 If anybody want to grab a seat or find a spot against the wall, we're really happy to have you here tonight. It's part of our 150th event. What if eating insects saved the planet? Quite a question tonight. And because there's food involved, I see we have all the students are here tonight too, so that's a good thing. Free food, even if it's bugs. We're all interested in it, aren't we? My name's Jill Dittmeyer. I'm from Indianapolis. I work at WFII right now. It's a PBS station there. But a million years ago, I worked here in Lafayette at WLFI. I was a news anchor and reporter there. I spent a lot of time here on campus. It was a lot different then. This is a beautiful building. I've also produced a couple of television shows, one that featured all the wineries across the state in the Midwest, so I spent a lot of time in the Food Sciences building over there as well. Now I've been reporting and anchoring the news in Indianapolis, and I'm producing an arts and culture show on a weekly basis. It actually airs tonight on Thursdays and Sundays, and our podcast is available anytime. It's called Curious Mix, and that's exactly what it is, a curious mix of stories about arts and culture. I'm also on a board called the DaVinci Pursuit, and that's where I met Andrea at one of our events that was all about bugs and eating bugs. So it's kind of nice to be back here again tonight. What's going to happen is both of our... two experts here. If you ever wanted to know anything about eating insects, the who, what, when, where, why, and how, you've come to the right place tonight, and after we hear each of them give their presentation, you'll be able to ask them questions. I'll help you guys. We'll moderate the panel here, and then you'll get to eat the bugs. So just a little bit of time. So we're going to start first with our out-of-town guest who has arrived safely and here on campus. This is Chef Joseph Yoon, and he is an entrepreneur. He's also the chef owner of Yummy Eats and Dinner Echo in New York City. And most importantly, he's the executive director of Brooklyn Bugs, and if any of you have Googled this guy, you kind of came into it from an arts collision way, too. I'm sure he'll tell you about that. Brooklyn Bugs is currently on their college tour, the national tour. Their work has been extensively covered in the media, they've been on live with Kelly and Ryan, and New York Times have covered them. The Smithsonian Channel, they've been on some TV there as well. And Joseph said he views his participation in this global food movement as an extension of his commitment to his community, and he volunteers his time and resources on a regular basis. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his amazing rescue dog, Paisle, who didn't make the trip today. Okay. Joseph is here as well as Andrea Leciaga, and she is our PhD in food chemistry here. She got that from the University of British Columbia. In 2009, she became a faculty member in the Food Science Department here at Purdue, and her research focuses on the extraction and application of alternative protein sources. The big title, that's why her business card is pretty big. In particularly, she looks at insects and fish byproducts, and she's also the director of the Sensory Evaluation Lab, and that's why we had you on our show that day, where she studies the sensory characteristics and consumer attitudes towards those alternative proteins, which there are certainly a lot of consumer attitudes about both. And that's why you both are here. So Andrea, I will let you lead the way. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, you're good. Thank you, everyone. Welcome. We're really excited to see all of you here tonight, and I couldn't be more excited that Joseph Sheffield was able to come to see us here at Purdue for the 150-year anniversary of the university. So we're very pleased and very excited to share our mission and our research interests and passion with you tonight. I just have a few slides that I want to share with you before I let Joseph take over. And basically, it's a brief introduction to what Joseph is going to talk about after. Basically, we thought of a... Why should we call this presentation a few months ago when we were planning for all of this? And we came up with all the research based on what our mission is and the research we have done. We thought, well, what if people really need to know what happens if we really had to eat insects to try and help save the planet? Obviously, we're not going to solve all the world's problem, but can we actually contribute a little bit towards helping our planet, which is undergoing a lot of drastic changes and a lot of pressure from all the agriculture production that is needed now to feed the world? So with that, the word entomophagy comes to mind. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this term, but this is basically the word we use to describe the practice of eating insects. And this practice has been practiced for millions of years. Actually, archaeologists and anthropologists have clear evidence that 2 million years ago, our ancestors had to eat insects in order to get their protein eats. There's actually proof of that, that hominids used to have tools, specific tools to scrape rocks for termites, and termites are high in protein, and that's where they got their main protein from. If we move along, there's also obviously a lot of cultures through the centuries that have shown to eat insects as part of their culture. So the Mexicas, Aztecs, Mayans, the Pomo in Northern California, the Ache in Paraguay, for example, Arunta in Central Australia, the San in Botsnawa, and obviously in the Utah Piotes also. So here in North America, we also had a lot of insect consumption, and there's actually proof that the Native Americans were sharing insect dishes with colonists. So who all eats bugs nowadays? A lot of people, close to 2 billion people in the world, are eating insects already as part of their diet, cultural aspects as well. I'm originally from Mexico, and we've eaten insects normally in the home on occasion. There's some people from Mexico that don't like insects, like my colleagues and we're here. But we have others that do, so it's not everyone. But about 2 million people worldwide are currently eating insects. And this map just shows you an idea by countries, the countries where insects are nowadays currently consuming insects as part of their diet. And you can see it's mostly, I don't think the pointer's working, but mostly the countries in the tropics, between the tropics of cancer and Capricorn, that region of countries are well known to eat insects as part of their diet, incorporate insects in their diet. So why are insects becoming such a big thing nowadays? Like I said, they've been consumed for centuries, millions of years, and we really want to go that far back. They are very nutritious. They are actually very high in protein, they have a very good source of fat, lipids, and they obviously have carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals. But depending on the species, that composition, the nutritional composition will vary. So some insects will be higher in protein than others. And vice versa in terms of the fat and the other components in the insect. But overall, they're highly nutritious, comparable to any other animal protein source, and also equivalent to a lot of the plant proteins that we consume regularly, like soy, pea protein, etc. In terms of sustainability, a lot of research has been done, in particular by the FAO from the United Nations, and scientists have actually been able to quantify the amount of protein that is generated from livestock, for example, versus crickets, if you do it per calorie basis or per kilogram or pound of protein, digestible protein, and the amount of, for example, feed that you will need to produce that exact same amount of protein coming from crickets or coming from livestock, such as beef in this example. So the two bags versus 25 bags of animal feed require to produce the one pound of digestible protein. The same with water. Crickets will only need about a gallon to produce that same amount of protein versus 2,000 gallons for beef. And in terms of emission of greenhouses, gases, obviously a lot less emission from insects compared to traditional livestock sources. With this, I obviously want to emphasize that we're not here to trash the other protein sources whatsoever. I love beef. I eat a lot of meat as well, but it's just to make you aware that there's other sources out there and that we can actually incorporate them into our diet. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, one day when we're going to eat, instead of, what is it, no, Mondays when you don't eat beef, meatless Mondays. I know Joseph has occasionally said, can we have, what is it, Cricket Tuesday or Insect Tuesday or something like that. And one more thing also that's important, especially those of us who are in agriculture is to again make you aware that not only is that they produce equal amounts of proteins to traditional sources, but they also require less water, less feed and less emission of greenhouse gases, but also the amount of land that is required to produce this amount of protein. So we know again from the FAO of the United Nations that, systemating by the year 2050, there's going to be 9 billion more people in the world and to produce enough protein to feed these 9 extra billion people, we're going to have to increase our agriculture production by more than 60%. So where are we going to get that land and that's just protein for humans. Where is the protein that the animals need in their feed? So we also need to produce animal feed to feed the animals that we want to consume for our protein. So this comes again with a diagram that the FAO came up with to sort of visually highlight the amount of land in square footage that would be needed to produce one kilogram of protein from different sources including again we have the cattle, pork, chicken and versus crickets. So again, thinking ahead in the future as we need more space and we need more land to grow our food and to grow the feed for the animals, we have to think of farming techniques and I know we've had other seminars for this what if big ideas festival where they have proposed the vertical farming which is an actual way of confronting this lack of land that we are expecting to have in the future. So this is something that's already happening with raising crickets, billworms, house flies, black soldier flies where you have the farms, they will require less space and they're vertical and you can actually farm a lot of insects in 15 square feet to produce one kilogram of protein versus 200, 600 square feet of the other proteins. So in projected growth it's actually estimated that you know, insects are coming to a menu near you in Europe. You can go to a lot of restaurants, cafeterias and you can actually now find insect derived products being served in their menus. I'm really hoping with Joseph's message tonight we will hopefully start seeing that here in North America as well. Because it's predicted that within the next 5 to 10 years the consumption or the value of edible insect market products is going to increase to almost 154 million dollars in the North America alone compared to, again, you can see Asia Pacific, Europe as leading the production and the marketability of insect derived products. So it's coming and I'm glad that a lot of you raised your hand at the beginning of the session today saying that you have tried insects. How many are you willing to try insects tonight? And I have a show of hands. I hope we have enough food for all of you. That's what we want to hear. So we're very happy. And if you don't get to try something tonight we still have Saturday and Sunday for Spring Fest in the food science department and we'll be fitting you there as well. Okay, so just to wrap it up this is just some of the work that we're doing in my lab. We're actually working into extracting the protein from the insects, in particular crickets because we know they're very high in protein and we use food grade commercial enzymes to do that. We separate the protein from the rest of the components in the cricket like the chitin and the lipids and we use those cricket protein hydrolysates or protein powders to try and, as food scientists, food technologists what can we use this cricket protein for in formulation of food products, novel food products or traditional foods that consumers are already familiar with can we actually start substituting some of the traditional protein with this insect protein instead. So the consumers can eat an ice cream or hamburger that is partially made with insect protein. And we're also looking at other aspects of insects that maybe you didn't think about before but because they have been consumed for centuries for hundreds, thousands of years we know that we're getting preliminary research on the health benefits in addition to the nutritional composition and quality of the insects what health benefits they have. So can they actually have anti-cancer, anti-lower blood pressure, prevent type 2 diabetes? What happens to the allergen present in the crickets in the insects? Can we actually diminish this allergic reaction for those that are allergic to crustaceans or insects? So again tonight if any of you are allergic to shellfish you probably don't want to try insects because you will most likely have an allergic reaction as well. They have the same cross-reactivity. And so we're looking at this in the lab and you'll hear from us in the future as we continue to publish our work and this thinking the team and eat more bugs. Thank you. Purdue University thank you so much for having me come and before I get started can you guys please give a very warm and loving Purdue thank you to Dr. Andrea Lyciaga for her presentation. That is great. So thank you guys so much. We are going to address the question of what if eating insects saved the planet? Many of you guys are probably thinking are you serious? Eating insects can save the world. Blah, blah, blah. I see people's eyes glaze over all the time when we start talking about eating insects. So my name is Joseph Yoon. I'm the executive director of Brooklyn Bugs and we are edible insect ambassadors and advocates. Our mission is to raise awareness and appreciation for edible insects through delicious creative and educational programming. Our work helps to explain why the UN endorses edible insects to address the issues of food scarcity and sustainability with their 2013 FAO report. But before we can talk about edible insects I really need you all to understand and believe that adoption is even possible. If we talk about space travel and we weren't traveling to the moon you guys would be like oh whatever so I really need you to believe that this is possible. Now I want you to consider the first time that anyone has eaten a banana. Yuck! Yes I really did take a bite out of an unpeeled banana for this demonstration because if you don't know how to eat the banana you're going to eat the banana and be like oh this is gross and then oh it's a little sweet in the middle. So we are still at the stage of eating an unpeeled banana with edible insects. What if we learned how to cook and properly eat edible insects and for example made cricket banana bread or cricket brownies like we'll be serving today. So talk about giant leaps. When I talk about edible insects some of the common things I hear oh it's a manufactured crisis it's only for poor people it will be the last result ever that is apocalyptic food. What we need to address that is a drastic shift in perception from insects as pests to edible insects something that is delicious, nutritious and sustainably farmed and harvested for human consumption. As you know the UN's FAO endorses edible insects address issues of food scarcity and sustainability our main focus is that it is delicious, nutritious, creative and fun. So did you guys know that the livestock industry creates more greenhouse gas emissions than all of our transportation? That really blew my mind as a chef I wasn't aware of that actually. So would you consider an alternative protein source that only creates a fraction of those greenhouse gas emissions? And one that is already eaten and widely accepted by 80% of the world's nations. So how do we go about changing everyone's perception? And here I just threw like a little black ant donut because for those of you that love donuts maybe you'll be like maybe I would eat that black ant donut. So what I really want to do is normalize and demonstrate everyday applications and everyday examples like this English muffin with black ant butter and reintroduce people to insects as edible insects. Now consider the genius marketing of St. Valentine's and the human heart this organ. But somehow we all when we think of the heart think of the Valentine's Day heart. That's the type of perception shift that we need from insects to edible insects. Now do these roasted crickets look appetizing? For those that eat them maybe so but if you're not familiar with eating it maybe not. So what if we start introducing it with food crickets and eggs, maybe it's like oh that egg looks pretty darn perfectly runny and delicious maybe I would try those crickets now. What about comfort foods? Who here likes fried chicken? Okay that's a fair, maybe you guys are very health conscientious crowd but so we did a cricket-crusted fried chicken here. What if we plated it nicer and made it look gourmet? Would that change your opinion on whether you would try edible insects? Now maybe that's not your thing but would you consider eating for your health? Now did you enjoy eating veggies as a child or were you like my nephew way back when when he just loved eating bread and did not want to eat veggies? And did you eventually find them to be tolerable? And maybe even come to love them like I did over time. Maybe you grew to love them knowing that it's healthy, that's nutritious and maybe an alternative to meat and you have all these reasons that are like I should start eating veggies more oh I actually really love eating veggies and you come to grow and your palate comes to appreciate what the vegetable actually tastes like. That's the sort of growth and learning that I feel is necessary for edible insects. Or what if you saw tons of delicious cray-worthy dishes like this gusano worm, mac and cheese. Would that at least make you consider trying it? We'll be serving this chocolate mousse and chavelinas at the spring fest by the way which is what's pictured here. So one of the big obstacles is that the words that we're using right now as Andrea said entomophagy can you guys all try to repeat that with me one time? Entomophagy. It is a mouthful, it sounds like a big science term it does not sound delicious to me that doesn't sound like eating that sounds like some scientific word and if you think about it we eat beef and steak not cow. We eat pork and bacon not pig. So right now we're eating crickets and mealworms we need to come up with new words. And so that is why this is a movement that requires the help of more than just entomologists or foodies or food scientists. We need you guys because we need new words we need new dishes new techniques we need new policies regulations and new ideas. So our advocacy encourages everybody to join the movement entomologists, scientists students such as yourselves artists and musicians marketers, anthropologists, children policymakers this is for everybody. And our work has a big focus on education, engagement inspiration the act of demonstrations that you guys can actually try the food and we want to challenge you to transform your perceptions. Now availability is going to be key and right now I don't know if you guys are aware we have chips and energy bars there are even places that are making pastas and condiments and yes there are cookbooks that are out there dealing with edible insects. But we desperately need hot foods and dinners for mass adoption not just snacks. Snacks are a great introduction but we need substantial meals for adoption. We are currently researching new approaches and innovative ENTO ideas with Purdue University thank you guys San Diego State University and Montana State University as Andrea was talking about her class and herself there is studying insect hydrolysis those are protein extracts that are obtained by using food enzymes which make them easier to use in food formulation. So a question for you guys what do you think crickets taste like anyone can just uh like chicken alright it doesn't that anyone else like chips or grass nuts okay nutty I mean a lot of people tend to use a descriptor of nutty for crickets however what we've been discovering is that crickets only taste nutty from the roasting process when they go through hydrolysis they do not taste like nuts at all and you think about the wide and incredible culinary applications with something that can be an empty canvas for us to manipulate there is also evidence cited in the FAO report that we can bolster the nutritional content of insects amazing so the edible insect industry needs desperately needs funding, grants and research imagine what could be accomplished if the edible insect industry received the kind of funding that the beef or poultry industry received from the USDA over the decades the meat and the chicken that you are eating now taste nothing like what they were eating 50 years ago because of all the development that they've been able to do and the research done to improve and scale those industries so insects are also beginning to be used to feed to livestock and there's a great deal of funding going into this as well and there's also a company working with black soldier flies who receives over a hundred million dollars in funding because these black soldier flies decompose organic waste at an exponential and incredible rate you think about pharmaceutical commercials and they're talking about curing these diseases they're mentioning all the side effects to the most beautiful image of people playing in the fields having fun in the sun and meanwhile they're like these side effects may all occur right so our industry the edible insect industry needs to catch up to the other industries so that we can start our own marketing and branding and be truthful we don't have to be dishonest we want to be truthful but we need to start ramping up the marketing and catch up with the other 80% of the world's nations that already eat insects so what if edible insects were used to garnish your favorite dish maybe lobster is some of your favorite dish out there or what if it were purportedly good for your libido like the black ants are for in Chinese medicine so I don't know if you guys are aware but the FDA actually allows hundreds of foreign bug particles in your food in your ketchup in canned tomatoes in a lot of your packaging that's allowed that is unintentional and to me that's not what we're doing right we are intentionally putting this on your dish and what if the black ants on your dish were a compliment to the flavors of your dish so one of the dishes that we'll be serving today are black ants and shrimp and the black ants have a little bit of a citric or acidic flavor because of their formic acid so imagine if we had the proper branding and marketing like these other industries with edible insects how quickly we'll be and how quickly we'll be able to speed up the adoption process so we need your help I don't want to be like a broken record but we really could use all of your help and I don't mean just the students or the professors but for you kids that are in the audience as well and we try to reintroduce by the engagement and are actively battling on the front grounds of this war and we try to introduce it as fun and delicious the cultural introduction that we're doing is via television and working with different writers and artists and musicians influence makers and we're really trying to make this a very inclusive community event we're actively increasing the overall visibility and normalization of edible insects through our work and we're also validating that it's a healthy nutritious and sustainable source of protein so no one person or event can make this change by themselves not even Julia Child America's favorite chef ever I mean after all Renee Redzepi from NOMA widely regarded as one of the top restaurants in the world already cooks with insects but that has not really changed our perception very much has it so I'd like to change speeds and have you guys consider can one bug save the world my personal relationship has changed with a growing respect and fondness for each every insect with the alarming disappearance of insects in this world entomophogy of all things can help save the insects by redefining them as a food source I have such a great respect for the food products I work with for all the farmers working with the vegetables for all the farmers working with their produce and even with the livestock there is a great love and respect and I think a lot of people have a misperception that we're against insects because we're eating them and that is the furthest thing from the truth and also consider what if the next student or child that eats their first bug becomes the next George Washington Carver for edible insects and finds hundreds of applications for the cricket or the mealworm or what if they become the next policymaker or the next president it is possible this is a movement with far greater implications than your dietary preferences everyone what if you knew that adopting the practice would empirically be better for the world better for the future and better for the next generation would you be willing to make any sacrifices like learning to enjoy veggies when you were a child now if even 10% of you ate edible insects just once a week even that would have a tremendous impact on our environment so we are advocating for people to incorporate edible insects into their diets into their pantry really in any manner possible we're not saying to give up everything else we're just saying what if we were to start incorporating it into our diets this is really something for everyone vegetarians pescatarians meat eaters there's even a new class of eaters that are calling themselves entovegans and they're incorporating edible insects into their vegan diet so like I'm saying you can incorporate edible insects with your favorite protein and in this case this is some wagyu beef with some uni and some vescula flavorseps or for those that like to have a cocktail and not you college students for the adults here maybe you want to mix cricket hydrolysates into your favorite drink it's like oh I'm having a drink and getting some protein with my drink so something to consider is that like Andrea was saying humans have been eating insects forever and we have never stopped so we can hide the insects if you prefer like with these mealworm popovers we can pair with your favorite food like lobsters there is something for everyone to be able to try and find a way that you can enjoy edible insects this is a movement that can have huge impact on how we understand our food in how we live our day-to-day lives and can help conquer global challenges to make the world a better place the normalization of edible insects will occur as it pervades our culture and social media feeds I would love if you guys when you came to the spring to tell us when you eat the food today upload to pictures share it with your friends share your experiences hashtag the giant leaps the Ideas Festival Brooklyn Bobs let's get the word out there as media coverage increases and we read more about it in journals and even in literature as more chefs and home cooks learn how to incorporate them into their dishes as the necessity for alternative protein sources increases as climate change becomes an increasingly larger global threat I don't even feel like I need to ask you guys this especially with the theme of the giant leaps I'm sure that all of us agree that climate change is indeed real can I just get a quick show by a round of applause for everyone whether we need to combat climate change but you know what the idea of let's save the world by eating insects it's weird it's a little off-putting so that's not the only focus I told you guys I tried to focus on the deliciousness of it the fun of it but the fact that it is sustainable and nutritious and can have huge positive huge thing to consider like Andrea was saying with the way we can adapt and work with edible insect hydrolysates it can be the perfect canvas to create the perfect protein something with low environmental impact high nutritional value and is also very delicious I have said it before and I will say it again I believe that edible insects will be widely accepted and normalized in America within 5 to 10 years and when it is you guys could be like oh yeah I thought that guy was crazy but what do you know here's edible insect products at my grocery store I'm going to say even in 3 years we're going to have product on the shelves there will eventually even be a race to put edible insect products in a variety of different locations now there has been enormous transformation that I have witnessed from people eating insects where people might be like I don't know if I want to eat that and they try the first maybe cricket brownie and they are like oh actually that's pretty good I see like they are a little swagger and then like a lot of the events I do I have like 10 courses for your dishes for you guys to try and you guys work your way up it's like all right I tried that cricket brownie I tried that goussada worm salt popcorn give me something a little more challenging let's try something else right and then I have literally seen people that were like no way I will never eat a scorpion and then they see their friends eating it and they try the cricket brownie and there and they kind of inch over like maybe I'll maybe I'll try that maybe maybe I can try that scorpion chef maybe maybe I'll try that scorpion and the what I have witnessed the transformation is one of great accomplishment victory of like I did not think I could eat that scorpion and I conquered my fear victory accomplishment knowing that you are doing something good by replacing some of your protein source with something sustainable these sort of aspects had led me to believe and not accept no for an answer for a lot of you college students out there if there is a wall are you just like oh I can't do this anymore or do you go well let me see if I walk around this wall can I get around this or maybe I could jump over the wall maybe I could crawl under dig a hole and get under it I do not accept no as an answer there are solutions and that is what we're trying to do and that has led me to believe and this is such a powerful and incredible transformation for me to witness and believe that anything is possible now I am not guaranteeing that is how you all will feel by eating insects but I welcome you to join me in trying one bug at a time thank you all very much my name is Joseph you and it has been a great honor and privilege to speak with you guys thank you ask chef and Andrea questions too because we know you've got them so I'm gonna pull chairs up here for you guys chef I'm gonna go with you first what we know Andrea has been eating insects for most of your life stand or would you if you want to stand fine yeah what was the first insect that you ate how was it prepared because I know you came to this pretty recently within like the last five years which is makes sense why he is saying that there could be a national movement of it all within five to ten years yeah well so interestingly I mean my first experience is I don't even recall exactly because when someone would travel to Mexico and come back with crickets or at the bottom of mess cow bottles where you saw no worm or scorpion I would always welcome the opportunity to try and so I've I've eaten them on a good number of occasions but as you know I was a friend of mine Miru Kim she was working in an art project and she was conquering her fear of insects by eating them and so she asked me if I would participate in an art project with her and help cook for her project and it took me a very short amount of time I mean I said yes immediately because I respect her and I wanted to work with her and I did not know anything about eating insects or the benefits of it but within like 30 minutes of looking at edible insects I find out about the sustainability and nutritious sense of it and when I learned that the the UN food and agriculture organization also endorses it it really I literally went into the wormhole and it has been really like my life's calling ever since do you have insects and insect dishes on your menu at at your yummy restaurant no I really like to separate them because the focus on edible insects is so important that I usually 99% of the time when I do insect menus everything has insects and so it's only on very rare occasions when a client very specifically asked for like a few things but really the focus is hey let's try edible insects and like I was showing you guys they're hidden there sometimes they're just baked into goods in a powder form there's so many different ways to apply it that there's at least something for everyone or at least I hope you guys would think so yeah because as a chef obviously you're open to any kind of using food creatively but then you did you dove in and learn more about the benefits to the environment to the economy and Andrea that's what a lot of your research has been in as well too and you made a really good point especially here we are at Purdue you're not trying to chase away the beef and the poultry folks there's a way that everybody can work together on this correct yes so I like we said it's not it's complementing our diet and not just running away from one diet was to move towards another it's complementing them and having different sources for protein the fear factor came out in both of your presentations I mean that the fear of trying something new the fear of maybe it's not going to work the fear of chasing somebody out that kind of thing and you made a really good point chef about changing the language and I never really thought about it until you put it up there and how many people did we do we eat beef and steak we don't eat cow yeah it's that name but there are cookbooks there are products out there are there new words that are being used out there or is that still something we need people to well the mass adoption of new words with lexicon has not been there companies are definitely using different sort of words but that's why for me when I really when I say that this is something for everybody and why when I come to universities and I ask for your help is because you students are the young minds you guys are the future you guys are like way smarter creative you have more energy than I do and it's like help me think of like new words when you're sitting around with your friends and if you're over 21 and you're having a drink you're like let's try to think of a new word for crickets for like entomophagy let's try to think of a new term for eating insects besides that and so what's that word again and you guys can really start helping us for the food scientist I mean Andrea's class with the food science class they are doing they gave presentations they they're doing incredible research that I am so fascinated to learn about and also to try to work with them and trying to come up with like ways of like how do we make this so that it is something that can appeal to everyone where it's just like oh okay that food looks so delicious I'm willing to give it a try I saw my friend Jill she posted it on her social media so I never even thought about it but I don't know Jill tried it and she's got a good palette let me give it a try right so that's why it's like something where I feel like the new words it's like everybody can get involved and really help us to come with like a mass adoption really and really start by kind of like the dominoes it's like oh I never thought of eating insects but Jill did and Andrea did alright okay I'm the only one not eating insects I'm America and Europe we're the only ones in the world not eating insects okay why don't we at least try it and if I may one huge thing that was mentioned earlier is that I still have to train my palate to enjoy insects it sounds like I go home and like every day I'm like oh I can't wait to eat all these crickets by the spoonful it's like I have to find ways to make a lot so all the slides are pictures that I've taken of food dishes that I've made and I intentionally jam packed it with over a hundred food slides to really show you guys what sort of foods are possible and it's like we have to train our palates just like vegetables when we were a kid you might have just hated tomato lots of fruit but you might have hated like celery and maybe now it's your favorite favorite veggie or something right and so it's like you guys start trying it have an open mind it's like okay maybe I didn't like that cricket chip but maybe I like this the the cricket pasta right so I encourage you guys have an open mind and start trying these different sort of foods and that's what in your sensory evaluation lab that's what you guys do isn't you kind of figure out what what insects have you had the most success with in creating palatable food option so we have actually we've done a few surveys first to find out what consumers their attitudes towards eating insects so in 2016 that was the first time we did a survey we had over 4,000 respondents and out of those 4,000 people when they were asked if they would eat protein sources coming from you know animals other animals including fish shall fish they all said yeah yes maybe most likely and then when they had a picture of insects and asked the same question they said you know over 70% of them said no we will not consider this as a protein source but when we asked them again will you eat this food and we had familiar foods like a hamburger or an ice cream cone if you knew even if you knew that it was formulated with insect protein surprisingly that percent the percentage actually a lot of about 60% 65% said yes they would so that gave us that idea of okay we need to work on how can we incorporate actually the protein if they don't really want to see the insect can we actually incorporate the protein instead and so far we've been working with with crickets and chapulines and we also have some mealworms and the protein being a powder it's been it's been going well actually very surprisingly Gabby over there is formulating corn tortillas with with cricket protein and she's been doing some sensory panels and she had very good scores very high acceptability for some of her trials so that's promising if this continues to go that way too does this open up other like job opportunities factories to produce these kind of things or can these types of foods be made in plants that are already processing other types of proteins yes does this open a whole new industry yeah both ways I mean that right now we have a lot of you know proteins are right from milk proteins are right from meat etc there are from plants from soy from pee that are used for food formulation for making a variety of food products that we have in the market already I don't see why it would be any different for for you using insects for the same purpose well how about in some of those countries that that do eat a lot of insects and their meals just like you were saying I mean there are multiple examples of that are they expensive to buy are those products expensive to buy are not there because they're more accepted or I think I know speaking from experience and Joseph you probably have seen a lot of it all over the countries as well but in many of these countries that's more like a traditional dish and they're actually well well caught they're not necessarily farmed although farms are starting to grow now in a lot of these countries because of the demand from Europe primarily with that starting with for edible insects but we have to be careful when you know I know for the US it's not permitted to have insects for human consumption if they're wild caught they have to be farmed and that's why there's now new industry in terms of insect farms being developed in the US and Canada and in Europe primarily for growing insects for human consumption. Is there a difference in flavor between a farm raised cricket and wild ranch cricket? That's my research question. So we are going to be actually researching a few different factors one how what does a different feed how does that affect the the flavor profile of the insects because you think about how small their gastrointestinal tract is it's that even even though you purge it you know before it before eating them you you're still going to have what the difference is in flavor profile but not only that but what are also the different flavor profiles when they get roasted when they're hydrolyzed when you know all these different sort of when they're fried when they're deep fried all these different applications will have a different sort of flavor so if you think about bread try some wheat oh that's gross you add some water maybe some eggs kind of what kind of bread you're making some yeast and then you have some bread and you're like you cut it and you're like oh this bread is delicious and then you toast it okay this toast is delicious each of them have a different taste and so that's why it's so important for us to do this research with our sensory labs as well as the food science labs so we can really have a better understanding of how all these different approaches affect the flavor differently and you know so it's such a there's so much for us to like research and get collect empirical data right and like you said it is a movement because it is all encompassing you do you need arts people you need marketers you need technological people you need environmental people to be a whole part of that not just food scientists or chefs well big part of the reason why I distinguish it as a movement and not a food trend because a lot of people are like oh the the the insects I see it's like a food trend now and a food trend usually like kale was so 2017 right and so a food trend indicates and means by definition that it's something that becomes hot and then it passes maybe people are still eating kale but you know it's kind of like a food trend that comes and goes but the reason why I designate this as a movement is because there's a great necessity for us to start adopting edible insects into what it is that we're doing and it is something that will come and I believe will have a great importance in staying in our diets in the future it's a huge part of half the world's diet too so I don't think that's a trend for those countries it's not a trend traditional why is it just so so easy everywhere else and not here well looking at some of there how they I know from anthropologists we've heard even some anthropologists have realized that it all had to do with the ice age surprisingly and when the regions that were not in the tropics were all covered by ice so who the our ancestors that lived in those regions had to rely on hunting to get their protein versus the humans that lived in the tropics because they didn't have the problem with everything being frozen up they could actually their diet relied mostly on eating insects like the termites ants etc they were right there so they didn't have to hunt for them they would just look them they were right there so eventually that evolved and then that's why those countries are still incorporating insects in their diet as a normal thing question from our audience here they're all ready to eat that's what it is oh we have one I was gonna say well we answered I haven't but maybe you I have also not tried to try any cicadas yet and you know what one very important factor aspect I wanted to bring up as well because you mentioned that is that it's not like we're gonna go in the backyard and get some bugs because I mean the idea of that you know kid you know if you're in like Montana and Yellowstone maybe you know it's okay but I live in Brooklyn New York and your neighbors could be using pesticides their pathogens that exist and so all the all the bugs that we are providing are farmed and harvested for human consumption actually right and so and it's important part for us to realize that and like what one example that I have is I like some of my friends like when I started they're like oh look Joseph there's a bug in my salad like should I eat it yeah and it's like they they're missing the point that that is not what we're doing at all right and they're noticing indeed yeah start and so that's why it's like we welcome this sort of dialogue and we want people sometimes we use ingredients that aren't something that will be for mass consumption like the tarantula dish they had it's not truly completely sustainable to like try to feed like so many people because of the growth cycle and just like the time that it takes but to great conversational piece because I've had so many people go like Joseph that tarantula and so then the onus is on us to direct the narrative and share the work of why we're doing what we're doing and share like kind of like the message behind what we're doing the cicada point though makes a lot of sense because you guys both also pointed out that if you're allergic to shellfish you shouldn't eat insects because structurally and scientifically there's a lot of that same common knowledge yeah so I think a lot of those flavors would be similar as well and they would pair really nicely with your lobster I've actually heard that as well about the boiled cicadas and I and I think that that's um you know I I've probably eaten around or worked with around 40 to 50 insects and cicadas are not yet one of them so sorry that I couldn't give you any first hand and also the tortillas that Gabby's formulating with crickets I know has Al is there she's one of the panelists were trained into describe the profile in the tortillas and one of the correct me if I'm wrong but one of the profiles that they detected on the tortillas with crickets is shrimp dry shrimp so maybe there is some some truth to that if we enjoy the foods tonight what products are out there on the shelves now that we might want to bring into our own home and share with our family and friends too well right now I mean there's a great deal of energy bars that's like very available out there there are also like different sort of chips and sauces a great deal of the products that I get right now are actually just the insects that are shelf stable and available that are in like a roasted form and so a lot of what I've been doing over the past two years has actually been working with the roasted product so that you guys at home could like if you scroll through the social my social media it's like oh that dish looks good and I don't want you to be like oh but something that I can't get it's like weird ingredient that's not possible to get and so I make sure that a lot of what I do is available and I list all my my sponsors and my vendors that I get my product from I think it's just really important to so that people can know so it's not just oh that's just something that chef Joseph is doing but oh you know what I can go on Amazon and buy these ingredients and try to make them at home and you know so what we're trying to make it accessible and we like to push the limit a little bit maybe and get a little extra creative or a little extra chefy to like push other people to try to entice chefs to join our movement as well and that's been a really big part of the outreach that I've been doing because I'm sure you guys watch cooking shows and stuff and chefs are all like trying to outdo each other and be the best and that's why when I introduced myself I introduced myself as an edible insect advocate not as a bug chef because I'm not trying to go like this is my stuff this is what I'm doing I'm like chefs you want to know more about edible insects please call me I would love to send you an R&D research and development package let's talk about it these are the successes that I've had with edible insects what do you think about it and so that's why it's like I feel like the reaching out to chefs and getting more chefs to get their creativity get their input have their sort of followers or people that are like oh wow yeah I've seen that chef like working with insects so that more and more they'll just like really help with the normalization of insects we're gonna get to the tasting so Andrea why don't you tell us what products maybe you have developed in your lab that maybe have gone into the dishes that and then chef what you made from them that everybody's gonna get to try I think Joseph showed the images of that we gave the protein hydrolysis the right from from crickets and I don't know if you're incorporating them today but I I think we have some for the weekend yeah we didn't incorporate them today but what we have today actually we'll move over here real briefly so we're gonna start with some easy sort of stuff for you guys and what about bee pollen and honey right that's not so hard to consider trying I mean come on bee pollen honey I mean we're already you we're already eating insects if you believe it or not I mean we're already like trying them so we have the honey crisp apples with honey and bee pollen and we're also gonna have some crickets for you guys to top them off if you want to try some of those over here we have cricket chocolate brownies and we added cricket powder into the brownies and also there are crickets in there and like we were saying the roasted crickets have a nutty flavor so what do you know you I like to add some walnuts to your brownies what about crickets all right so over here we have some black ants like I was telling you guys black ants have a little bit of the citric flavor from the formic acid so we love pairing it with some cocktail shrimp so I'm probably gonna add some more black ants on here for those that want to try with some more but so this is like another one the dishes that we have here and you know I want to make this like a easy sort of a teaser for you guys and so over here we have some yummy popcorn with some gusano worm salt right so this is also just like easy delicious eating