To ensure food security and safeguard ecological well-being, research into sustainable foodways is more important than ever. Worldwide, insects are researched for their nutritious benefits and ecological advantages over traditional forms... more
To ensure food security and safeguard ecological well-being, research into sustainable foodways is more important than ever. Worldwide, insects are researched for their nutritious benefits and ecological advantages over traditional forms of livestock. This article describes a research project that was conducted for the attainment of a Master's degree at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. Action research was used to establish a cricket farm, use local food waste for feed composition, and use crickets in food that was variously cooked and eaten with participants. While organic side streams, such as food waste, can be used as cricket feed ingredients, results are not consistent and too little is know about how which types of feed affect cricket performance. In addition, the sourcing of food waste and preparation as feed requires substantial effort and therefore naturally limits the size of any cricket farm that can be operated in this manner. Application of crickets in food faces difficulties in acceptance, which can be addressed or overcome to some extent by education, modelling, and by processing the crickets into so-called gateway foods, whereby any visual representation of the insect including its whole body remain unseen.
