The New Green Economy

There are some reading this article that might turn their nose up at the idea of dining on cicada dumplings or snacking on a handful of chocolate-covered scorpions. Others might even feel as though they were the unwitting victims in some B-rated horror movie or a character out of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain. Furthermore, it is unlikely any would be ready and willing to see insects as a welcome addition to his or her diet, much less accept that commonplace consumption of the six-legged creatures could provide a simple and effective solution to helping the planet and its people. But entomophagy—the practice of eating insects—is gaining momentum in industrialized Western nations, despite the fact that throughout most of modern history it has been dubbed as a cultural taboo.