Marcel Dicke: Why not eat insects?

http://www.ted.com Marcel Dicke makes an appetizing case for adding insects to everyone's diet. His message to squeamish chefs and foodies: delicacies like locusts and caterpillars compete with meat in flavor, nutrition and eco-friendliness.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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[Darkskies Siren]

Just remember we need those herds of animals to turn around the desertification problem though...

[dylz84]

eat it from the butt end then

[SunScourge]

Currently the ones eaten most in Holland are meal worms and locusts. I started with meal worms as they don't have clear features (eyes, legs) and they're quite decorative, too! And you can always grind them up if you want to ^^

[freakbyte]

I dont get why this video is in the "Gross" playlist. What's so gross about this exactly?

[Kodoushi]

If you can eat shrimp, crab, lobster and so on, you can eat insects as well. There's no real difference..

[Agnesanonymous]

Very unlikely if the product is raised and farmed on human consumable products (not feces and pesticides). The problem we have with pork, for instance, is that the DNA is very similar to our own. Insects have virtually a completely different DNA so illnesses they might otherwise contract, would not be compatible with humans; hopefully that helps you out :)

[Lah DeeDah]

outside.

[psychopits]

im planning to include insects in my diet, witch ones are recommend??

[Eric Gregersen]

My question is, can you contract a food borne illness from eating insects?

[Darkskies Siren]

No, it's more complicated actually... gotta study the desertification issue and how herds can help. It's about herd behavior... and mimicking what wild herds of animals do. There's a pretty good ted talk about it.