Eat the Beetles!
Subtitle: An Exploration Into Our Conflicted Relationship with Insects
By: David Waltner-Toews
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 362
ISBN-13: 9781770413146
Subjects: Entomophagy; Ecology; Beneficial insects; Edible insects; Insects; Effect of human beings on
Description: "Meet the beetles: there are millions and millions of them and many fewer of the rest of us -- mammals, birds, and reptiles. Since before recorded history, humans have eaten insects. While many get squeamish at the idea, entomophagy -- people eating insects -- is a possible way to ensure a sustainable and secure food supply for the eight billion of us on the planet. Once seen as the great enemy of human civilization, destroying our crops and spreading plagues, we now see insects as marvellous pollinators of our food crops and a potential source of commercial food supply. From upscale restaurants where black ants garnish raw salmon to grubs as pub snacks in Paris and Tokyo, from backyard cricket farming to high-tech businesses, Eat the Beetles! weaves these cultural, ecological, and evolutionary narratives to provide an accessible and humorous exploration of entomophagy."--Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 320-333) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Meet the beetles! I call your name ; Here, there and everywhere ; She sometimes gives me her protein : insects as nutrition ; Ob-la-di, ob-la-da : the last green hope?; title: Part II. Yesterday and today : insects and the origins of the modern world. I am the cockroach : how insects created the world ; Wild honey pie : how insects created people ; Magical mystery tour : how insects sustain the world; title: Part III. I once had a bug : how people created insects. I'm chewing through you : insects as destroyers and monsters ; Run for your life : the war against insects and its consequences; title: Part IV. Black fly singing : reimagining insects. Mother Mary comes to me : insects as creators and bodhisattvas ; Can't buy me bugs : a new age of negotiation; title: Part V. Got to get you into my life. Leaving the west behind? : entomophagy in transition in non-western cultures ; She came in through the kitchen window : culinary renewal from the margins ; She came in through the chicken window : insects as feed in non-insect-eating cultures ; A cook with kaleidoscope eyes : insects on the menu; title: Part VI. Revolution 1. It's so hard (loving you) : ethics and insects ; A little help : regulating entomophagy ; All you need is love? : renegotiating the human-insect contract ; We were talking : where is this going?; title: Part VII. Revolution 9. Imagine : beetles, entomophagy, and the meaning of life.