Every news outlet that is reporting from Beijing during the Olympics always has the same slice-of-life report about eating barbecued bugs on a stick. They only care about the ick factor, not about the eco-friendly nature or history of why Chinese would eat bugs in the first place.

The reporters are usually non-Asian reporters from Western countries and always go for the most disgusting-looking bug-skewer. But as usual these Western media reporters didn’t learn the history behind why these types of foods are eaten in China, nor do they delve into how eating these insects is much better for the environment than eating beef.

The Chinese province of Guangdong (also known as Canton) has an old saying: "Any animal, whose back faces sky, can be eaten." And Cantonese are known to eat everything, including snakes, snails, frogs, bugs, etc. But the real reason they started eating whatever was because when their crops failed, which happened often, they still had to eat. So if any of those reporters from NBC actually knew what it was like to starve and be so hungry they would even eat bugs, then maybe they could be justified in making fun of things like eating fried scorpions on a stick.

But there are other countries besides China, like Mexico and Southeast Asia, that have old cultural traditions that include eating insects; some were even considered delicacies only fit for royalty. Some of these countries are now encouraging poor people to raise insects as food, helping to lift them out of poverty. Insects are an ideal alternative to traditional protein sources, especially for developing countries because bugs are high in protein and easy to raise.

Eating insects helps save the environment because raising them has a much lower impact than raising stockyard animals.

From a previous ever green post: Eating meat worse for environment than driving or flying:

According to a United Nations report [Livestock’s long shadow: environmental issues and options] published last November, animal agriculture emits more global-warming gases into the air than does transportation. And greenhouse gases aside, the report also shows how livestock degrade and pollute land and water sources.

This shows that rich first-world nations, such as the U.S., Europe, and Japan, directly cause environmental problems because of their high beef consumption.

So the Western media’s fascination with insect kabobs has just skimmed the surface of the reasons why those types of alternative foods are available over there. What would happen if Chinese came over to the U.S. and started making fun of how fat everyone is because they eat so much meat?

And another thing that the media hasn’t seemed to realize is that the markets that they got the skewers in were most likely in really touristy areas; so the bugs-on-a-stick could be just as touristy as getting your picture drawn in New York’s Times Square.

For more on eating insects in China, here’s a great clip from YouTube, where ethnic Asians from Hong Kong are breaking the stereotype that Asians actually enjoy eating bugs:

keeping the earth ever green

Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder