昆虫食品：下一波饮食潮流？

    他们看到了一个大机遇：消费昆虫蛋白质对环境的损害要远低于传统蛋白质来源——与鸡、牛和猪相比，饲养、收获和加工昆虫耗费的资源要少得多。因此，这类食品特别容易拨动热衷于可持续发展理念的当代人的心弦。昆虫含有丰富的蛋白质和诸如ω-3脂肪酸这类关键的营养素。这类产品的制作成本相对较低，而且直到目前，竞争对手寥寥无几。

    但要说服美国人吃任何一种以令人毛骨悚然的爬虫为原料的食物，可不是一件容易做到的事情。不同于很多发展中国家——联合国粮农组织(Food and Agriculture Organization)估计，有20亿发展中国家人口每天依靠多达1,900种昆虫为食——美国人和其他西方国家一向认为蜘蛛、蝗虫、蟋蟀、苍蝇和蜜蜂皆是令人不胜其扰的小动物，必须赶紧驱离，或者干脆当场歼灭。

    但克劳利和其他可食用昆虫爱好者正在把推动这个行业的希望寄托在更年轻，更具环保意识的千禧一代身上，希望他们不只是把昆虫食品当作类似蝎子棒棒糖这种恶作剧礼物，或者一次性自助餐，还会推动这类食品成为健康食品商店、小吃店和大食品连锁店销售的一种主食。他们声称，关键是要大力宣扬吃昆虫产品对健康的好处，同时要强调昆虫食品的环境足迹要远小于传统蛋白质来源这一事实。

    “我们正在努力为子孙后代建立一个更具可持续性，更节约资源，更适应气候变化的食物系统，”克劳利说。

    露丝•王认同这种看法。五月份，这位Six Foods公司联合创始人在众筹平台Kickstarter上筹集了7万美元，开始制作Chirps蟋蟀条，她希望这款产品能够在今年秋天进入食品店。在接受电邮采访时，王女士表示，“这就是吃昆虫能够带给我们的美好愿景。”她指出，昆虫不仅具有高蛋白，低脂肪等特质，而且可以在小空间内人性化饲养，无需使用抗生素或生长激素。“毫无疑问，昆虫是最人性化的吃肉方式，”她说。“随着人们对于食物的来源和生产方式有了更深入的了解，他们越来越愿意接受像昆虫这种全新的可持续性食物。”

    在环保之路上，EnviroFlight公司创始人兼CEO格伦•考特赖特走得更远。他的公司每年利用估计3,600 万吨运送至垃圾填满场的食品垃圾，来喂养被他称为黑士兵的苍蝇幼虫。然后，衍生自脱水蝇蛆的蛋白粉和油被打包运送到宠物市场，以及养鱼户和养猪户。这些农民一直吵着要求获得一种能够替代鱼粉的蛋白物质——海洋已经被过度捕捞，难以为继。

    此外，EnviroFlight正在与世界各地的饲料行业合作，为后者提供养育昆虫饲料的技术和专业知识支持。考特赖特预计今年的业务量将增长50%，他正在努力跟上不断增长的需求。

    考特赖特声称，“大企业明白，必须找到一种传统鱼粉的替代物，一种具有可持续性的替代物。”在转向饲料行业之前，他起初尝试着从昆虫、细菌和藻类中提炼生物燃料。“他们将发现这种产品是可行的，意识到昆虫技术不是骗局，就会找上门来。”

    但这些小动物能否像比萨饼在二战后，或寿司在20世纪70年代那样风行一时？

    数十年来，食虫学家（即那些主张食用昆虫的人士）一直在竭力推动六条腿和八条腿的小动物进入消费者的餐盘。有专家认为，与昆虫相关的新企业不断涌现，或将成为这种努力的转折点。

    The big opportunity they see: the consumption of insects as protein is much less taxing on the environment—growing, harvesting and processing them takes far less resources than chickens, cows and pigs, one percent of the greenhouse gasses of cattle and 100 times less water—so they tap into the current sustainability craze. They’re rich in protein and other key nutrients like omega-3 acids. And the products can be made at a low cost—until now, with very little competition.

    But convincing Americans to eat anything containing creepy crawlers is not an easy sell. Unlike the developing world, where the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that two billion people depend daily on as many as 1,900 insect species for food, Americans and much of the West have long considered spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, flies and bees to be a nuisance that must be swatted away or stamped out.

    But Crowley and other edible insect aficionados are counting on younger, environmentally-conscious Millennials to move the sector beyond gag gifts like lollipops with scorpions or one-off bug buffets to become a staple in health food stores, snack stands and the larger food chain. The key, they say, is playing up the health benefits of eating products with insects while emphasizing bugs’ small environmental footprint.

    “We are trying to set up future generations with a more sustainable food system, one that is more resource efficient and one that is more adaptable to a more changing climate,” Crowley says.

    Rose Wang, co-founder of Six Foods, which in May raised $70,000 on Kickstarter to make its Chirps cricket chips and hopes to have the product in stores by fall, agrees. “It’s all about the vision of what eating insects can be,” Wang said in an e-mail interview, pointing out that the bugs are high in protein, low in fat, and can be raised humanely in small spaces, without antibiotics or growth hormones. “There is no question that insects are the most humane way to eat meat,” she says, “And as people become more cognizant of where their food comes from and how it is produced, they are becoming more open to new sustainable foods like insects.”

    Glen Courtright, CEO and founder of EnviroFlight, is going even further with the environmental approach. His company takes some of the estimated 36 million tons of food waste that ends up in landfills each year and feeds it to the larvae of black soldier flies. A protein meal and oil derived from the dehydrated fly larvae are then packaged and shipped to the pet trade–as well as fish and pig farmers who are clamoring for a protein substitute for fishmeal, which comes from already overfished oceans.

    EnviroFlight is also partnering with the feed industry around the world to provide its technology and know-how on raising insects for animal feed. Courtright expects to see growth of 50 percent this year, adding that he is struggling to keep up with demand.

    “Big business understands there has to be a fish meal replacement, a sustainable fish meal replacement,” said Courtright, who initially explored producing oil from insects, bacteria and then algae for biofuels before shifting to the feed sector. “They are seeing the viability of the product and they are understanding insect technologies are real and they are coming.”

    But will insects catch on as pizza did after World War II or sushi did in the 1970s?

    Some experts think the deluge of new insect-related companies could be a turning point in entomophagists’ (that’s those who advocate for insects as food) decades-long battle to get the six and eight-legged critters onto the plates of consumers.