Interesting article on my buddy Malcom Diack, who farms locusts down in New Zealand. You can listen to my awesomely fun interview with Malcolm on the Ento Nation podcast by clicking here.
Diack fried up some of his locusts for us to try. Looking at them was difficult; they were big insects, complete with mandibles, wings, and long, ridged legs. Eating them was a different story; they tasted like a crunchy, delicious fried chip. “Locusts don’t really have much of a taste of their own,” Diack explained, “they tend to take on the flavour of whatever they’re cooked in”. So if you fry them in oil and salt, they taste like oil and salt, “if you cook them in salmon oil, they taste like salmon”. My locust eating experience was overwhelmingly positive…
Diack’s aim is for his operation to be entirely self-contained: using zero resources and producing zero waste. He plans to grow his feed grass with the carbon dioxide given off by the locusts, simulating a simple ecosystem. Using solar panels to power the lights and a dehumidifier, which currently provides water for both the insects and the plants, could make his zero resource vision a reality. However, he has to be careful about growing food in the same space that he farms the locusts. If a single locust gets into his feed grass, as once happened, it can eat through most of his store.
Click here to read the full article “Eat a Locust, Save a Cow” by Charlie O’Mannin for Critic.
