Insects as Food for Humans in the Past, Present, and Future

Have you ever eaten an insect…on purpose?

The odds are you probably haven’t, but Julie Lesnik aims to change that. In fact, Lesnik believes that people must begin to overcome this disgust felt towards insects in order to win out against climate change, population growth, and dwindling resources. Lesnik researches the roles that insects have played as food in our prehistoric ancestors bringing together anthropology, paleontology, and biology. Additionally, she utilizes those works to help normalize and encourage people to try eating insects, at least those of us who are not part of the 2 billion people who do not have insects in our diet yet.

In this interview, Lisa Heldke talks to Julie Lesnik about how those two sides of Lesnik’s work interact. They explore how scientists came to the conclusion that early hominids did, in fact, regularly consume insects, how anthropology can be decolonized, why some people are disgusted by the thought of insects as a food source, and how we can overcome that disgust.

You can look at the book mentioned in this episode, Insects as Human Food by F.S. Bodenheimer, here.

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