Beth
I think Mexicans have eaten crickets for centuries and are considered
a delicacy in their (our) cuisine ;)
(thought I'd throw that one out as it seems so surprising in some
realms!)
Best,
Raul
P.S. I can totally relate to why you love teaching. I love teaching too!
Sent from my iPhone so please forgive typos and brevity
________________________
Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD
Instructor, Department of Political Science, The University of British
Columbia
My website
http://www.raulpacheco.org
My Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/drpachecovega
On Apr 13, 2011, at 9:08 AM, Theresa Jedd <[email protected]>
wrote:
Dr. Chalecki,
Thank you for sharing this teaching experience. Yesterday I came
across a story on the mounting food crisis in N Korea. The Kim
administration is apparently promoting "alternative food:" grasses,
straw, and twigs (the regime has an affinity for using euphemisms,
including the famines in the 1990s collectively referred to as "The
Arduous March"). Food insecurity is an unfortunate reality around
the world, and it is heartening to know that we are encouraging
students to engage this problem. Your class activity sounds like an
especially memorable experience for your students-- one they are
sure to remember and share with others.
Here's a link to the piece I heard on NPR yesterday:
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/12/134626054/north-koreas-pleas-for-food-aid-draw-suspicion
--
Theresa Jedd, Ph.D. Student
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Department of Political Science
Graduate Research Assistant: Department of Forest, Rangeland, and
Watershed Stewardship
Colorado State University | Campus Delivery 1782 | C330 Clark
Building | (970) 491-6083
Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 USA
twitter.com/tjedd
On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Elizabeth Chalecki <[email protected]
> wrote:
Gep-eders:
No request for information or book to promote (yet), but I thought I
would share an anecdote from one of my classes. We are discussing
the global food crisis in my senior environmental studies capstone
class here at Boston College, and in yesterday's lecture we were
discussing ways that nations can address food security. We got
through GMOs, fisheries/aquaculture, and food sovereignty, and
turned to "alternate" sources of food.
Marcel Dicke, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, makes a
good case that, with global population and affluence on the rise,
the planet's resources cannot support that much more meat
production, so insects could and should be a viable source of animal
protein. He published a similar article in the Wall Street Journal
earlier this year that included a recipe for Crispy Crickets, so I
bought some at a local Petsmart, fixed them up according to the
recipe, and brought them to class.
At the end of the lecture, after we watched the video promoting
insects as food, I turned to the students and said, "Now we're going
to try some" and pulled out these crickets. (To be fair, I told
them that I was not expecting the students to do anything the
faculty was not willing to do, so my co-professor and I both ate one
in front of the whole class. "Nutty-tasting" is indeed the word.)
I was expecting a lot of "ewww" and "I'm not eating that," but they
fell on these crickets like they hadn't eaten dinner in a week!
Everyone ate one, some even came back for seconds. This is why I
love teaching!
Here is the link to the TED talk, and to the Wall Street Journal
article:
http://www.ted.com/talks/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703293204576106072340020728.html?KEYWORDS=%22six-legged+meat%22
Will college students really eat anything? Apparently.
-Beth
--
Elizabeth L. Chalecki, PhD
Visiting Asst Professor
International Studies Program, Environmental Studies Program
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
chalecki [at] bc.edu
elizabeth.chalecki [at] gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/chalecki
