Once convinced that eating insects are healthy, tasty, and cool, kids will be the most effective ambassadors for the industry. Arachnophobes, be warned! A new video made by Project Explorer features people chowing down on deep-fried tarantulas in Cambodia, one crispy leg at a time.
Eating Insects Is Healthy, Tasty, And Cool
There are some crickets, mealworms, and cockroaches thrown in there, but somehow, they pale compared to the tarantulas. The video, which was screened at the Brooklyn Bug Festival this past summer and will be shown in classrooms around the United States, is part of a push to get kids interested in eating insects.
Photo by Melissa Banigan. Tennesee Nydegger-Sandidge (left) and Holly Hook try chowing down on some crickets. "People should eat them because they're good for the planet," says Tennessee
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Eating Insects: A Good Idea
Why? Because marketers know that if kids can be convinced eating insects is a good idea, it bodes well for the entire edible insect industry. The younger generation will grow up into bug-eating adults while influencing peers and family members to do the same.
We Ate Insects At The Brooklyn Bugs Pop-Up Restaurant
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Kids, for all their stubborn little food-related quirks, are surprisingly open to ideas that might horrify their parents. (Who knew?) They are also more tuned-in to environmental issues these days than in the past.
NPR's (National Public Radio) The Salt cites found:
- Children have a deeper concern for following environmental rules (such as not carving names into trees or not stepping on flowers) than following social rules (such as not picking your nose or being a messy eater). This could conceivably manifest in kids not only wanting to protect the natural world but also being able to ignore stigmas — even in the kitchen — that would thwart conservation efforts.
This is why the Brooklyn Bug Festival featured an all-day children's education program, with a 'petting zoo' and cricket samples. One father tried the crickets only because his daughter made him; then, he bought some to take home because they were so good.
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David George Gordon, the author of The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, says events like this are a great way to engage parents since adults are skeptical about eating bugs and kids are so receptive to trying them.
Before you go!
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