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The Corroboree

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Seriously, ......bugs are 'it' these days...

Making the world pretty and nice, with art, for example, is hard.

The Tao says, go with the flow....so, I write this little poem....to introduce this topic....

Why fight it?

Why swim upstream, fighting all the way,

When you can ally yourself with unstoppable forces of nature, and still profit...

From putrification and decay?

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/inside-chinas-cockroach-farming-boom/

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Just to be clear.....I am NOT eating these things!

But others can,,,,I would grow them...

European Union, invested three million euros.....into insect farming...

"Hello starving South American slum dweller!

Having a rough day?

We have some food....JUST for you!

Oh, I already ate......this is all for you! Have as much as you like!"

http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/insect-proteins-food-additive-eu-invests-eating-bugs.html

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I would love to be able to source Lady Birds to help fight the nasties!

To keep them full :lol: not me!

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I have eaten a few insects before, I like Jing Leed the best in Thailand. It's just salty and crispy and goes good with beer.

Like with most things it's all about how they are cooked.

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I am sure they are very good for you....

With enough beer, anything salty will taste great!

I suppose my aversion to eating insects, is cultural.

After all, I eat shrimp, and think they are great......

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The green ants we get in tropical australia are big in asian countries, so much so that they farm them. They eat the larvae and eggs. I raided a nest and tried them fried but cant say they were anything special.

If we had a better waste system all the food scraps could be used to produce black soldier fly larvae which could be fed to fish or animals. Or the waste could just go to pigs :P

From memory there are already a few places in Oz growing bugs for food.

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I can't get behind the idea of more cockroaches. One of my life goals is actually to exterminate all cockroaches everywhere. And by George I'll do it!

Back when I lived out in the sticks flies were also on the list, although they've dropped lower now.

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Once, when I was in Norway....

We were all out in the forest, near the the ocean...a bit inland.

The other kids found a black ant hill.

They stripped the bark off some sticks, and kicked over the anthill.

Ants poured out.

They put the sticks done to the ground where the ants were.

Ants crawled all over the sticks and bit them.

Then, after many had done so,

We all licked the sticks...each had their own.

It tasted like honey.

Kind of gross to think about, not sure I would do that nowadays, or not.....

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After eating a variety of beetle and moth larvae like lollies as a kid - straight out of habitat and uncooked(and still the odd moth larvae...but cooked for the nutty taste it brings out.) I have no qualms about eating insects. It pretty much is a cultural barrier, insects have kept many people and cultures alive as survival food, seasonal staples and to the other extreme delicacy for a bloody long time.

Insects are potential food to me, but have been taught within my environment what is good what is mediocre, and how and when to harvest.I still find strange perceptions some people have of the insects that people have around them, like having to use flyspray on any insect they see.

Germany has been leading the way in insect protein production for a while now, now working through the processing and presentation for western countries. I recall listening to story on ABC National radio that was very interesting on the subject, with most of focus on the finished products hiding the bugs...like burgers as an example.

Chinese cockroaches....no thanks...

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At a glance, insect farming seems to be a relatively fast, environmentally clean way of turning vegetable matter into protein. However, many insects require specific atmospheres and temperature requirements to reproduce and I wonder what sort of energy investment would be needed. Do insects emit any unwanted side-products that could impact on the environment like methane from cattle does?

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They would generate frass, lots of bugs=lots of shit (could be dry or wet)...... interesting question mimzy

wanna buy a bag of my cockroach frass?

EDIT - as an aside I have stood under eucalypt plantations where you could hear (and feel if standing under) a constant "rain" of beetle shit as the trees got hammered. Was a WTF moment until I worked it out..lol...and hence my pondering of bug shit

Edited by waterboy
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Actually, yes, they do sell the insect sh*t (frass) .....Sassy Frass, anyone?

My friend here in Appalachia (USA) has I formed me that many here eat the cicadas cooked and raw.

I suppose I am one of the people with the cultural barrier against this sort of thing.

However, I have no problem eating shrimp...

I have heard that some cultures are absolutely disgusted that some people eat cottage cheese.....curdled milk. Yum!

Edited by shonman
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lol was talking to my partner last night (while watching the x files episode with the flies) about farming flies (for chicken / aquaponics) and she freaked. ill get her to come around, or just do it :P

Edited by brooa
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Dude....flies are where it's at,

One kilo of fly eggs, makes 400 kilos approximately, of protein, in about three days.

The maggots are dried, milled, and added to animal feed.

A project of this nature, recently raised $ eleven million US dollars , in Africa.

Sorry, I have to use that currency as the article was written here

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I get the reticence.

Taste mores, as with all matters of culture, are so deeply ingrained. Despite the news of the protein content and environmental ethics, I yet cringe when my cat snacks on locusts with gusto. However, if someone fed me locusts disguised as some sort of savory flour or seasoning, I probably wouldn't know the difference. Recent studies on the subject say that this is the direction that Insect Food is going. I welcome the movement despite my cultural bias. Viva Anthony Bourdain!

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I got no problem eating bugs - in theory - they have so many things going for them:

they are full of protien,

very little fat,

they usually feed on clean vegetation rather than rotting flesh,

they are abundant,

they are easy to catch, in a survival situation you can go about doing survival situation things with a tin in your pocket casually catching the bugs you find without breaking step or slowing you down,

they are eaten in many countries as a matter of course,

apparently they can be delicious and you can even make a sort of flour out of some by drying and grinding them,

still... i think i would have to be a very special kind of hungry before i chowed down on a bug stew. hopefully i like it, because having aversion to eating certain foods is kind of stupid in the grand scheme of things.

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When i lived in Wagga we had something of a plague of bogan moths. Man these things were huge. At least an index finger in width and about as long - they kind of looked like giant witchedy grubs with wings. I was tempted to catch a bunch and rip the wings off and fry some up, but i never got around to it. They probably would have made a good meal.

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Bogong moths are actually up to 60% content of good fats...thats why they are so nutritious, and why the adults dont feed on migrations. Higher protein in the "crunchy" insects.

Modern agriculture though has had an impact, and there were (probably still are) some concerns about them accumulating metals.

Edited by waterboy

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remind me what's wrong with fat? yeah i get that it helps make you fat on a the diet of grains and sugar which nobody ate until a few thousand years ago.

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have been considering farming insects for chook feed to increase omega 3 content of the eggs

anyone know which species would be most appropriate?

mealworms are what i first looked at, but seems their omega 3/6 ratio is not so great...

a chart of insect nutrient values would be handy...

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As disgusting as it may seem to us, as humans,

I suggest fly maggots.

They have what chickens, fish etc need.

And these creatures do not share most of our (human) revulsion for insects as a food source.

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