Daniella Martin is on a mission. Her goal? To use media to educate, inspire, and popularise the idea of insects as food. In her so far two episode series on youtube, Girl Meets Bug is just like any other cooking show but rather than use meat as protein in her meals, she uses insects.
Daniella highlights that insects require 20 times less food than cattle, and a 1/3 of beef requires 869 gallons of water, while a quarter pounder made of crickets only needs a moist paper towel, refreshed each week.
She also points out that if you’re uncomfortable with the prospect of eating bugs, with their little legs and crunchy exterior, then there are several alternatives such as making bug flour. This process involved roasting the bugs and then chucking them into a food processor to grind it down into a powder, or use a mortar and pestle.
Daniella is not along in her Entomophagical journey (the scientific word for eating insects). Celebrity Chef Heston Blumenthal has prepared meals with insects. While Heston is known for extraordinarily experimental cooking, eating insects is not something that is unusual. Over 80% of the world eats insects.
Marcel Dicke presents this fantastic TED talk on the case for eating insects. If Girl Meets Bug doesn’t do it for you, watch Marcel – he’ll change the way you think about little six legged creatures.
If you’re thinking about going easy on the meat, try to tuck into some insects. They’re high in protein and fibre and low in fat. Mmmmm…
Katherine Hui is currently the Social site editor at Green Thing, a web-based public service in London that inspires people to lead greener lives through creative content.
Before this, she worked as the Development Manager at Social Innovation Camp, an organization that encourages people to use web and mobile-based technology to mobilise social change. She oversaw 300 ideas submission and helped build 20 prototypes – five of which have gone on to get further funding or investment.
Katherine’s came over to the UK form Canada in 2007 for an MSc program at the London School of Economics. Before arriving in London, she managed a small environmental start-up in Vancouver called the Canadian Climate Change Alliance.
Katherine is football mad. She is a loyal supporter of Arsenal FC, plays for Islington Borough Ladies FC and coaches for Gunners in Islington in her spare time. Her second favourite hobby is kite surfing and she can sometimes be found chasing the wind.
