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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • If you've every eating a piece of bread or a bowl a cereal.. Well.. [^_^] muahahahahahaha!

  • Soon the choice will be... eat your neighbor or eat some insects. When you are hungry...which one will seem more disgusting?

  • i was happy about my peanut butter :(

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  • eat some japanesse shit burgers

  • what magnifikant talk!

  • If some insects really taste similar to shrimp from what I heard, I wouldn't mind eating insects!

  • Better drink my own piss as well.

  • tell Bear Grylls!

  • I'm all for consuming insects (at least in theory), but when he starts talking about reducing animal wastes and carbon gas emission, he's completely off track. Animal waste isn't really "waste", or at least it wouldn't be if we practice animal husbandry properly. It's fertilizer and it's It's part of the natural cycle. Anyway. If you are interested in what proper farming should look like, look up videos by Joel Salatin. That's what the future will be, if we want to survive

  • disgusting.....

    and I dont get why he says he's a vegetarian but eats bugs

  • i just ate a moth that was bothering me, am i doing it right?

  • perhaps it would be better if they cut the insects heads of or changed their form.. i would never eat a fish that was completely intact. same witha pig or a cow. if i was stupid i would never know that my burger was once a cow.. they should do the same with insects.

  • china is not a developing country, retard.

  • Why do they insist that on eating the bugs whole? I might be alone here, but I don't like my food staring back at me.

  • It's a shame that his visual presentation is soooo bad (obviously made by himself).

  • Where are my locust burgers? Come on, Tesco, get a move on!

  • i could eat some ladybug with strawberry...meat is starting to sound old and sick

  • Eating insects more often would be nice but I have never ate one. It's not like everyone has easy access to it.

  • @raydredX you're kidding right? they are absolutely EVERYWHERE

  • @stankanovic I've can only find them when I go to villages.

  • @raydredX *"I can only find" or "I've only found them"

    No idea which one I wanted to say but it doesn't make a decent difference.

  • hey if we leave these insect meals too long and they go bad... and it attracts flies who lay maggots.

    is that a good thing or a bad thing?

  • But even i balk at the mealworms, coz they are maggots.

    And i'm used to associating maggots with food that has GONE VERY BAD.

    I'll get over it eventually though.

    There was an episode of "Museum of Life" recently where they ate a bunch of insects, and they gave the audience mealworms first coz they were supposedly the tastiest.

  • did a five year old make these power point slides?

  • Good luck with that

  • i know just as much as i did before watching this video, nothing. how the fuck can i live of strawberys with some maggots on top. show me something i can eat every day and live of of it.....

  • @moedemama Exactly! We need real insect food, not candies with a little sprinkle. I really dislike how this hwole video what attempting to get us to eat insects, yet it's examples were all candies/desert... There was a salad with insects in it, but that's about it. Chicken can be put in salad, but it is usually eaten alone. He should have shown dishes that were just plain insects!

  • nasw dot org/users/mslong/2010/2010_12/­Insects dot h t m

    Just read a brief article describing how farming insects COULD be significantly better for the environment.

  • We should eat butterflies. They would make beautiful meals.

  • @Wildcard1992 Interesting idea!

  • Screw you locusts! You eat my crops, I eat you!

  • I dont have a problem with eating insects... just as long as they're prepared and cooked in a way that is palatable. There's no difference between a shrimp and a maggot or grasshopper imho, its just the seasoning and how the chef cooks it.

  • why not eat ourselfs?

  • @leparditas coz i'm using me already

  • we should eat the shit out of locusts

  • Out of the box from a totally unexpected direction AND funny! He's making sense too.. :-)

  • he's doin' the "jitterbug" :)

  • Teach a kid to eat insects, and he will eat insects all his life. Its a bit worse for us adults :p

  • Thank you for this realization : ), this is a new kind of access for me, all along I'm surrounded with usable resources without knowing. Our scarcity is not about time, not about energy, its all about intellectual properties and doers of the intellectual properties. Cheers :)

  • The answer is QUORN!!!

  • You can tell this speaker is not American; his English is too good!

  • @MiranUT

    yeah, he is dutch. even the english testers from the american TOEFL use dutch people to do the test corrections

  • strange. that blackberry commercial roused my hatred for hipsters.

  • Grind them up into a powder. Sell them as a drink mix or type of flour.

  • @slack7639 what a horrible thing to do to hipsters

  • I've never had a problem with eating insects. I just don't want to eat insects that can be contagious or poisonous.

  • @HimmiJoe yes there is a worry with eating insects that may have already ingested some insecticides. I imagine it's quite a worry around our modern world, if you are keen to eat insects.

  • Wicked!

  • What I am saying is that, he has a nice idea, it could be done well somehow. But I don't believe its going to work as a breakthrough, technologically or cultural speaking.

    This is not what the world or anybody needs to do to survive or to live better.

    I ate insects myself when I was in China, but not gonna stop eating meat or grains because it polutes. Yeah, my way of life may not be the best, but I would use other methods to do less enviromental damages without having to change it. Period

  • I don't believe that insects are use as pest control for they are pest themselves. Surely you guys know about locusts swarms. Besides how would you put insects out in the market without going bankrupt.

    Meat is less efective and all but agriculture requires a lot of fertilizer and other nitrogen based components that poison water(dunno names). Not that is less worse than meat itself.

    Yes, SOME asians eat insects but that was something that started out of need. Not much now

  • @leonardokim we would probably get more food from the locust swarms then from the crops they ate

  • @leonardokim - not all insects are pests. Some eat the pests.

  • I WILL NOT EAT INSECTS, PERIOD!

    NOW, BUG OFF!

    (bug thanks me for hating him)

  • @rollingklouds

    You say you won't eat insects period.

    I won't eat anything's period. ;)

  • @rollingklouds You eat insects a Lot more often than you would suspect .

  • I have a question.

    I HATE wasps and flies. I believe them to be the Devil's invention put on this planet with the sole purpose in life of peeing me off. Recently I said to a friend how nice the world would be if these pesky pests died out. We then wondered what would happen. Any ideas folks.

  • @MrTerryKay No more pollination. You die. End of story.

  • @HomemdaFaina

    What? Wasps and flies I mean. Not those lovely bees and butterflies. Are wasps and flies important to pollenation? If so why don't they stop trying to pollenate my picnic? Flies that have just been trudging through dog do, tap dancing on my cucumber sandwich. Where would we be without then? AND MOSQUITOS!!!!?? WHAT ABOUT THOSE!!!!

    Cough. Sore throat from shouting. ;)

    Some insects don't seem very useful though. Would plants really all die off without wasps and flies?

  • @MrTerryKay Ever hear of Fly Fishing ?  Wonder why the term ?

    Some Flies do pollinate . Imagine a swarm of flies after you . Them imagine

    a swarm of bees . take your pick. It pays to think a little deeper about the

    balance of things in our midst . Things that make it possible for us to exist.

  • @MrTerryKay the ramifications of suddenly killing off all flies and wasps would likely be far reaching .

    Wouldn't it be smarter to create something where flies and wasps couldn't bother you ?

    Google "world without flies" for starters =) . How long might it take for another life form to fill

    the empty niche ? Maybe you'd prefer flying scorpion and avian spiders to clean up the carrion .= )

  • @NWforager

    Good point about something filling the empty niche. Flying scorpions?!?! OOO! Maybe flies aren't quite as bad as I imagine. Maybe the avian spiders are coming just around the corner to regulate their numbers.

    What about fleas, mosquitoes, and ticks? Surely they are expendable. I need to take my insect wrath out on something. Snarl! Wheeze.

  • @MrTerryKay Doesn't the same Logic apply ? If you watch wasps away from the hive , you'll see that they are awesome hunters. Like wolves or lions, they are part of the balance I would think. How are Fleas and mosquitoes not part of the same balance ? Where do you fit in the balance ? =)

    Take a closer look.

  • @MrTerryKay if you hate them

    YOU SHOULD EAT THEM.

    i think a lot of vegetarians, really hate vegetables, so they eat them to show their hate :D

    "i will eat you, you stupid peas, that that"

  • Is this video jumpy or does my computer have a BUG?

  • @MrTerryKay

    yeah jumpy for me too

  • well you all can eat that will mean more cow for me.

  • Very interesting, however , it's gonna be quite the challenge to convince the social aspect of our culture that it's not strange. Not to mention how drastically it will affect the meat industry and the global economy.

  • My life for mother earth! The flesh is weak! >< YAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

  • I once ate crickets-and-grits as well as a BBQed giant hissing cockroach prepared by a gourmet bug chef— it was delicious.

  • People need to stop making babies!

  • @Wastelander0525 babies are delicious.

  • tomato tomato

  • Another ted talk that walks around essential issues.

    The animal protein problems come from factory farming... Or lets just keep ignoring the elephant in the room.

  • @DRSelkirk Well who's going to start the revolution if not smaller farms? Play it smart and you can solve half the elephant.

  • @DRSelkirk he mentioned game meat

  • I agree with Sarusource's comment, for sure. The only thing i'm concerned with is the exploit that might drive from captivity especies designed for human cosume. That already happens in some parts as for crops maintainace and sustainability. Either ways it's Man... I'll back up his idea though, even if it's to prove that there is another way of dealing with our selfish needs! That might clear the horizon :)

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  • I'll eat insect.

  • he never talked about flavor... i love steak... so i just have to say that we are fortunate because we can eat that percent of regular meat. Thank you God!

  • It is thought that human beings evolved with much larger brain cavities due to an increase in our protein diet, eating animal meat. Imagine the possible evolutionary impact of eating insects, which are much richer in these essential proteins.

  • You sir....are an idiot and a hobo.

  • @guyincognito84 no u

  • At 2;45 he talks about insects as start of food chain for humans.... PLEASE!! no animal, humans eat with even the slightest regularity, lives on other animals that ate insects, salmon is probably the closest, and that is stretching it.

  • I look forward to the day I can has a insect burger, but it better be processed, I wouldn't like having to pick legs and weird stuff out of my teeth afterward.

  • I think it's just our psychology. When our generation will die out, a new generation will start to welcome it and see nothing wrong with this.

  • why not insects? because man can't make insects.

  • @xjustamem0ryx what?

  • @roidroid

    ? lol

  • @xjustamem0ryx Man doesn't make any food itself, but only harvests it from other planets and animals.

    About the only food we can MAKE is human breastmilk.

  • @roidroid

    tell that to all the fast food, mad cow and red bull.

  • @xjustamem0ryx Please explain what you mean when you say "man can't make insects"

  • @roidroid

    oh! it was just a cynical remark to answering the question posed in the title of the video:

    why not eat insects? because man wants to eat what he can synthetically divine himself so he can be both the engineer and the accountant.

  • @xjustamem0ryx we don't make cows or pigs either, where's the difference with insects?

    Insects could also be processed into fast-food. Actually they are even faster, because they don't even need to be butchered at all.

  • @roidroid

    Yes, they could even be made to look like the classical burger patties! Just imagine the possibilities!

  • 1) Any way to capture the insects that we're currently killing with insecticides?

    2) Which ethnic-restaurants have traditionally served insects?

  • I have a hard time eating something when it's starring me in the face/when I can see it physically. Like just because I like hamburgers doesn't mean I want to meet the cow. Same with shrimp. If those little legs aren't taken off I find it really creepy and can't eat it.

    If I ever did eat insects, it would have to be hidden from sight, mixed in something.

  • Alright.. let eat them!

  • There are approximately 5,400 species (5,490, according to the IUCN Red List) of mammals. Not few hundred.

  • id rather have more vegitation options. and have vegan lifestyles promoted before adopting a insect diet.

  • Make insects taste like beef and you have a winner. 6 veggie burgers at the grocery store costs more then 6 real beef burgers. I have tried the veggie burgers and they are great. The only problem is the costs. I have no problem eating insects, I just can't find them in the grocery store.

  • A biology professor of mine made earthworm brownies. They're super high in protein and dee-licious! It was lame how many students didn't even try them. He also toasted crickets. They were tasty (and low in fat, high in protein). I bet they'd be excellent with all sorts of dishes, just like our yummy mammal meat! ...Hey, has anyone heard of a guy named Andrew Zimmern?

  • May I have the menu too? :D

  • Question, why can't we just switch to vegetables? If according to you the price of meat will go up, then Americans will just consume less meat but still meet the daily quota for protein.

  • Though I logically understand I also know that I would have difficulty eating food with insects on it.

  • I understand his point but anybody who serves me insect is going to get hurt. that's all.

  • @vespahistory look out guys. We've got an internet tough guy right here.

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  • Manure should never be waist! If animal manure is going to waist and or producing ammonia its because of bad farming practices not because its inherently bad. Allot of the land that is being used to produce meat world wide is not suitable to produce arable crops or would require enormous ecological damage to achieve a good yield.

    Apart from that I do agree with the idea, we should all be eating more insects.

  • What are the tastiest insects

  • I think a good first step to making bugs appealing could be to make them look less like bugs. I would be perfectly fine if I found out that 20% of the creamy guacamole I've been eating was actually pureed caterpillars or locus, and I'd likely continue eating it regardless. But if I actually saw locus parts in it I'd be repulsed. For example, why present the insect, preserved with legs and eyes intact? What other food is prepared that way? Try removing the head and legs, and maybe deep frying it.

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  • @rich0319726 actually animals include Ecdysozoa, which includes insects, it's not your fault that you are uninformed, but ignorance is your fault

  • TED: How I lost my sparkle and descended into bland mediocrity.

  • K, great, now give me some cues on how to find them and some recipes. A few crunchy fried beetles in curry might be good.

  • 20 people bugged out before finishing this video

  • If I viewed food as "input" and "output" I would agree. However, I'd rather enjoy life and have a steak.

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  • I like the idea of using insects as a food source. They could be farmed really efficiently and would get us past so many environmental issues we have with mammal protein. As for those who say 'disgusting.' Erm, stop being silly. Insects are massively popular in Asia already. As for ethical issues... Can we eat insects without bumping into the moral issues put forward by vegetarianism?

  • @Sarusource

    Another question that must be rasied is if it can it be managed in a way that we dont create more human based catastrophes.

  • @Sarusource

    There are just as many "moral issues" put forward by vegetarianism, though they don't like admitting it. Plants evolved toxins, thorns, height, chemical signals, and more because they don't like being eaten, either. There are even some plants that when being eaten by insects emit a chemical to attract larger insects to prey on the one's eating them! But because their "scream" is chemical instead of auditory, and because bark isn't "a face," we pretend that they don't mind it.

  • @NekoMouser

    Not to mention that it is preferable to eat insects over livestock because insects have almost no sentience and cannot comprehend suffering the way larger animals can. Obviously this isn't close to being vegeterian so the vegies won't be happy, but if their reasoning is to do with the suffering of animals, this is certainly *closer* to their ideals than eating livestock, and at the very least is a step in their direction. This makes it even more nonsensical for them to protest it.

  • @NekoMouser I don’t really see how this can be the case. Isn’t pain an evolved response to stimulus so that the animal can respond in a certain way? How would a plant respond to pain? As for plants using chemical signals… does that compare to the neurological system which we know is essential for animals to feel pain? Where for instance does a plant feel pain? Is the entire system conscious?

  • @Sarusource

    We're starting to learn a lot more about plants than we ever knew and just how they react to stimuli in the world around them is a question of much study. My point is, that we've defined everything in a human-centric view. We've said "if it isn't like *us,* it can't be the same." Maybe they don't "feel pain," in the same way we do. But many do react to damage, so they obviously are capable of understanding danger and taking some steps to combat it--a CLEAR self-preservation attempt.

  • @NekoMouser Your logic is flawed. You said - plants react to damage, therefore plants understand danger and take steps to combat it. What? Think about it. Cars react to damage - air bags fly out, metal and springs absorb shock. Does it logically follow that cars understand damage and are capable of taking steps to combat it? Of course not. Reacting is not the same as feeling, understanding, and planning. The only thing that is clear is your personification of plant-life...

  • @Sarusource Yes We Can (!), even if the meat thirsty American population (no offense) find it hard to adapt to a daily base habit, it will happen, with a slow rythm but enough to change. I wouldn't mind at all. i'm sick of eating the same. The difference of vareity is absurde.

  • @Sarusource moral issues

  • @Sarusource AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :D Comment of the year!!

  • @Sarusource well, they are already in use. Issues put forward by vegetarianism? Well, one complain from my part, is why they dont label whether it contain animal/insect by-products or not.

  • @Sarusource No. Insects are just as "alive" as mammals. Veggies will complain

  • I wonder if you can cook earthworms.

  • @MufF1N01 Worm Bolognese.

  • @MufF1N01 This is OLD idea....probably older than you are. They have cookbooks on eating worms. URP....but some really believe in the protein. People have been eating worms for....EVER

  • @GrudgyDiablo Why in the world would someone be so violently opposed to the personal choice someone else makes in choosing not kill and eat the flesh and blood of another living being? I don't think I'll ever understand this sort of response ;)

  • @NinetteNickerson Well I can try to answer. A lot of people's experience with vegetarians are when they are self-righteous assholes who act like eating meat is murder. They also tend to be thin (I'm not) and look down on fat people or try to offer advice to fat people about what they should do. The quiet vegetarians may never be found out, so a non-vegetarian is often only directly exposed to the nutjobs.

  • @majinspy Remember that in any thing that humans do they bring their own prejudices, ignorance, and attitudes. Being vegetarian is not a diet plan, political movement, religious concept or fanatical agenda, but people bring all that with them to it. I suspect you are referring to a really unfortunate, angry, vulgar book that was written to sell books. Ultimately vegetarianism is simply about health and profound respect for all life...which should include humans too. Some radicals forget that.

  • @majinspy If it helps...I am not a skinny vegetarian and I have seen other plump ones too ;) You can also be physically unhealthy and do anything including be a vegetarian. It doesn't threaten or make me angry that people make different choices than I do. You can look up someone who is sort of my "guru" on the subject and his name is Will Tuttle. He is a new type of vegetarian and loves ALL life...including people. 

  • So where am I going to get milk in 2020 ?

  • @GMLSX milk a kangaroo

  • If you hook me up with some sort of sweet cooked insect i might be down. Like some bumblebee brittle (stingers removed) or mantis peanut butter bites

  • ok, so why not more talks on population decrease! majority of issues are caused by overpopulation so why not couple the great tech advances and ideas with lowering population....come on!

  • @groMMit1981 There have been talks on TED about lowering the population, even if they were not as overt. We know how to do it -- educate women. Women who are educated have less kids than their non-educated counterparts and their families do better also.

  • This sounds wonderful! As a budding entrepreneur looking to open her own eco-friendly restaurant, I'm looking forward to where we may be headed with this!

  • Good timing. I've been thinking about eating insects last month.

  • locusts are kosher, that's another point for insects......

  • @dontOVERREACT Well, i can't speak for you but i sort of grew up like an American.. and i feel like getting my hands on a bowl of locust. mmmm yummy

    by the way.. many people in America are trend followers or stupid..like those frat boys that want to act tough by chugging tons of beer.. or doing some stunts from jackass, eating bugs just might turn out to be the next best thing :P

    And people see it on fear factor all the time. it's not not normal.. we just have that 'it must be disgusting phase'

  • how did they work out that insects contribute 57 billion dollars? they do jobs that could be done BY MAN, so that takes away from the economy!!

  • @buglepong thats jokes

  • Ah. So this guy is telling us to do as Simba did in the Lion King.

  • I've eaten grass hoppers. They're extremely good.

  • @fauxman I ate some in the army you need to remove the legs or hold them in a way to bite the body off. They are ok

    Cheers Christine

  • /@fauxman what do they taste like, how r they good

  • @Caspr1900 you gotta pull the legs off but they taste like chick and salad... if you can imagine it.

  • PS:we don't eat as that much !!!

  • e.it appears that i still not prepared well to watch these

  • Well i agree to eat insects, lets do it earth!

  • i'm hungry now

  • press the bugs into edible pellets .... soylent green v.1

  • Grasshoppers are very expensive in Thailand.

    I can't see this happening in a big scale once scientists have perfected the method of creating meat without the animal (some sort of cloning and cell generation in a dish). I think we'll have approved cloned meat on our plates within 10-20 years before all of our food has insects in it.

    It does look as if it will end up in more of our food without us knowing but I think it'll have a short shelf life.

  • Because the butcher's knives are too big.

  • awesome

  • interesting

  • 5:21 pink cookies for the win! those things are god damn tasty!

  • If the woman in the right picture at 15:30 took me out to a resturant to eat insects, i'd gladly go :P

    I would definetly try insects if served as a real delicacy by a chef who knew how to prepare it, but i don't know if i'd like it. I'm not really into shellfish or crustaceans, as Marcel compares them to.

    I wouldn't mind eating food where protein additives where extracts/isolates from insects instead of milk, as long as all steps passed industry standard sanitary requirements.

  • well if the insects were started to be grown as base food product and cow and pig would be moved into novelty foods umong with Game animals id be open to the idea of eating insects :) i wonder what would fried grasshopper with cream sauce would taste like

  • He doesn't look very healthy to be promoting any particular food product, and well, he looks a little bit like an insect. I could've been convinced to try insects, but not by this guy, sorry.

  • @Marlashane lol