Features
CLUB SPOTLIGHT: Club Ento
By Kyle Burnham ’15
February 20, 2015
If you’ve been on campus for the past year, you’ve probably heard about Club Ento by now. Maybe you saw the satirical article in the Duel, or saw an email about eating bugs or an event popped up on Facebook. But what’s Club Ento all about?
“Ento” is short for entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs. Six months ago, when the founder of Club Ento, Nathan Livingston, was looking for someone to take over the club, I thought insect eating was pretty weird. I remember thinking, “Well, different food cultures are worth supporting, especially if they diminish the negative impact of livestock farming.” I imagined I could find someone into the bizarreness of eating bugs to take over after a few weeks. Then I read about the report the UN issued two years ago on edible insects. It turns out there are several very good reasons to eat bugs, the strongest of which is ecological; health and cultural diversity and development are other compelling motivations.
Club Ento’s mission is to increase both awareness of, and access to, edible insects, getting at both the intellectual and the physical. We aim to educate people about the reasons to consume insects and to increase access to edible bugs by providing samples. Samples help to move entomophagy from theory to practice. To that end, we will be having several events this semester, including tastings of products made by the growing edible insect industry in the United States. There will also be events about cooking with insects. Our biggest event this semester is an upcoming lunchtime panel on Feb. 26 in Sadove. The loose topic is, “The Gateway Bug: crickets.” Beyond simply asking why eat insects, we will ask, why crickets? What makes an effective gateway to a new way (for many Westerners) of looking at food, especially from something that provokes disgust? The panel will feature the founder of Big Cricket Farms, an urban cricket farm in Ohio, which is the first to grow for solely human consumption, as well as the founder of Critter Bitters, an innovative company selling cocktail bitters to decrease the disgust factor associated with eating bugs. Our own Professor Emeritus of Biology Ernest Williams, who studies insects, and Professor of Philosophy Alex Plakias, who approaches entomophagy from theories of disgust, will also be joining the panel. Check out our website at students.hamilton.edu/clubento/gateway-bug for more information about the event.
The ecological difference between livestock and insects is striking. The UN notes that by 2050 there will be over nine billion people alive. This is especially problematic for developing countries that lack enough food for their populace, or those prone to drought or blight. To feed everyone, we will need to reevaluate our relationship with food, including considering edible insects. The main benefits come in terms of water, land and greenhouse gas emissions. One pound of digestible protein from cattle uses 1000 gallons of water; from chicken, about 150 gallons. Crickets, the most common insect farmed in the West, need only one gallon of water for the same amount of protein. The difference is staggering. Livestock also put a large demand on land, especially because of the agriculture needed to feed the animals. 38 percent of the Earth’s surface is used for agriculture, and 70 percent of that is used for livestock. We are running out of land for growing livestock for our increasing population, and climate change is exacerbating issues for farmers. Eating less livestock would also allow more agriculture to be used by humans, lowering the cost and providing more stores of crops for developing countries. Not only do insects eat significantly less food, they could eat from the already existing waste-stream that the organic matter farms currently discard. They also emit smaller amounts of greenhouse gases.
Health is another major reason for incorporating insects into our diet. Insects have comparable protein to beef, pork and chicken, while having higher levels of minerals, like calcium and iron. They also contain high levels of vitamins, fiber and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Fitness-focused insect-powder protein bars have been among the first edible insect products in the West, provided by recent startups like Chapul, Exo and Hopper, and available for purchase online.
Another reason is interest in other cultures. 2.5 billion people from cultures everywhere other than North America and Europe eat insects of some kind. Southeast Asia is particularly well known for entomophagy, but even Mexico has a big market for chapulinas (crickets) and edible ants. There are over 2000 types of known edible insects. Insects are also more humane to grow because when frozen, their bodies go into stasis.
Finally, there’s the potential economic impact: since many developing countries already have communities that eat edible insects, a more formalized industry for insect farmers could improve those farmers’ livelihoods.
There is a compelling argument that edible insects are the future of food. For more information, email clubento@hamilton.edu. I hope to see you at our future events!