year they run a competition where teams from all around the world compete for the $10,000 prize and other benefits such as mentorships, workshops, networking events, and public exposure of their ideas.


This year there were 334 entries into the competition.  The top 10 finalists were just named.  These teams will go on to participate in a 3-day "start-up accelerator program" before giving their final pitch to a panel of judges in February in Portugal.


Out of a handful of insect-based concepts, the standout and one of the finalists is a a team with a product called C-fu.  C-fu is a process that transforms insects into a versatile meat that can be used much like tofu or reprocessed into other products.  

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Check them out!  


http://tffchallenge.com/team/c-fu/


The food is definitely something I want to try! These students, hailing from Cornell University and York University, offer a solution to many of the problems associated with getting insects on the dinner table.  1) they are creating something that can be recognized as "food" in a culture where menus are full of hamburgers, tofu-burgers, black bean burgers, tempeh burgers, etc.  2) creating a product that may be easily packaged and easily prepared all over the world.  Part of the problem with cricket flour is that the products coming from it are more "meal replacers" (protein bars and the like), rather than meals themselves.


I am very excited for this project and I am so glad they are getting the opportunity to refine their idea and a chance at some good start-up funds.  I am hoping that we can make a little noise on their behalf.
  


If you tweet, these are good handles and tags to use!
@tffchallenge (host of the competition)
@tffcornell2014 (C-fu team)
#bugmeat
#cfu



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Entomoanthro to Host Edible Insects Conference: Detroit 2016!

9/4/2014

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Big things are already in the works for me in my new city!

Last week I attended the Eating Innovation Conference on Edible Insects in Montreal.  It was the first time I gave a talk to a group of people who were already entirely on board with insects as food!  MY Q&A portion did not include "have you eaten insects?" or "what do they taste like?" It was amazing!

I have been wanting to get involved with this community for some time now.  There are people very active on social media, so I have become acquainted with them in that way, but I was finally able to shake some hands, put faces to names, and have dynamic discussions with them for the first time last week.  One of the most notable things was the diverse crowd that was present.  In one of the sessions we listed off the disciplines that were being represented at the conference.  We came up with at least sixteen.  Specialties ranged from anthropology, entomology, and agriculture to marketing, advertising, and business start-ups to name a few. 

It was wonderful spending three days surrounded by people with such passion for making the world a better place.  Such innovators and forward-thinkers.  And then it dawned on me that those words are also often used to describe the people that are part of the revitalization of Detroit. 
Urban gardens, permaculture, and resource sharing are all burgeoning in the city.  Entrepreneurs are making their homes here as well and creating wonderful food and drink culture in the area.  I think the D is ready for a big bug banquet of some sort, so I thought, why not bring the next edible insects conference to Detroit?! 

Dates will not be set for some time, but you can see that I am already brainstorming and making connections. 

In addition to the conference proceedings, we'll have public talks and tastings where everyone is welcome. I absolutely cannot wait.  If you are interested in more info or in helping out in some way, feel free to contact me here.

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Flour Power

1/24/2014

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The insects-as-food movement is a tricky one.  On one hand, there are many people who can be rallied to support sustainable food resources, but on the other, there is an immense disgust factor related to the idea of eating insects.  How do we get around this?  I think the answer lies in processed food.  We have long removed ourselves from what we eat.  We don't eat "cow" or "pig," we eat "beef" and "pork" from tidy little packages from the supermarket.  Many people get their daily vegetables in the form of Odwalla juice or something else similar instead of eating them in their natural form.  Why then would we expect people to open a can of insects - legs, antennae and all - and start chowing down?  I think the best way to get people to start eating insects is not to eat the insects, but eat the benefits of insects.  Cricket flour is opening that door.

Chapul is a small company with a wonderful mission who makes protein bars out of cricket flour. I had the chance to share these bars with a couple of friends and colleagues.  Here is a brief transcript of two of my friends trying the peanut butter chocolate bar:

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M: Tastes good.  It's chocolate-y
D: Peanut butter chocolate-y
M: Maybe a little light on the peanut butter, but good.  It's more peanut -y        than peanut butter-y. *reads ingredients* You can definitely taste the             dates.
D: Can you taste the bugs?
M: No, of course not.  It's good.
D: The bars are dense and satisfying, not oily, you know?
M: Yeah, they're good.

                                                                                              END SCENE

There needs to be more people cooking with cricket flour in order to see the whole potential.  It is not something just for protein bars; it can be incorporated in all sorts of baked goods and main dishes.  Check out this video about Future Food Salon providing opportunities for people to try many of these foods.  They will be in Austin, TX next month and are looking to book in other US cities in upcoming months.   A great way to try these foods wherever you are is to sponsor the Austin event being thrown by Little Herds, North America's first charity dedicated to promoting edible insects.  Check out the great rewards in their crowd sourcing project!

Additionally, if you or someone you know is interested in trying to incorporate crickets into a dish, get in touch!  I will get you in contact with the right people.  Who knows, your recipe may be used in an upcoming Future Food Salon! 


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$1m hult Prize - a major victory in the insects-as-Food movement

9/27/2013

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This year's international Hult Prize goes to McGill University's team Aspire for their "Insects feed the world" project.
 
The Hult Prize is the largest student competition aimed at solving the world's social challenges.  In partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative, the 2013 challenge was proposed by former President Bill Clinton for student groups to create solutions for the "Global Food Crisis."

Key issues of the Global Food Crisis highlighted by the program:
  1. Nearly one billion people in the world are hungry and suffer from malnutrition. That’s one out of every four children
  2. There are more hungry people in the world, then the combined populations of the US, Canada and the EU.
  3. A poor family in a poor country spends over 70% of its income on food, leaving very little to spend on energy, education, housing, healthcare and other critical needs
  4. Global demand for food is expected to double in the next 25 to 50 years. Existing modes of food production and patterns of consumption cannot meet this demand
  5. The global economy actually produces enough to feed everyone. Yet more than one-third of the food generated for human consumption is lost or wasted
  6. Hunger is one of the world’s most solvable challenges
  7. The global food system needs to be redesigned to yield more, healthier food, while reducing cost and ecological footprint
  8. New business models are required around food security. These must yield greater access to markets, new approaches to distribution, and especially local sourcing. More locally produced food would bolster its quality and its workers’ livelihoods, while reducing waste and improving resilience to extreme conditions
  9. Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the world’s use of increasingly scarce water supplies
  10. Deforestation for food production generates more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined

Six regional finalists (London, Dubai, San Francisco, Boston, Shanghai, and online) competed for the one million dollar prize.  The ultimate winner was McGill University's Aspire.  Here is their mission in their own words:
"Apsire learned through research during the summer that food insecurity is not an issue of lack of food. The vast majority in urban slums do not go hungry. But they lack access to affordable nutrition. Many suffer from malnourishment and nutrient deficiencies despite being overweight or obese. Therefore, the problem of food security in urban slums is not one of food being expensive per se, but of nutritious food being unavailable or overpriced compared to cheaper, less nutritious offerings.

Our disruptive social enterprise, Aspire, aims to improve access to edible insects worldwide. We develop and distribute affordable and sustainable insect farming technologies for countries with established histories of entomophagy, or insect-consumption. Our farming solutions stabilize the supply of edible insects year-round, drastically improving and expanding the economic ecosystem surrounding insect consumption in the regions serviced. Not only do our durable farming units create income stability for rural farmers, they have a wider social impact by lowering the price of edible insects. This is central to our mission of increasing access to highly nutritious edible insects amongst the poorest, and therefore neediest, members of society."
Other projects included creating idiot-proof paper strips for planting seeds, but the other standout was Sokotext, a project that uses the power of mobile phones to aggregate demand in the slums and unlock wholesale prices for micro-entrepreneurs.

This is a big win for the McGill team and for the insects-as-food movement.  To win such a prestigious award, and in the face of tech-savvy competition, is especially encouraging to me.  I believe this group will do well and go far.
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Good things come in the wrong packages

9/18/2013

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Edit 02/24/2023:  The link to the packaging is now behind a paywall. I don't remember what it looked like, but I obviously was not happy! Lesson learned to take screenshots!

I am not sure how regularly I will be posting on the blog.  I expect that I will write one or two pieces a month, but one can never predict when something will come along that just elicits comment.  Today is one of those days.

I found an article with the title "Can sleek packaging normalize insect snacks?  Designers try to make the idea of eating a bug more appealing in anticipation of a growing global population."  I was excited.  YES!  That is exactly what we must do!

I imagined that they would be taking pointers from Apple iphones or Voss water.  I was told once that the key to Apple's design success that many other companies now utilize is a focus group of 30ish year old women.  As a 30ish year old woman, I thought, that makes sense.  We have great taste.  We are going to want things to look classy and grown up and be innovatively functional.  So in my head, these insect snacks are going to be just that.  Man, was I wrong.

Yes, I waited till now to give you the link.  Now you can go and check it out for yourself.

There is no way a focus group of adults was consulted on this design.  That packaging only evokes memories of terrible generic food from our childhoods.  Even generic product packagers today have come to realize that the simple black lettering on a white label is a horrible idea.  Why would you try to promote a risky product that way? 

Terrible, terrible marketing. 


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The Netherlands lead the way for the western world

9/8/2013

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Research out of Wageningen University, Netherlands has been at the forefront of understanding insects for human consumption.  Dr. Yde Jongema has compiled the most extensive list of edible insects, counting nearly 2,000 different edible species and graduate student Joost van Itterbeeck just wrote an article featured on sciencealert.com.au that is making its way around the Internet. 

Van Iterbeeck describes five of the most promising insects for consumption in the western world.  Mealworms, the larval forma of the mealworm beetle, are especially interesting in regards to cultivation for human food because they are one of the edible insects known in temperate climates and they have long been cultivated as bait and pet food.  Apparently, the Netherlands has started the movement to mass-rear the insects for human food and research is finding that when processed, the texture and taste has been well received by western customers.

Way to go, Netherlands!

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    Author

    Julie Lesnik received her PhD studying the role of termites in the diet of fossil hominins and has since started exploring insects as food more broadly.

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