Selects: Are crickets the future of food? | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hi everyone I hope you're having a great. weekend so far uh do you want to know. about crickets and how you can sustain. yourself on them well then listen to. this episode our crickets the future of. food and this is from September 7th 2017. I hope you enjoy it all over. again welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart Radio.

hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh. W Chuck Clark there's Charles Malcolm. Bryant and there's Jerry The Whiz. rolling that sounds like an Aaron Cooper. poster gone bad y already yeah will have. like the swirly face like the weird. people in Jacob's Ladder it's funny we. had a office visitor a couple weeks ago. and I don't think you were here and in. fact I know you weren't here because you. would have been in here right uh but.

there was a there's our great uh Step. Brothers you know the movie Step. Brothers for those of you out here uh. out there there's a promo of John C. Riley and Will Ferrell with as like a. with an Olen Mills type uh you know. posed photograph and Aaron Cooper our. our buddy from Kansas who does our great. Photoshop stuff uh made us into I was. John C rally and you were will frell and. the guy came in and was looking around. and I was like oh man these are great. and he went.

look at that and he went that looks like. I don't know it looks like it could be. like something like the movie. stepbrother or. something I said oh that's exactly what. it is yeah I tried to make him not feel. bad that was nice of you that was very. gracious of you as a host yeah like he. didn't quite Zone in on all of them or. us I gota he should have like clapped. loudly beside his. ear uh man I had a little scary thing. today why happened if I may this is kind.

of part PSA this has nothing to do with. Cricut farming okay but um we're getting. our uh our basement. waterproofed because for 13 years it's. been leaking water like really bad MH uh. so much so that we have mold now oh yeah. black mold yes and oh no we're also. getting mold remediation done at the. same time man so needless to say that's. a fun fun way to spend a lot of money um. but I come home today and.

my carbon monoxide alarm is going off oh. man because these yahoos are using a gas. powered concrete saw in our basement no. and it's like fullon saying you know get. out of the house and my animals are in. there so oh man like and I just happened. to go home after I went to a coffee shop. to study. because I needed to grab something but. like I literally could have come home to. dead animals Man and Dead workmen in.

yeah those guys too wow I'll bet they're. not the sharpest TXS in the Box anymore. it was weird man and they were down. there I mean not only did they not have. on so much as a dust mask for the for. the gas but like concrete dust is really. dangerous too they're like I don't care. I've got Obamacare it was so weird man. and just it freaked me out to the point. where Emily she wanted to like fire the. guy uh he wasn't even there like the you. know the foreman or right owner of the. company Subs were there yeah and she. wanted to be like man if he doesn't.

understand that this is. dangerous uh and he said You know open. up your windows it'll be clear in 15. minutes and it took 2 hours for that. alarm to stop going off oh my gosh wow. that is really scary it was really bad. man I was out on my deck basically for. the rest of the morning until I came in. with my dogs and my cat in a. crate man that's like how some people. commit suicide I know you know yeah and. these guys are just doing it grus for. you yeah it was weird yeah.

uh yeah anyway so slightly shaking yeah. I'll bet I'm glad you made it man you. look good you look okay thank you you. look healthy your power isn't. gaunt I think you're you're okay I just. got to calm down here the the sound of. the Crickets uh on our miniature Cricket. Farm here or soothing me at least I know. they put me to sleep I'm glad we set. that up that was pretty good that was. one of our better segue sadly enough. thanks um yeah we are talking crickets.

aren't we yeah we covered into mfag I. meant to look up when but it was seems. like a long time ago right and that's. eating bugs and. insects uh but this is focusing. specifically on crickets because by all. accounts they seem like sort of the uh. our best bet at trying to get something. like this going in America for real yeah. they're I mean they're pretty easy to. raise uh they don't require much space. uh you can set up your own Cricket farm.

at home um and really we should say the. the point of all this the whole reason. anybody would want people to start. raising Crickets at home is because the. um well the the Earth is about to. collapse and our um food supply is in in. real danger right so I've got some stats. for you Chuck. okay so meat consumption per capita has. um increased into the developed World.

actually it's doubled in the last 30. years wow and that's thanks in no small. part to the rise of um The Brick. countries Brazil Russia India and China. who have huge massive populations and as. they entered capitalist um the. capitalist global economy um have. generally become enriched and the more. money they have the more meat uh. civilization tends to consume at least. these days right yeah so that doesn't.

seem bad in and of itself until you look. into what kind of resources it takes to. actually raise meat so you ready for. this one I don't. know I'm afraid to produce. one pound of meat that's a half a kilo. basically of meat beef beef sorry yeah. um it requires about 2400 gallons of. water I've heard stuff like that before. which is like absolutely nuts even when. you consider that not only are you. watering the cow you're also watering.

you know the the crops that you feed to. the cow so there's double water. consumption but one of the problem one. of the reasons cattle beef requires so. much um water is because you only. consume 40% of the cow yeah so 60% of. the water is going to sustain parts of. the cow you're not even eating right so. there's a lot of wasted water even if. your water delivery system is 100%. efficient right yeah that's just water.

51% of the greenhouse gases that are. emitted on planet Earth come from animal. agriculture yeah. 51% and um onethird of the world's. adequate or highquality crop land has. been lost to erosion or pollution in the. last 40 years now that's a huge problem. whether we are all vegetarians or not. because we're talking crop land but we. use way more crop land to feed our. livestock than we do to feed ourselves.

right something like 56 million acres of. land are used to grow crops in the. United States to feed animals four. million are used to grow crops for human. consumption so there's a lot a lot of. resources that are used up just from. meat-based diets right A lot of people. say well just go to plant-based diets. and other people say you can't get. enough protein from plant-based diets. which apparently is not true from from.

what I'm seeing um other people are. saying fine you want some protein I got. something for you and it's crickets yeah. I'm kind of well not surprised but it. goes to show you the population boom if. meat consumption has increased that much. in the face of probably more. vegetarianism and veganism than ever. before too you know well that's kind of. hardening like if if there does seem to. be if I guess if if society's follow.

yeah i' like we should I mean we've been. dancing around doing episodes on. vegetarianism and veganism for a while. so uh we should probably tackle that at. some point all right I'm kind of curious. about the. history uh because it seems like in the. like probably since the onset of America. until uh and then I'm just I'm talking. off my the top of my head here but until. probably the. 90s it seemed like everybody was just. like meat meat meat meat meat well. there's a I mean it's definitely.

associated with wealth right if you can. afford to eat a nice steak kind of. indicates you have a certain amount of. status in your Society right well like. the 50s it seems like they would eat. steak for lunch right and I can't. imagine like a steak for lunch that. seems so indulgent yeah I think it is. you know yeah like yeah just give me. give me the 20 ounce Ribeye for lunch. right it's just I don't know I can't. imagine that but and three martinis. I don't argue with that.

part that is pretty indulgent three. martinis and a 20 o riby for lunch I. mean that was Don Draper you know yeah I. never saw that show I know I never saw. it it's it's. available. where is it out there really I thought. they erased it all yeah they did they. said that's it it's done uhhuh didn't he. go become a lumberjack in at the end no. he did not oh okay oh that's.

uh oh man I know we talked about the. ending of that show crazy I I actually. never saw the end of that one oh you. just told me about it yeah I think you. still ow to yourself just to watch the. finale okay um so this dude Kevin uh how. would you pronounce that. b b a h which is fine that's clearly. Bach and H ubr R you just don't often. see two hes side by side no so anyway. Kevin bakuba nice uh is a dude that is.

kind of championing well not kind of. very much championing this movement uh. in 2007 he went to Thailand and tasted. crickets uh deep fried crickets and uh. he's from California and he was like hey. this is really good he's a far out. they've been doing this um in Thailand. since the late 90s the king established. a big growing program uh for crickets. and cricket farms um education in. schools like you know this is a good way. to get protein in your diet and he said.

I think this. is the direction America should go and. I'm going to get in on the the the money. side of it yeah like the farming of it. apparently it's a$ 20 million industry. already not bad no it isn't um and we. should say that Bak Huber was is one of. several um people who are into this uh. the idea of cricket farming commercial. Cricket farming yes um and he's.

definitely one of the ogs for sure his. business was the first to get approval. to sell crickets as food in the United. States you got FDA approval because the. the cricket industry actually is kind of. old well it's not too old but I saw. anywhere between 50 and 70 years old in. the US um and they're raised to say feed. fish for commercial fish farming or to. grind up as a protein supplement for um. livestock feed so so people have been. raising crickets for a while or to feed.

to like reptiles um to sell them to pet. stores yeah so there there was an. established infrastructure of Cricut. farming um but the making the transition. from selling it to feed to cows or fish. or snakes to selling it to people to eat. directly that's that was a big step and. Bach Huber was the the first one to take. it in the US um I I should just say the. reason I point out he's just one of many.

is because this house St Works article. is basically like here's my report on. Kevin Bach Huber's Ted Ted Talk sort of. you know yeah I think just he he. definitely deserves you know credit. because he's leading the charge but so. are other people as well yeah he's woven. throughout this thing though yeah um and. you know if you listen to the in. theophagy episode. episode no it's it's. episode um we pointed out then and it. Bears repeating that uh America is new. to this but I think it was like Canada.

United States and and Western Europe are. literally the only places on Earth that. don't consume insects as a regular part. of their diet these days so I saw so. this article kind of says the the. standard 80% of the world regularly. consumes insects as part of their diet I. saw that there's um a food and. agriculture organization the UN. organization report said something it. was was more like about a third of the.

population so rather than 80% maybe like. 30 to. 35% which is still significant yeah. that's a big difference it is um and in. in the west specifically the idea of. eating bugs is not it's not common place. right and I actually saw a pretty good. ex explanation for why um like 13 of the. 14 large livestock animals that are. domesticated are found in Eurasia and.

made their way over to the Americas. right and those things those animals. provide not just meat but also things. like milk um uh clothing everything. basically so since since these what you. would call Western countries had access. to these domesticated animals they never. needed bugs as a food source yeah and. then secondly since they were raising. domesticated animals by definition they.

had um a a. sedentary um agricultural lifestyle. which meant that their exposure to bugs. was bugs as pests right so not only were. bugs not edible they were something you. that were just. undesirable on on their face oh sure so. that led to the it closed the door on. bugs being eaten by westerners and so. that would that came to be filled by um. a sense of disgust which is a basic.

human emotion but it's the only one. that's culturally bound which means you. learn what is. disgusting from your from your cultural. group yeah for sure but that also means. you can unlearn it too well if big. Cricket has anything to do with. it uh why don't we take a quick break. and uh we're going to come back and. talked about a un report that uh kind of. changed a lot of things about four years. ago. [Music].

all right so I promised you a un report. uh. 2013 there was a a big kind of sea. change I don't know about sea change it. was the beginning beginning of a sea. change mhm uh they issued a report.

called edible insects colon future. prospects for food and feed security and. and it was basically just. championing um inoph and all the. benefits that surround it like how uh. nutrient Den crickets and other insects. are uh the fact that it's um socially uh. sustainable um economically viable and. friendly environmentally friendly and it. kind of you know kind of paints it as. like hey this this is the future or.

could be part of the future at least of. getting protein into you know Americans. right and uh the the report itself. doesn't Focus exclusively on crickets. but crickets feature prominently in the. report to the star it was about it was. about bugs in general and eating bugs in. general um and it was it made a pretty. big splash I remember when it came out. like it really hit the news cycle pretty. hard but it also caught the attention of. that Bach Huber guy who said all right.

I'm G to I think I'm going to get into. this because he'd already been exposed. to eating crickets in Thailand and then. that when that U report came out he I. think um began his startup here in the. states of his commercial Cricket Farm. startup yeah it's funny they had they. put in this article that uh it was the. most popular document in the history of. the UN yeah I didn't I didn't see that. anywhere I think that was he said that. at his Ted report yeah yeah but um yeah. it definitely made a splash I'll give. him that for sure yeah he spoke at a Ted.

X. Youngstown Ohio because that's where. he's based that's where his company is. right and I guess he he just made up his. own tedex probably right all right so. let's talk about crickets um well all. insects and in particular are uh very. rich in protein like we've talked about. they have a lot of healthy fats yeah a. lot of zinc a lot of iron a lot of. calcium uh and there's something called. uh I. guess efficient animals um well yeah I.

mean and this is when vegetarians and. vegans are like these kind of terms make. their skin crawl I'm sure but the kind. of efficiency you get out of raising and. killing and eating an animal is on a. spectrum and you know from cows like you. talked about it's probably the worst I. would guess don't you think right right. the animal itself is efficient at. converting food that you feed it into. stuff that you can get from it yeah so.

like you said not a lot of the cow is. used to eat no it's like 40% of a cow is. is edible and digestible and I think the. chicken is about the most efficient. animal protein right now right nothing. like crickets so there's two different. things here right so you've got um. efficiency in nutrient conversion which. is say like if you eat an apple you can. convert you know x amount of the energy. available in that Apple into you know.

energy for yourself metabolism right and. poop right yeah that but poop is waste. so that stuff wouldn't count toward. efficiency it would actually subtract. from your efficiency and and lower your. efficiency if you ate an apple and used. every bit of it and it produced zero. poop you would have 100% efficiently. converted that Apple into useful energy. right and that'd be a weird Apple it. would be it' be a magic apple and you. wouldn't need a poop shoot um but. instead you do because there is no such.

thing as 100% efficiency in any animal. right but some are better than others. like you were saying and with a cricket. it's something like um they're like 12. times more efficient at converting food. into usable energy or stored in this. case stored protein right yeah so for. every kilogram of live cricket weight. which is a pretty substantial amount of. crickets but but kilogram to kilog or. pound to pound it just takes 1.7 kg of.

feed to produce 1 kg of live crickets. not bad for a cow it takes 10 kilograms. of feed to produce one kilogram of beef. very inefficient by comparison so if you. take the fact that it doesn't take much. feed to produce a a biomass of crickets. and that crickets are 80% edible and. digestible compared to the cow's for 30%. edible and digestible then you really.

have a if you're just going pound to. pound or kilogram to kilogram a much. more nutrient-dense much more efficient. and then therefore much less much less. wasteful um animal that you could eat. yeah a lot of that has to do with the. fact that crickets are cold blooded so. they're uh very much more efficient at. converting that feed into protein and um. crickets aren't even the most efficient. insect. no no uhuh I'm not sure which one is.

actually I think meal worms are pretty. efficient yeah he just said that because. you're eating a mealor worm right well I. have a meal worm farm I was gonna ask. you to buy in on oh really uhhuh all. right how much you in my pocket see. gross is that a mealworm Farm in your. pocket it is I pocket mulch uh so like. we mentioned Mr bakuba is. um if he not German he should be Kevin.

Bak ruber I think he's uh but it's he's. Irish German maybe it's spelled kvn. though so we're just inserting uh vowels. for him right like. dnce what's that it's this band okay. probably a Young Person's band I believe. so no wonder I don't know uh but he is. one of I think they're about and this. has probably changed even since this is. written about 25 or so uh at startup. Farms here in the United States yeah I.

couldn't find the current number yeah. let's just say at least 25 okay although. I'll bet they go under pretty quick H. you think. so uh I could see I could see losing. your shirt on Cricket farming right now. it's so it's just so early and and the. the market is so not there and the the. stuff they're producing is so expensive. well and their output right now is still. really small um in the in the early. years here but uh you know the dream for.

for him and all these Cricut Farmers is. that that one day it will it will I. don't think they have designs that will. ever be like in some parts of the world. where it's on every menu in every. restaurant but they would certainly like. to see Cricut snacks and grocery stores. and um menu offerings and some some of. the more uh wacky hipster restaurant. right at least yeah did you do you watch. Shark Tank oh you know I do okay okay so. did you see the one with Rose Wang and.

Laura Daario I've seen them all okay so. you saw the one with chirps they snack. they're Cricket based stack product. chirps I want to try it I do too um I. I'm not like I'm not an adventurous. eater as you know but I would totally. try fried crickets and things that. doesn't gross me out for some reason no. I and I would try it as well and do you. I don't know if you remember or not but. when we did that uh Locust thing for. Science Channel it's like the second. time it's come up this month weirdly. enough um they made fried locusts and I.

refused to eat them right and it wasn't. cuz I was grossed out it was cuz I was. sure that I was going to have some sort. of weird allergic reaction to him oh. right right yeah yeah and I would had to. have been like you know life flighted. somewhere to a hospital and would have. missed my flight home um that is the. only reason I didn't eat them it had. nothing to do with disgust but in that. un report they address uh allergies and. they said that it's actually exceedingly.

rare that somebody has an allergic. reaction to an arthropod yeah um or to. an insect I should say um but the reason. why I thought so is because yeah I had. had um I like a a shrimp blow up once. right and I just was not about to roll. the dice on that not for what Science. Channel was paying us well I think it's. very funny that you uh I remember your. shrimp uh your shrimp years in that you. had an allergic reaction to shrimp mhm.

but you wanted to eat shrimp so bad you. started to eat shrimp a little bit just. to see if you could eat shrimp yeah. shrimp chips yeah which use real shrimp. powder it's like a I think Japanese or. Korean or Chinese delicacy but now you. can eat shrimp right yeah I did. immunotherapy and now I'm fine I can eat. shrimp all day long I love that you were. so dedicated to EA I love shrimp man. good shrimp like season with Old Bay. just stuff oh man so good uh this is a.

great time to bring up one of my big pet. peeves okay I know that cooking with. shrimp heads and tails on increases the. flavor quite a bit does it yeah okay. which is why they do it um. but it's one thing if you get an. appetizer with like the the uh the like. a prawn with the head left on or. something uhuh but if you like I get. pasta dishes sometimes oh yeah that have. like heads and tails on them if there's. a fork involved you don't want to have.

to put your fork down and take the head. and tail off no like you literally have. to dig them out of the pasta take the. head and tail off and then put them back. in your food right which is just I don't. get why restaurants do that like maybe. cook it in there and then take it off. for us so I ran across a reason probably. why all right let's hear it there's. something called kiten which makes up. the exoskeleton of um of bugs but it. also makes up the shells of crustaceans. as well um and kitan supposedly if you.

don't have an allergic reaction to it. kitan is apparently good. for it's it's said to be good for weight. loss yeah um digestion it aids in. digestion allegedly um and I think it. has something to do with your blood. pressure too and in other countries non. non nonwestern countries I think they. prescribe kiten quite a bit as like a. dietary supplement um and I saw one. study that said yeah it had a little bit.

of an effect a little more than Placebo. but not clinically significant but it. was just one study so I'm I'm curious if. if kitan actually does have an effect. but it's possible they're saying you. should eat the whole thing well that's. what I was gonna ask shell what I mean. it's I don't know they could also just. be a fat lazy Chef you know well I mean. I'll eat a soft shell crab till the cows. come home but I'm not eating a shrimp. tail. yeah it sounds gross well it's just not.

like uh they don't soften up enough you. know but if you think about it though if. you're eating a a fried Cricut or. something you're eating the whole thing. shell and all antenna well yeah but I. throw that in the in the soft shell crab. zone so you eat the shell of the soft. shell crab yeah that's what you're. supposed to do that's what it is I don't. know that I've ever had soft shell crab. oh my friend is that like a blue crab no. I think it's a special kind of crab oh. uh that has parents must love it very.

much I might be wrong I think it's a. special kind of crab and then you. prepare it with the shell but I think. the shell is soft to begin with though I. don't think it's just from cooking MH. but uh like spider roll is one of my. favorite sushi rolls that's soft shell. crab okay yeah I thought that was crab. like spelled with a K like fake crab no. no that like the little legs are coming. out of the end and everything what. that's why they call it a spider roll. cuz looks like little spider legs I'll. try that and then uh like a soft shell.

crab sandwich is I mean you open the bun. and there's just like this crab staring. at you yeah going how's it going you're. gonna eat me in a second aren't you oh. I'm getting hungry now you want to take. a break real quick uh well quickly. before we just should mention that they. did get a deal on Shark Tank oh yeah. with Mark Cuban for chirps right we're. contractually obligated to mention Mark. Cuban that's right we get our kick back. back coming I I would try chirps for.

sure if the chirps people are out there. listening and you want to send us some. chirps I will try him up all right so. let's take that break okay. [Music]. [Music].

so Chuck we said um I think I said that. one of the things that's holding this. industry back right now is that the it's. so expensive the the products they're. making um there's something called. Cricut flour which is ground up Cricket. meal basically a protein powder made. from crickets right and it's it it's. anywhere from like 35 to $50 a pound for. it yeah it's very expensive a lot of. money but it's ironic because crickets.

require so much less um space and food. and water um and electricity it's. apparently the the labor force that is. the most expensive thing of any. commercial Cricut Farm because they're. it's just hard to find people who can do. that even though it's not exactly hard. it's just there's a lot of trial and. error going on so from what I saw it's. the labor force that that's that's. eating up most of the um the revenue or.

profits from uh cricket farming well. finding all those tiny people those. three-inch people right it's not easy. but there are startups also that are. that are trying to sell like home. Cricket kits too yeah because that's. part of the the whole idea where if. you're gonna get people to supplement. their diet well just let them grow them. at home too so should we talk a little. bit about this the farming yeah so.

crickets uh live about seven weeks um I. mean that right there shows you a big. difference between that and like the. beef industry sure uh so during that. seven we life cycle they they have three. different environments that they reside. in and they basically live and hang out. on what they call Cricket high-rises. which are little egg cartons yeah I saw. that that um they have tried all sorts. of different material and they keep. going back to egg cartons for some. reason crickets just love hanging out on.

egg cartons well who doesn't uh and what. they eat is uh because I was kind of. wondering that uh they eat grain-based. feed organic grain-based feed um fruits. and vegetables and. they some of them will reach that. breeding stage some won't and if they do. they're going to lay a lot of eggs like. you know several thousand eggs a mommy. Cricket will lay in her lifetime yeah so. many eggs in fact fact that they that. they typically just throw most of them.

out like they'll keep some to grow a new. generation from but there's just so many. that are just tossed out because they. don't have the capacity yet to grow them. yeah um so that you know they're I think. Bach Huber put it like he could be. drowning in eggs if he's not careful. drowning in cricet eggs he probably. wakes up every night. sweating that recurring he probably. really does wake up every night from the. cricket chirping. oh I never really thought about that. that must be nice actually yeah it can.

be uh so they like hot humid. environments or at least warm depending. on your definition of hot it's hot to me. 85 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit with about a. 40% uh humidity level yep and the whole. process from Soup To Nuts uh or from. eggs to chirps is about 56 days yeah um. roughly yeah and if you you can do this. yourself at home you just need BAS. basically two terrariums you need to put.

them near heat cuz that is substantial. 85 to 95 de is hot way hotter than. you're going to keep your house so you. do need like a heat lamp of some sort. and you need water a source of water too. those are the two most important things. with raising crickets and the reason you. have two terrariums is because in the. one where you have like the 30 uh. initial Cricket say um you're going to. put a dish of soil and that's where. they're going to lay their eggs you want. to check the soil every day for eggs and.

when you find eggs you take that little. soil dish out and put it in the other. terrarium and then that's where the eggs. are going to grow and hatch and um when. the Crickets hatch they're fully formed. there's no laral stage right they don't. go from like a maggot into a cricket. they're fully formed they're just much. smaller right yeah and according to. Aristotle it's about around here uh or. maybe within the next like week or so. that they're the most delicious. Aristotle yeah Aristotle wrote in his.

Historia animalium actually he was. writing about cicas that um they're. better when uh their before their last. Mt so I guess that wouldn't apply to. crickets no it would because they Mt did. they they do Mt he also said that. females taste best after copulation. because they are full of eggs after. Aristotle has copulated right or after. the instead of a cigarette you just eat. a pregnant female cicada try this baby. right it'll knock your socks off I bet.

Aristotle Pillow Talk was something else. hope it was here you know or it just be. like H man he just keeps going on and on. about. cicas um so harvesting uh I mean there's. no way around it at some point like any. live thing that you're raising you're. going to have to kill it and instead of. um like what we see on factory farms. with cows and pigs uh what you do on a. Cricut Farm is you cool them down and. then freeze them and so what happens is.

they they get cold they start to get a. little chilly their temperature drops. and they go into What's called the. diapause MH um sort of a hibernation. like State and then pretty much after. that they go it is sure is chil in here. and then they're gone and Frozen yeah. apparently they eventually freeze solid. so they spend about 24 hours in the. freezer and then they're ready to be. sold yeah either ground into say like a. powder or baked into a fried snack or. sold to somebody else but that's that.

and I was like do they wake up then if. you if you heat them up in a pan but. apparently after 24 hours and they're. frozen solid they're they're dead yeah. but to them it's just like going to. sleep forever yeah what um I kind of. wonder when I was reading this I was. like how do vegans and vegetarians feel. about eating insects supposedly it does. not count as vegetarian well it depends. on who you ask um I didn't get any like. there is no official rule book um.

there's not I don't think so I'm. surprised but basically I just went to a. bunch of uh vegan vegetarian websites. and looked to see what people said and. it it kind of ranged from well sure Ali. insects and this is a much better way to. to get protein in your body than animals. um to where other people said no it's a. living thing not going to eat it I get. all the protein I need from plants if. you're eating something. a live animal then you're not a vegan or.

a vegetarian yeah I saw um crickets. referred to as mini livestock all one. word yeah I mean they are a live they're. a living animal for sure so I guess it's. a a personal choice it sounds like yeah. just like you know vegetarians eat fish. sometimes. too uh well that'd be a pescatarian. right I guess but I I've met plenty of. vegetarians that are like I'm a. vegetarian and I eat fish leave me alone. and that's when you go technically. you're a pescatarian and then you get.

punched in the face right uh so eating. crickets um some people say it's sort of. nutty some people say it's a little. sweet like sweet corn MH um I'm I would. like to know for myself I wish we could. have gotten her hand on some chirps. beforehand yeah but maybe we can follow. up in the future we need a big bowl of. chirps right here like uh yeah like we. did with. uh the so yeah with the soilent soilent. we'll do a followup soent um so there's. this lady uh Daniela Martin and she has.

a a travel show in a well it's an insect. cooking and travel show called girl. meets bug very cute um and we should say. the the chirps ladies called crickets. the Gateway bug also that was kind of. funny uh and punny and uh Daniela says. that she started eating crickets and. kind of became fascinated with insects. in general uh when she was uh in Mexico. and you could tan and kind of became.

well I don't think obsessed but just. super interested in this as a as her. protein of choice and said you know I. started cooking them up with a little. little butter Little Onion little salt. and like with anything if you put it in. a pan with some butter and onion and. salt maybe a little garlic it's probably. going to taste pretty darn good yeah you. could cook almost anything with butter. salt and onions and you're fine. yeah even when you hear stories of these.

creepy cannibal. people they usually like cook it in. butter yeah with a little salt and onion. and garlic yeah I think that one guy who. advertised on like Craigslist cannibal. he yeah he sauteed with yeah onion. you're right huh penis I think it was. say what he ate penis like that he did. man that was a very disturbing case sure. so um she says uh crisping them in the. oven is another uh besides you know.

grinding them into powder cooking them. up like broiling them in the oven don't. overcook it little olive oil garlic salt. throw them in about 250 for about 15. minutes and uh a little sea salt on top. maybe and you're going to have a crunchy. delicious nutrient Rich snack yeah and. you want to clean them off too if you're. cooking them from raw I mean they're. bugs uh that's that's something you want. to do what do you do just like wash them. in a the calendar I guess so yeah um but.

I think like if they're already prepared. you're probably okay um because one of. the big things that that that like Bach. Huber did by getting FDA approval like. now you can't just raise crickets on. just anything like they have to be fed. food that is okay for humans to eat too. um which is something that the cricket. far farming industry is running up. against because one of the big things. proponents are saying is like man you. could raise crickets if you had large. scale cricket farms you could raise.

crickets on food waste and if you if you. if you do that not only are you like. raising your crickets you're also. getting rid of food waste you're. composting basically right yeah. composting that's the way you say it. like composting but apparently after is. like now you can't feed things food. waste you nut job you're going to eat it. eventually yeah so there's big rules. against it but that I think they're. trying to chip away at that as well yeah.

I remember being alarmed when I briefly. worked in the chicken industry when I. found out that a lot of chicken feed is. made from chickens yeah not not okay. yeah it's just it's not right so I saw. in I think Popular Science they had a. little nutrition facts thing for. crickets it's so cute they said for 100. grams of crickets you're looking at. about 120 121 calories okay um you got. uh about 5 12 gram of carbs Okay 12.9 g.

of protein that is substantial yeah um. 75.8 milligrams of calcium okay and 9. and a half milligrams of iron that's. also pretty substantial huh just from. 100 grams I think they estimate that's. about 20 to 22. crickets um like a handful and a half. yeah nice that is that's pretty good and. and the idea that if you are just. raising crickets yourself you can feed.

them your own kitchen waste yeah and. then eat the cricket yourself composting. there's also right right there's also um. very low barriers to entry into Cricut. farming so if you're um if you're not a. wealthy person and you need to make some. extra money you could conceivably raise. crickets yourself and then sell them at. Market too it's like podcasting exactly. exactly I think that's it I got nothing.

else all right well it's Cricket farming. everybody go make it. happen and in the meantime you can look. up this article on how stuff works.com. and since I said that it's time for. listener. mail uh I'm going to call this uh Kevin. spacy's accent. explained oh and before I read this. there is a house of cards spoiler. spoiler so uh alert to that uh hey guys. just listen to the episode on accent. I'm happy you brought up Kevin spacy's. accent from House of Cards because I.

have a theory spacy plays a character. Frank Underwood who grew up poor in. Gaffney South Carolina but then went on. to the Citadel in Charleston and created. a Persona that eventually lands him. president his accent does not sound like. a bad attempt at the r Less Old Money. charlson accent but I think it fits the. character instead of a twangy r full. accent that he'd uh have from Gaffney. space he's playing Frank Underwood who. was playing someone with Noble Southern. Roots and that's why it sounds fake am I.

giving Kevin spacy too much credit. possibly but being from Greenville South. Carolina enjoyed dissecting his Carolina. accent and actually I don't have much of. an accent myself except with words like. lawyer and. oil Jerry just laughed because my. brother who's 10 years older trained it. out of me when I was very young he said. he didn't want people to underestimate. my intelligence because of our accent he. would correct me every time I would say. things like turn the lights on instead. of turn the lights on or naked instead.

of naked yeah yeah if you're saying NE. smack them with a length of dry bamboo. and say again say it again I sort of. wish I sounded more like the rest of my. family but what a considerate thing for. my big brother to have done when he was. a teenager seriously and that is from. Mary Jean Murphy that was pretty great. Mary Jean your brother is a little. social engineer isn't he I like that um. and thank you also for the spoiler about. Kevin spy becoming president on House of. Cards if you want to get in touch with.

us like she did you can send us an email. to stuff podcast at house storks.com and. as always join us at our home on the web. stuff younow.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].