Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Beetle Juice

It's doesn't normally surprise me when I'm reminded about just how little the average American realizes concerning the source of his food. We are so accustomed to having everything delivered to us in pretty packages, displayed neatly on long shelves, bright lighting, plastic trays ...
We eat so cleanly, or so we believe, that simple things appal us, like images of dead livestock. Or more to my point, the disgusted reactions I sometimes get when delivering to the butcher a deer carcass in an open truck bed.

So, yes, I am aware that food is not always 'pretty' and that even I don't always know what goes into that which also goes into my mouth.

And I'm sitting here, eating breakfast and reading news stories on my computer, when I come across this little gem of curiosity.

“There are lots of actual bug parts in your food all the time, and the FDA knows and approves of it. Insects happen,” writes Bug Girl in a rather delightful blog post. “It’s part of living on Earth, and we just can’t get things sterile, no matter how much we try. Why not join the rest of the world and start adding insects as a regular part of your diet?

Ya know, I kill (some) of my meat. I've grown up eating from the backyard. My father grew up on a farm, and fed me animals I had petted just a few hours earlier...
I get it. Seriously, I do.

I just wasn't expecting to become quite this re-informed while half way through a container of blueberry yogurt...


...that I couldn't finish.

10 comments:

Jade said...

You don't want to eat chocolate covered fried crickets? :)

That reminds me of the scene in the movie "Dragnet" where Tom Hanks is describing to Dan Akroyd all of the things that fall into an industrial sized hot dog press.

tully said...

Two words for any Monty Python fans:

"Crunchy Frog"

Brian said...

LOL. Whatever you do, don't look up the FDA guidelines on rodent feces.

Foxfier said...

The brain is amazing, isn't it? ^.^

Mr. D said...

Parts is parts.

Gino said...

parts is yogurt.

Brian said...

...and yogurt is...PEOPLE!!!

Gino said...

aarrrggghhh!!!!!!!

VLW said...

"The Stuff is never enough!"

When you see industrial farming first-hand your stomach develops a coating of steel.

kr said...

I actually knew about cochineal extract (although I thought it was far more widespread and did not know carmine was another version) ... learned and forgot in in jr high ish (probably while researching vegetarianism), forgot about it, relearned it a couple of years ago ... briefly considered being grossed out but decided it was stupid to be (the organic lifestyle and all that ... I'm not quite up to eating bugs on purpose except once at church to learn about John the Baptist ... roasted crickets taste nutty and I had to thing very hard about anything except "bug" : P ... ). But then as you know I get completely ooged out by crabs and lobsters (especially lobsters), so ... whatevs.

I think my "at least it's natural" overruled my "eww it's a bug" reaction. (I love that the group for safe food is all "dear God label the natural additive because people can't find out they're sensitive until they've tried it" ... like that doesn't apply to every artificially produced chemical coloring. Pfffff. Must be a pro-chem-lab group. Saftey indeed.)