It´s unlikely that out of all the habits you adhere to you´ll find anything less harmful then a protein that has fed your ancestors. Believe in the wisdom of your own species.

If you want to get all wobbly about food inspectors and edible insects, cicada ice cream is the real story.

Sure, it’s possible that we could say “No corruption or abuse is acceptable”, but that would mean getting rid of the FDA/health inspectors altogether – voluntary associations might arise that fulfill the same function and do quite well (or better), but I’m not willing to take the risk of that not working, so I’m OK with the occasional death from a SWAT raid or business ruined if it means the system as a whole still works for providing safe food. It’s not really that high of a cost to bear.

And having worked in the food industry, I’m not quick to believe that anyone could conclusively trace back a food-borne illness back to a single pepper from a farmer’s market. People pick up “food poisoning” from disparate sources constantly and it’s labeled the 24hr flu. It is very difficult to source a specific claim of food poisoning unless it is widespread and the causitive agent (e.coli for example) is uniquely identifiable. But that also begs the question, how many times has that happened and does it justify the intrusion into the lives of people that don’t go around selling their produce. AFAIC, the answer is that is doesn’t happen often enough to warrant the regime you posit.

But seeing this image was startling while eating breakfast – and having just seen the article about Yog-Sothoth.

Now, I’ve got to share this article with someone else in my lily-white middle-america pseudo-liberal university-town circle just for the shock value of the picture.

How about when it’s YOUR child or loved one killed? Still worth it? Maybe we could get you to comfort victims’ families at funerals… “He died so we wouldn’t have to think about where our food comes from!”

It’s pretty sick that you think its ok for random people to be killed and have their lives ruined to prop up a violent system you admit is highly flawed, just because moving to a voluntary alternative may involve some risks.

As a vegetarian, I don’t eat the things, so I wasn’t checking closely whether they were available as tacos, but my wife got a dish of crunchy fried grasshoppers.

And yeah, lead poisoning is serious business, but they’re probably safe enough to taste them even if they’re not safe enough to make a regular part of your diet. That article said they had 400 times the safe level for children under six, so that says you can have them once a year if you’re an adult?

Well, sure, but at least I’m honest about it. Having a government that provides food safety for us isn’t free and some of the costs aren’t monetary. I’m not such an idealist that I pretend that an entity like the FDA we give power to create regulations and enforce them isn’t going to whack a couple people or businesses along the way, by either abusing their power or simply by accident as long as the overall effect is to keep my and millions of others’ food safe I’m OK with it. If you’re OK with the FDA, you’re implicitly OK with this too, whether you know it or not. I do and I am.

I’m not likely to be caught up in it anyway as I’m not a farmer or restaurant owner.

Personally, strict food regulation is one of those things that you have to accept if you want to live in a large society. As soon as your community is too large for you to have a personal relationship with everyone in the food chain it needs oversight. And that doesn’t just mean the guy buying and preparing the food, but their suppliers all the way down the chain.

I you want to grow something for your own consumption, that’s entirely your business. If you are making food to serve to other people and something goes wrong, the answer to questions about the source of your food can’t be “some guy who was selling grasshoppers”. That’s just not acceptable.

The argument here is not really in any way about whether grasshoppers are safe to eat or not; it is whether corporations are more important than people. Providing safe edible grasshoppers without corporate sponsorship cannot be accomplished using the policies currently in force; nor can the Amish assure their customers of the safety of the raw milk they sell. These policies can crush individuals in favor of amoral conglomerates like Monsanto, yet they cannot force Monsanto to act in the consumer’s interest.

Most of you (notably excepting SKR and Antinous – Yo! Represent, mutants!) are resoundingly in favor of the dominance of corporate interests. You don’t want safe food; you don’t want tasty food; you want food that has a magical stamp of approval, which of course will have nothing to do with its safety but rather with the wealth of its producers. That is the choice America has made – and if your cat or your baby died from Chinese food products tainted with melamine, I’m sure it makes you feel better that those products had the magic stamp on them.

IMPORTANT: break off back legs before eating! the hooks on the legs stick in your throat.

they are a little bit fattening, but fried grasshoppers and dried octopus (japan) are both begging to be washed down with cold beer.

I’ve often disagreed with you, but you generally make clear what you are getting at. But not in this case. This is a non-sequitur in the guise of a witty statement.

I agree with your methods but not your reasoning. The fact is that if we concentrate the production or use of dangerous devices into a smaller number of businesses or people, then we’re more able to assure the safety of society at large, and the way to do it is with fees/taxes that raise the bar so small risky corner-cutting players are pushed out of the business, and we’re left with a few large companies that have proven they are willing to work with the government at all times any time safety is involved.

Toys, milk, guns, grasshoppers – if we increase the regulation, fees, and taxes to the point where less dedicated individuals or small businesses cannot afford to own or manufacture them ($4000 product safety fees, $3000 annual fee to own a gun, $50000 annual fee to grow grasshoppers, $30/pack cigarette taxes), you actually wind up with safer products and a safer society by assuring that only sufficiently large businesses can manufacture them or sufficiently rich individuals can own the prohibited items (as they’ll act more responsibly with them).

I agree that we should give the FDA more power, but we should also use the government’s taxing power as well in order to get rid of / control things that endanger society.

But they use Oaxaca as a negative food label when it is outside their usual diet.

Face it. One of the last racist behaviors we allow is racism again people who eat differently than we do.

OH and the VAST majority of insect dishes are served in the asian community and somehow the police never raid them for publicity. It has always been easier for me to buy asian giant water bugs for food than has been to buy crickets.

“Okay. Can you point me to an FDA-approved source?”

“There are no FDA-approved sources.”

“But-”

“We’re done here, Mr. Kafka. Next!”

Then I thought about all the fungicides, etc that people love to spray on their lawns. 13-17 years gives the beasties lots of times to accumulate unpleasant chemicals in their fat.

Cicadas from undisturbed woodland, on the other hand, might be yummy.