Illustration by Drew Shannon
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When my son turned 15, five hungry teenage boys were coming over to celebrate. I knew they were looking forward to playing video games and gorging on pizza, chocolate cake and ice cream. “What else should I get for the party?” I asked. “Surprise me,” my son said, “but no granola bars!”
So, the next day, I dropped into a high-end supermarket near my workplace and wandered the aisles, deep in a maze of cookies in cellophane bags, cakes in glass showcases and boxes of chocolates stacked on shelves. Turning a corner, I found a new aisle and something different.
On display were imported giftboxes with a see-through lid that revealed seasoned, roasted bugs. There was a variety of insects to choose from, but it was the crickets that caught my attention. I couldn’t believe it. I had found the perfect novelty gift for $15.
My son’s birthday party was a success. In particular, he enjoyed offering his friends a plateful of bugs. From the kitchen I listened to a chorus of “Eww! Yuck! and Blech!” Sadly, none of the boys ate even one cricket. So much for that, I thought.
The laid-back joy of playing pétanque with the locals in Laos
But a few years later, I read that crickets were a good source of protein. Remembering my son’s party treats, I returned to the same store and learned the product was no longer stocked.
Frustrated, I searched online. Success! Several photos appeared of a green bag containing roasted, flavoured crickets. Enlarging the picture of the nutritional panel, I was amazed to read that one-third of a cup of crickets provides 319 per cent of the daily requirement for vitamin B12. These bugs were also low in saturated fat and cholesterol – all good news – and they came in a variety of flavours. I considered buying the ranch flavour but those crickets had too much sodium. The honey-mustard ones were also quite salty, as was the barbecue. So, I ended up choosing between chili-lime – moderately high in salt – and cinnamon-sugar – moderately high in sugar. In the end, I settled for a bag of the chili-lime – and typed in my credit-card information.
When my order arrived, I sat in front of the television, put my feet up and got ready to snack. At first glance, anyone would have thought I was holding a regular bag of chips. No one would have guessed I was about to eat bugs, although WHOLE ROASTED CRICKETS was printed in large letters on the bag. There was also some small print: a declaration claiming the cricket was “the planet’s most sustainable superfood.”
Shaking out a couple of chili-lime crickets, I examined them closely. The abdomen was barrel-shaped with dark horizontal lines, and a small ball of a head sat at the end of the thorax. I tossed two into my mouth. The texture was crunchy and the chili-lime spice gave my tongue the perfect degree of lingering heat. After eating a couple more, I started digging out crickets by the dozen, eating them out of my hand like a horse nuzzling corn. This was a little messy as bits of wing, hair-like appendages and powdery, rust-coloured seasoning clung to my mouth.
While munching away, I began to wonder. How were these crickets produced? I’d read they came from a farm in Ontario. But did the crickets have a happy life and enjoy singing like wild crickets? How were they “harvested”? Did they suffer? Could they feel pain? What did they eat? And just then, the thought of pesticides made me pause.
Opening my computer, I found the company’s website and wrote an e-mail: “I have to say, I love your product,” I began, “but I want to reduce my pesticide consumption and I was wondering – do your crickets contain any pesticides?”
It didn’t take long to receive a reply. The response thanked me for my e-mail and my question. The letter-writer assured me their crickets were free-range and pesticide-free. Their diet was a healthy one that included corn, other vegetables, soy and fish oil. He also anticipated the questions I hadn’t asked, the ones that were still buzzing around in my head. The harvesting is done, he explained, near the end of their life after the females have laid their eggs. Carbon dioxide is used to stun the insects before preparation for roasting. I breathed a sigh of relief.
I now offered the bag of crickets to my son. “An excellent source of protein,” I said, but sadly, he refused to eat even one. I, on the other hand, buy the little critters regularly.
Brenda MacDonald lives in Toronto.