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.
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.