Overview

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This English language course covers the science and sociology of insects as food and feed. Increasing media, investment, and public policy attention has been given over the years to the role insects may play in the future of food. Can eating insects really save the world from famine and environmental destruction? Are there health costs or benefits to adding insects to the diet? Will all people accept insects as food? Can we feed them to livestock? Should we be promoting edible insects at all, and if so, how best do we do it? What species will we eat and how shall we raise them? This class examines all aspects of the edible insects question, with students taught a broad but thorough overview of the field and asked to consider questions in class about what role they think insects will play in their own food futures, and why they think this way.

Syllabus

Welcome to Edible Insects!

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Edible Insects! This English language course covers the science and sociology of insects as food and feed. Increasing media, investment, and public policy attention has been given over the years to the role insects may play in the future of food. Can eating insects really save the world from famine and environmental destruction? Are there health costs or benefits to adding insects to the diet? Will all people accept insects as food? Can we feed them to livestock? Should we be promoting edible insects at all, and if so, how best do we do it? What species will we eat and how shall we raise them? This class examines all aspects of edible insects, with students taught a broad but thorough overview of the field and asked to consider questions in class about what role they think insects will play in their own food futures, and why they think this way.

Why do we eat what we eat?

This lecture has students think deeply about what influences our ideas of “food,” challenging their previously held assumptions. Why do we eat some animals and not others? Why some parts of animals and not others? We will then introduce the concept of eating insects specifically, and a basic overview of Diffusion of Innovations theory, which will be applied throughout the course when discussing why insect eating has or has not been adopted in different parts of the world.

Edible Insects Around the World

This lecture provides a broad overview of traditional and modern edible insects from around the world, and how these are changing with time.

The Benefits (and Costs) of Edible Insects

In this lecture, students will learn and analyze the environmentalist argument in favor of eating insect protein, and debate the ethical issues of insect consumption. Students will also learn about the nutrition and safety of edible insects. By the end, students should be able to make a fact-based decision on whether eating insects is acceptable for them, and justify their choice.

Insect Farming

This lecture broadly covers techniques for rearing some of the most commonly farmed edible insects, both for human food and as animal feed, and the socioeconomic reasons why farming technology is so important.

Cooking, Processing, Packaging, and Marketing

This lecture looks at post-production aspects of edible insects. How are insects prepared, cooked, processed, and packaged? Who are the target market for edible insects, and what are the best marketing strategies to reach them? Finally, the lecture looks at the legal aspects of edible insects.

Other Insect Products

This lecture covers insect products outside of directly eating insects as food. This includes both edible and inedible insect products, insect services, and insects as medicine. By the end, students will appreciate the diverse roles insects play in human industry.