Crunch!

I was sitting around procrastinating on my homework with my friends when one of them told me to “start a cricket farm and become a cricket queen”.

“Market it towards the vegan community and tell them that crickets don’t feel pain”, he said. “They’ll definitely buy it.”

That’s a bold statement to tell vegans. I entertained the idea for a bit and tried to see if eating crickets was something novel or if it had been around for a while. Upon one quick Ecosia search, I immediately discovered existing sites for cricket-based food and cricket flour for your own baked goods.

(I don’t think I was expecting people to be eating whole crickets, so the fact that I was discovering startups that were making or using cricket flour is a bit of a relief. 😌)

Crickets don’t feel pain

One of the most common reasons for veganism is animal welfare. Animals generally have reactions to pain and fear death. Pain can be defined in 2 ways: a sensory reaction and a cognitive reaction. Insects, such as crickets, do not feel pain. They do not give any reaction to situations that other animals or humans would perceive as painful.

Crickets are sustainable and nutritious

“Eat mor chikin”, Chick-fil-A used to say in their ads and marketing campaigns. One of the main reasons often cited for eating more chicken meat over beef was sustainability. The amount of Greenhouse gas produced by a chicken is less than that of a cow. Crickets produce even less gas. Crickets produce 1% of the gas that a cow produces.

Not only do crickets produce less gas and are sustainable, but they are also very nutritious. Crickets are full of protein and other nutrients like Vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and fiber.

So, would you eat a cricket?

I genuinely would try some of these snacks. It seems like if eating crickets and cricket powder becomes normalized, we’d take a step in making our diets more sustainable in the long term. I probably won’t be starting a cricket farm like my friend hopes, though I will definitely support the consumption of crickets.

I might even buy myself a bag of Chirps the next time I decide to online shop for something new to try. I may even post an update for when I do purchase and try these cricket chips. I’ve heard they’re delicious.

(A 2014 article by the Huffington Post also discusses the idea of including insects in a vegan diet.)