Hello friends --
Despite the good anthro on the "animalitos" and such, maybe a wet kleenex
should be tossed in honor of the absence of perhaps any kind of health and
safety controls on things sold for animal consumption not in the food
chain for commercial sales to people... Ironic, I fear, that this might be
a consideration, given that the veryh same biocide excesses which could be
the problem here are part of the industrial/global/anto-national food
production systems which are so intimately involved with the need for more
protein for the many... I've not sent this message several times and don't
like doing so but dislike even more some risk of a bad reaction in a
student creating big trouble.
John D. Wiener
Program on Environment and Behavior
Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0468
ph: 303-492-6746; fax 303-492-1231; [email protected]
On Sat, 16 Apr 2011, Elizabeth Chalecki wrote:
Everyone-
I got some e-mails from various folks asking if they could "steal" the
feed-the-students-bugs idea - yes, please do! I did send Marcel Dicke at
Wageningen University an e-mail about the whole thing, and he sent a nice
note back. Theresa Jedd from CO State also made a good point, that we think
it's icky to eat bugs because we have a choice of what to eat, whereas
crickets could mean the difference between life and death for North Koreans
and others facing severe famine.
Crickets and mealworms you can get at the PetSmart. I asked the guy at the
Cambridge store if I could kill the crickets by putting them in the
freezer. He said yes, but anything that would be eating them would want
them alive. He asked what I was feeding them to that would eat them dead
(he's thinking iguanas & lizards), and when I said, "my students," he looked
at me like I was some sort of mad scientist! Which actually could be a
good career path for me.
For locusts and other bigger bugs, I think you would have to go to a
specialty retailer or get them online. The WSJ article says don't eat bugs
from your backyard, as they have been exposed to pesticides and other nasty
stuff. Some of my students have since asked me if I'm going to make insects
a regular part of my diet now (!), and I told them that before I make that
decision, I would like to try them prepared by someone who knows their way
around a bug recipe (Amazon.com sells "The Eat-a-bug Cookbook," "Creeply
Crawly Cuisine" and a few others for the insect-inclined). Hmmm, bug table
at next year's ISA reception?
-Beth
--
Elizabeth L. Chalecki, PhD
Visiting Asst Professor
International Studies Program, Environmental Studies Program
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
chalecki [at] bc.edu
elizabeth.chalecki [at] gmail.com
www.linkedin/com/in/chalecki
