Edible: An Adventure into the World of Eating Insects and the Last Great Hope to Save the Planet
This book is about eating bugs—in the author’s definition, any terrestrial invertebrate—and how insects and other invertebrates just might be the answer to world hunger. Martin, a self-avowed entomophagist, ate her first bug (a fried grasshopper) while studying pre-Columbian food and medicine in Mexico. But it wasn’t until she realized that there was actually a worldwide movement afoot to add insects back into the human diet that Martin dedicated herself to educating us about the advantages of eating bugs. As the author deconstructs our modern diet, we begin to realize the inefficiency and waste that goes into the raising of meat animals. And with the ever-increasing human population and the fact that at least one in seven persons on this planet does not get enough to eat, does it not make sense to turn to insects as a food source? In this chatty, informative, and eminently readable manifesto–cum–food travelogue, Martin takes the reader along as she talks to chefs who cook with insects, muses about vegetarianism and veganism (and why being a vegan ultimately won’t work), collects corn earworms from a community farm, rhapsodizes on the flavor of sautéed waxworms, and, in general, turns us on to eating bugs. Complete with recipes and nice descriptions of edible insects. --Nancy Bent