"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.
​

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

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.

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:

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! 

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.

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. 

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!