As a world traveller, you are bound to come across concepts, ideas, and lifestyles that are beyond your realm of that which is considered normal. Eleven countries around the globe still eat dog meat. They include Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Polynesia, the Arctic, Taiwan, Vietnam and China where the largest animal slaughter is done during China’s annual Yulin festival, when up to 10,000 dogs and an unreported number of cats are killed, to be eaten. And also making that list are two cantons in Switzerland. Yes, Switzerland, where a dish of ‘mostbröckli’, marinated dog and cat meat, is prepared. A Swiss farmer was quoted as saying, “No-one knows what it is when you prepare it in this fashion.”
HOWEVER, ONE WOULD HOPE TO KNOW.
Few people go into a restaurant and say “Surprise me.”
But let’s not stop there…
INSECTS
There are more than 1,900 edible insect species on Earth, and some two billion people regularly eat a wide variety of insects, both cooked and raw. It is only in Western countries that the practice retains an “are you kidding me?” factor.
Insects are no longer seen as the destroyers of crops and ruin-ers of picnics rather that of a food source. Now, before you add ‘eating bugs’ to the list of things you’ll never ever do, consider this:
Naturalist, author and “Bug Chef Extraordinaire” David George Gordon said,
“Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world.”
And he’s not alone in his views, for entrepreneur Goldin saw into the future, plunged in and started Next Millennium Farms, the only cricket farm of its kind in Canada.
“Every week we produce between 2,000 to 4,000 pounds of raw crickets,” Goldin said, adding, “About 80 per cent of the produce is ground into high-protein cricket flour. We sell mainly to companies who then use the flour into everything from tortilla chips to muffins to energy bars. We are having a hard time keeping up with the demand.”
The cricket flour sells for $40 a pound.
“The remaining crickets are used in a line of products we sell through our website, like ‘Bug Bistro’ — a tasty snack of crickets, sold in three flavours: Moroccan, Honey Mustard and Barbecue,” Goldin said.
Imagine that – a multi-million dollar business from crickets!
Or is it? with 375 million vegetarians in the world
dining on vegetables that are high in protein:
bean sprouts, lima beans, peas, kale, broccoli, mushrooms, artichokes and spinach to name a few.
