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Snail Mail: P.O. Box 1356 Lakefield, Ontario, K0L 2H0, Canada
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations there are an estimated 1 462 species of recorded edible insects in the world.
Included in this list are:
- Globally, the most common insects consumed are beetles
- Caterpillars
- Bees
- Wasps
- Ants
- Grasshoppers
- Locusts
- Crickets
There are many nutritional and environmental benefits of eating insects.
Nutritional
- High in Omegas
- Rich in protein
- Chock full of iron
- Low in fat and calories
- Long shelf life
Environmental
- Exponentially less taxing on agricultural resources
- Exponentially less taxing on fresh water resources
- Exponentially less greenhouse gases produced than livestock production
- Producing insects takes less food and space than livestock production
A Geoentomarian is a person who chooses a better, more sustainable and certainly delicious protein alternative, so that we can help to leave the planet in a better place by doing everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint!
By being Geoentomarians , we will:
- Decrease in overall greenhouse gases.
- Decrease destruction of land for chicken farming
- Decrease destruction of land for pig farming
- Decrease destruction of land for cattle farming
- Diminish land mass destruction as the most stringent limitation in feeding sustainability for the world
- Conserve fresh water
- Feed populations in developing countries
- Decrease E U (Energy Units) consumption related to the production of consumable protein
It’s great that you want to start eating insects! We recommend starting off nice and easy. Make your favourite salad, and throw a few crispy, tasty bugs on top- kind of like croutons, but way better for you and our planet. You can look at what we have available at our store. (Some people like to take the legs off the crickets- they will come off very easily.)
For the next step, we recommend our Protein2050, which is insect flour. The flour is gluten free, low in calories, low and fat, and full of protein, iron and calcium. We have some incredible recipes that our entochef, Caryn, posted only once her kids gave them two thumbs up!
We are asked this question quite a bit and the answer is both yes and no. Certain insects are edible according to God as it is written in Leviticus, however this does not by virtue make them what we refer to today as “kosher.”
After extensive research the answer is best supported by a passage from the book: “The Diet of John the Baptist,” by Mohr Siebeck. In the chapter titled: “From Leviticus to Moses Maimonides: Locust Eating in Jewish Literature and the Ancient Near East,” pg 41, the author writes:
With regard to the eating of locusts/grasshoppers, Leviticus 11 allows the Israelites to consume four different kinds of ‘leaping’ insects: [20] All winged insects that walk upon all fours are detestable to you. [21] But among the winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to leap on the ground. [22] Of them you may eat: the locust according to its kind, the bald locust according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the grasshopper according to its kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you. (Lev 11:20-23)
There are Jewish communities as well as Muslims who eat crickets and grasshoppers because they recognize the passage from Leviticus as a claim for being kosher and halal.
The word ‘entomophagy’ literally means: “The practice of eating insects“.