Meet the New York chef who wants to change our diets one bug at a time

(CNN) – Have you tried Meatless Mondays? How about Blackfly Fridays or Scorpion Sundays?
New York chef Joseph Yoon started cooking insects four years ago for an art project. Now he wants to change our perception of critters so that we can have “delicious”, “nutrient dense” and “sustainable” insect diets.

“I love insects,” says Yoon, who is the CEO of Brooklyn Bugs, an organization that promotes edible insects. “The fact that they are so diverse, the fact that there are so many species of insects, the fact that we depend so much on insects for our own ecosystem and biodiversity is absolutely fascinating.”

There is more of 2,100 types of edible insects in the world, and they have different flavors, such as nutty, citrus, cheese and coconut, Yoon says. “What I’m trying to do is introduce people to this wonderful cornucopia of flavors, textures and ideas of how to cook with edible insects.”

A sustainable protein source

It is estimated that insects are regularly consumed by about 2 billion people, according to a 2013 report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). However, the report notes that in most Western countries there is a strong association of disgust with the idea of ​​eating insects.

Feeding the world is an increasingly difficult challenge. Land is scarce and oceans are overexploited, yet current food production will have to nearly double to accommodate the 9 billion people expected to populate the Earth in 2050, according to the FAO report.

And food production is taking its toll on the environment. Recent studies show that the livestock industry generates between the 14 and 17% of emissions man-made greenhouse gases.

Crickets need six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and half the feed that pigs and broilers need to produce the same amount of protein, according to FAO. High-protein insect diets could be a sustainable solution if Western attitudes towards them can change from “ew” to “yum.”

To help reduce the environmental impact of our culinary habits, Yoon wants to “normalize edible insects around the world, particularly right here where I live in America.”

Crickets, macaroni and cheese

But even for those who are willing to give it a try, it is not always clear how best to incorporate insects into your diet.

“When people ask me how they should integrate crickets or insects into their diet, one of the favorite ways I like to do it is simply in my favorite foods,” says Yoon. “You don’t have to think about making a new dish with a new ingredient, but if you like making fried rice like I do, I love making cricket fried rice. I love adding crickets to my mac and cheese. You can add cricket powder. to the cheese sauce “.

Yoon follows in the footsteps of other insect innovators trying to change Western attitudes.

In 2012, entrepreneur Patrick Crowley, one of the early adopters, launched a insect protein product, the Chapul Cricket energy bar, enriched with cricket flour. In 2014, an edible insect farm, Next Millennium Farms, was opened in Canada.

In 2019, some 9 million people consumed insects and their derived products in Europe, according to the International Insect Platform for Food and Feed (IPIFF). IPIFF expects that figure to be 390 million consumers in 2030.

“When you think of insects, possibly one of the smallest organisms we can think of … can an insect make a difference? Can a human make a difference?” Yoon says. “One of the factors that really drives my work is that, yes, each of us has a responsibility. Incorporating edible insects into your diet once a week can make a big difference.”