They're a fairly popular snack food in Central and South America, so if immigration trends continue they way they have been they won't even have to push cricket eating on the population: it'll just be part of the culture for the majority of the (new) population.
A guy I used to work with from Oaxaca used to eat them as a snack. Would bring them in a giant plastic bag and leave them in the fridge. Perhaps it's just a Mexico/Central America thing.
On the other hand, he never needed to send a site-wide email asking who stole his crickets out of the fridge...
He let me try one once. Weird texture without much flavor. Not something I would go out of my way to eat. If anything they'll start out using it as a filler material in things like sausages and premade foods like they do with textured soy protein.
You don't just one day decide to eat crickets by the handful
Someone had to process and sell them; he wasn't farming that many crickets himself.
This was in a part of the US with a large Hispanic population
Demand for crickets in the US among the native population is effectively zero
The fact he could get them at all suggests they're popular enough to sustain a market for them in a place where they aren't eaten at all by the native population. This isn't exactly street tacos we're talking about.
Sure he wasn't getting them at a pet food store? Or a bait shop? Just possibilities I'm wondering if you considered, because that's where you'll find crickets for sale, both dead and alive.
Where I live, "live bait" is kind of a misnomer; it'll simply be real bait (minnows, worms, bugs, etc) but dead and perhaps processed/flavoured some how (as opposed to, say, smelly lures and that orange paste stuff.) Reason: The province hates introduced species, except for the domesticated ones. They don't want exotic baits escaping to the wild. So they'll package "live" bait all kinds of ways.
Dunno if anyone would want to eat this stuff, but humans are known to be eaters of anything and everything.
They're a fairly popular snack food in Central and South America, so if immigration trends continue they way they have been they won't even have to push cricket eating on the population: it'll just be part of the culture for the majority of the (new) population.
A guy I used to work with from Oaxaca used to eat them as a snack. Would bring them in a giant plastic bag and leave them in the fridge. Perhaps it's just a Mexico/Central America thing.
That's disgusting.
On the other hand, he never needed to send a site-wide email asking who stole his crickets out of the fridge...
He let me try one once. Weird texture without much flavor. Not something I would go out of my way to eat. If anything they'll start out using it as a filler material in things like sausages and premade foods like they do with textured soy protein.
Oaxacans just like eating bugs
So like one person your worked with ate it and you ascribe it to an entire continent and a half?
The fact he could get them at all suggests they're popular enough to sustain a market for them in a place where they aren't eaten at all by the native population. This isn't exactly street tacos we're talking about.
Sure he wasn't getting them at a pet food store? Or a bait shop? Just possibilities I'm wondering if you considered, because that's where you'll find crickets for sale, both dead and alive.
Where I live, "live bait" is kind of a misnomer; it'll simply be real bait (minnows, worms, bugs, etc) but dead and perhaps processed/flavoured some how (as opposed to, say, smelly lures and that orange paste stuff.) Reason: The province hates introduced species, except for the domesticated ones. They don't want exotic baits escaping to the wild. So they'll package "live" bait all kinds of ways.
Dunno if anyone would want to eat this stuff, but humans are known to be eaters of anything and everything.