Is eating The Bugs™ really all that bad?

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Loony tunes like PETA may or may not skip the bug farming outrage.

PETA bitched at Obama for swatting a fly on TV. PETA would bitch about bug farming.

 

[The Mighty Banth]

The problem of quantity. You'd need the industry and infrastructure to grow billions upwards to trillions of them to feed a country by RNV, when you can already achieve the same results with the current meat industry, you've also got to contend with bugs having different bacteria that would make humans ill when consumed in those large quantities.

I care far more about UK red squirrels than I do the entire biomass we call india. I would wipe india of the face of the planet to protect just one of these squirrels as those squirrels are far worthier of life than any indian person.

But the elephants there are pretty cool .

God like elephants.

 

[donksmanSupreme42]

Now fish, on the other hand, we have seen Polynesians literally cross oceans subsisting on fish protein. I am willing to admit I don’t know much about the nutrition of fish meat.

look up "aquatic ape theory"

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I don't know any animal at the top of its food chain that subsists off bugs.

Dragonflies and mantids. Both are apex predators in their niche. They look like silly little guys to us, but they're the tigers of the bug world.

 

[Temperance]

chickens can eat bugs

and u can eat chickens

Obligatory:

 

[TokiBun]

The number one reason that widespread consumption of insect protein hasn't become mainstream in civilized countries is the risk of horrific parasitic infections: tapeworms etc.

Even with insects raised to be feeders for reptiles parasites are a problem. You regularly have to get your reptiles checked for internal parasites that kill fast and easy once injested.

 

[We Are The Witches]

I don't know about this "eat the bugs" thing that gets repeated often.

Well, I would be categorized as a vegan, so your poll does not make sense for me.

 

[Lovely Kin]

I always thought the fried tarantulas in Cambodia looked cool, but I would avoid eating most bugs. If I'm eating strange street food for a dare, I would. But I ain't the brightest.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I tried hard to read the OP and still can't figure out what he's trying to convey. It's like every paragraph is a snippet of an argument of a different ideological position.

It's not even coherent enough to argue against.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Eating the bugs is mainly about the humiliation, it is in no way better for the environment (probably the opposite), but it shows a clear divide between elites and everyone else.

Where all of these true crime chicks and dudes are crying about a dog being killed, but have no such empathy for a human life in the same way.
It's not even only the true crime watchers, but everyone in general. "NOT MY HECKIN' PUPPERS, NOT THE PUPPARINO!".
A random house pet is sacred to them and much more innocent than a human being.
It's a total sickness. A sickness only possible in a globe-spanning civilization that we currently find ourselves in.
Where no one is forced to come to terms with taking the life of an animal because it's all done for them in huge slaughter factories.

And it enables them to switch that part of their brain off, and become retarded hypocrites, feasting on meat as long as it's done out of sight.
It's sick to be more sickened by the death of an animal than that of a human.
I have huge amounts of respect for practicing vegans than for meat eaters crying about the fate of animals that they're going to be CONSOOMING anyway, as long as the process is not an inconvenience to their psyche.

Comparison of pets to livestock is retarded. No shit people would have strong opinion on eating dogs, which isn't even as efficient, and you have plenty of farmers who raise their livestock and have no qualms on eating it. Plus you have plenty of evil shit in non-meat produce, no vegan gives a shit that the ingredients of his salad were harvested by 10 year old children.

We won't really be privy to the process that goes into growing the bugs, so it might as well be the same deal.
Out of sight, out of mind.
And you're going to be eating The Bugs™ regardless.

No one gives a shit about the morality.

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

Don't underestimate the monkeys

Eaten by chimpanzees, jaguars and stuff.

Dragonflies and mantids. Both are apex predators in their niche. They look like silly little guys to us, but they're the tigers of the bug world.

Eaten by a million other things, which are then also eaten.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

Yes, eating the bugs is bad because the trash corpos would get to continue living a high standard of living that would not include eating bugs except as public performance.

 

[Polyarmory]

We bred watermelons to be delicious, we bred corn to be delicious, we bred chickens to be delicious, etc. You might not like bugs now, but with enough breeding and generic engineering, we can make crickets delicious. In the future, you won't eat bugs because you have to: You'll eat bugs because you want to. Massive, juicy crickets the size of sausages will burst with delicious Old Bay flavor when you take a bite; their soft, supple exoskeleton will provide the perfect textural contrast to the tender meat inside in much the same way that the crispy skin of toast envelops and enhances the loamy bread inside.

And with all that other shit, it took millennia, but with bugs' short lifecycles, we could have succulent supercrickets in mere decades. If you don't see the culinary future of bugs, you have the brain of a bug, and should be served alongside them.

 

[Internet-Based Lobotomy]

It's sick to be more sickened by the death of an animal than that of a human.

If you're watching a bullshit TV show it's highly likely the story paints a picture of a back and forth to keep you hooked and thusly both parties involved become hard to sympathize with. That grumpy neighbor dude that is inconsiderate and plays loud music isn't gaining sympathy equal to or surpassing some dumb dog that eats, sleeps and shits in said neighbor's yard.

Where no one is forced to come to terms with taking the life of an animal because it's all done for them in huge slaughter factories.

I'll agree with you here. If you've never killed and gutted an animal to eat I don't think I can respect you. There are people who haven't even cleaned fish for goodness sake!

fate of animals that they're going to be CONSOOMING anyway

To be fair the sympathy towards animals usually goes towards "pet" types. Aside from that I don't think wanting your food to be treated well before it's killed is a bad thing. At a point in time your meat for the night would have been grazing in massive fields and not fed slop in a cage.

We won't really be privy to the process that goes into growing the bugs, so it might as well be the same deal.
Out of sight, out of mind.

Bugs are as far removed from humanity as possible I believe. A chicken or a pig can have a personality. Ants are part of a hive mind. Even if ants secretly wrote little diaries or whatever people wouldn't care in a similar fashion to pigs being "smarter" than dogs.

you're going to be eating The Bugs™ regardless.

No.

 

[Epikusername4]

I don't know any animal at the top of its food chain that subsists off bugs.

whales live off sea bugs

 

[Internet-Based Lobotomy]

you've also got to contend with bugs having different bacteria that would make humans ill when consumed in those large quantities.

Think of all the disgusting shit the Asiatic bugmen (aptly named) eat and then think about their lack of humanity. Probably not a coincidence Wuflu and SARS and Ebola exists.

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

you go eat the fuckin bugs!

 

[Ultrapenguin]

Idk can't be much worse than fast food.

The problem is that getting meat out of crab shells (sea bugs) is already pretty challenging, imagine getting out bug meat from tiny little bug shells. If you don't, you run into the "A bug is as much indigestible chitin as it is actual bug meat" problem, and who knows what the effects of eating that daily would be.

Maybe they could harvest grubs instead, or fly larvae.

Spoiler: Spooky larvae

googly + nutritious

People aren't exploring that option. These guys here have already exceeded cocktail weenie size, with a little work we could have grubs that are bigger than standard hotdogs, with no ground up pig anus involved.

Even with insects raised to be feeders for reptiles parasites are a problem. You regularly have to get your reptiles checked for internal parasites that kill fast and easy once injested.

But those are usually live bugs, I'm assuming human safe bugs would all be heat treated to the point they were sterile. The parasites would simply add extra protein to the bug consumption process.

 

[Joshua Connor Tomar]

I'm Larry Fink's top food marketer and have served le bugs at an event. Scorpions are a mouth full of salt, ants don't get out of your teeth, mealed bug do not powder as finely as you want for your cricket bars, and I didn't try a meal worm. Chili lime crickets are alright with a beer.

 

[Jacknife]

I actually wanted to eat fried bugs before it was cool, as a cheap protein source, however the fucking things are super expensive.

1kg of them cost 140€, do you know how minced meat I can buy for that?

So yeah, would eat the bugs, but stuffing food into cows and pigs and then eating them seems to be more efficient