#bugeating

for this ask game

30) otp

sns.... they literally invented love. but also kakagai have my entire heart they make me so happy in so many ways theyre just old best friend ninjas in love.. i also really love hashimada lol theyre insane and i love how tragic their story is.

22) who would you want your partner to be in the akatsuki

KONAN. HI KONAN. HI.. HIHIHIIH...........😳😳😳 but also i feel like tobi and i would get along

7) which battle was your favorite

GOD THIS IS SO HARD. i hate when questions make me pick a favorite anything because i have so much love in my heart for this shitty series that its so hard to pick one favorite...

Waterbugs from the restaurant Typhoon

Arriola, George. Waterbugs. Digital image. Atlas Obscura. Web.

Insect eating (also including arachnids despite not being insects) is a common practice in much of the world outside of the west. According to a 2015 report on insect eating and its future  by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences,  "Insects are part of the diet of at least two billion people in the world and more than 1900 insect species are currently used as food."(Jansson and Berggren, 7). This a varied alley of cuisine that is often overlooked in the united states. Insects, unlike other invertebrates  such as crustaceans or other seafood, are viewed as being very unacceptable as food, and even frightening. Many entertainment outlets, from Buzzfeed articles to videos on Youtube, use the consumption of  insects to shock and disgust their audience. By marketing the disgust, these pieces of entertainment are complicit with the normative ideas that insects are not a natural thing to eat. This also works to create a sense that those who do take part in entomophagy are likewise unnatural or wrong. This leads to an interesting fork in the road, as bugs as food has been suggested as a more sustainable food source. With the ever growing global population, as well as increased greenhouse emissions from mammal farming, insects are tapped as being the better option.

While there is a distinct aversion to insects, food advernturism has led many Americans to consume them as a mark of bravery or while trying to find the so-called "authentic" cuisine of a culture. This contained encounter with the other works as a form of cultural slumming, that is a taking part in something deemed to be part of a “lesser” culture than the dominant one the participant is from. While this has led to more people in the west trying insects, it does still have unfortunate implications of eating to “...confront the usual functions of disgust...and defy it, triumphing in the sordid accomplishment (Korsmeyer 759). That by accomplishing something others do regularly, they are achieving a better realization of a worldly experience.

Still, some people are working to try and change the perception of entomophagy in the West. People like the Bug Chef, David George Gordon , try to use the shock to educate others. Similarly, a few restaurants, such as Santa Monica’s Typhoon (a pan-Asian, though recently closed restaurant) offer insects as part of their menu. Typhoon, the restaurant where the main photo came from, had a section of its menu dedicated to insects that did not highlight it as an oddity. This type of attitude could possibly be emulated as a way of introducing more westerners to the possibility of consumption of bugs as everyday food. 

Bibliography:

Jansson, A. and Berggren, A. 2015. Insects as Food – Something for the Future? A report from Future Agriculture. Uppsala, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).