By John Hand –
Go to a baseball game and there are certain foods and drinks to be expected. Hot dogs, peanuts, cold beer, soda and Cracker Jacks all come to mind. Sure, the food menu at virtually every major league baseball park has expanded over the years to include all sorts of delicacies. But fans of the Seattle Mariners were bugging out over insect cuisine in 2017 when chapulines, also known as toasted grasshoppers, were offered up with chili-lime seasoning in the park’s left-field mezzanine.
The Mariners admittedly were skeptical that fans would embrace this new treat offered in a four-ounce serving. The club, in fact, only ordered 20 pounds of grasshoppers for the entire first half of the season. Well, surprise: those 20 pounds sold out in the first game.
Perhaps the Mariners shouldn’t have bugged out over the demand for its grasshoppers. After all, two billion people around the world regularly consume bugs, which is known as entomophagy. The insect consumption market is currently estimated to range from $400 million to $1.4 billion. Some now speculate the insect market could explode to $8 billion by 2030.
Why the boom in bugs? There are two prominent reasons. Edible insects offer proven health benefits. Beyond this, the industrial production involved has a low carbon footprint.
Bugs are typically part of the regular diet in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Crickets, beetles, termites, ants and grasshoppers are some of the most popular parts of the insect cuisine. They all offer high levels of protein, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, vitamin B12 and fatty acids. They also hold fewer calories than other traditional snacks. Consider that 100 grams of crickets contains 121 calories, while 100 grams of peanuts comes in at 567 calories. Insects are also pretty diverse when it comes to meal-making. Crickets, for example, are often ground up into a powder that can be consumed in a smoothie or with a cup of coffee.
Beyond their nutritional value, one study that tracked twenty healthy adults as they consumed 25 grams of cricket powder a day found that the powder boosted positive gut bacteria. Other studies have reported that eating insects can also help manage chronic disease and improve the immune system.
Another positive effect of insect consumption is its minimal carbon footprint. When compared to other meat-centric industries, the insect industry uses minimal resources to grow and maintain production, omitting no methane gasses in the process.
The United Nations even chimed in recently on the benefits of bugs.
“Insects can be directly and easily collected from nature or farmed with minimal technical or capital expenditure,” the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported. “In addition, there is little waste in the consumption of insects. One eats 80 percent of a cricket, while only 55 percent of a pig is consumed.”
There are admittedly cultural blocks to building insect consumption. North America, for example, now see brands using insects as an ingredient. However, this is a far cry from finding plates full of bugs on American dining tables.
Many Americans will continue being put off by eating insects simply because they find them disgusting. But if Mariners fans have taken to them, then things could change for this healthy and environmentally friendly option.
