Sandwich with insect burger

In 113 countries around the world, insects are routinely consumed. Globally, the most popular are: beetles (31%); caterpillars of butterflies (18%); bees, wasps and ants (14%); locusts, locusts and crickets (13%). Among the geographical areas that consume the most are Mexico, Africa and Southeast Asia. It is important to note that in many populations consuming insects It is not an extreme action dictated by the scarcity of food, but On the contrary, a normal component of food culture and gastronomy, as amply demonstrated in numerous studies from University.

In addition to not being so far from our food customs, the insects, as has happened with many other foods, for some time now have begun to be revalued by the food market western. This is because today food is less and less mere nourishment and more and more awareness, culture, tradition. We are discovering and rediscovering a wide variety of foods and we want to know about these foods ownership, provenance, history. We are attentive to their impact on the environment and our health, to their sustainability. The Insects are no exception.

So why feel gratitude only for large animals? Throughout its history, man has always used insects. Starting with the bee - for its production of honey, royal jelly, propolis, poison, pollen, wax - and passing through the silkworm, with its wonderful row that has been exploited for centuries in the creation of luxury garments. Not to mention the increasing number of species being used as bait for catching fish. Other uses, which have recently become increasingly popular, are those of biological control and pollination. Added to the list is the use of insects in medicine for the production, for example, of healing substances and adjuvants. But the very first approach our ancestors had with insects was to consider them a source of nutrition.

We need to take a big leap back to the time of primate evolution. Scientific research shows that the primate order, of which we humans are a part, evolved from an entomophagous mammal. Since then, we have never stopped eating insects, neither we nor all our closest relatives. How can we tell? We can't be sure, but a lot of clues lead us to believe that it is quite likely.

First of all, virtually every species of monkey eats insects in abundance on a daily basis. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are fond of them and use refined techniques to capture them, very similar to those still adopted today by various human populations. Bone analyses conducted on the remains of the first hominid to appear on earth (Australopithecus) suggest a diet of herbaceous plants and insects.

Fast forward to when humans began to use fire, and traces of insects have been found in both ashes and fossil droppings.

Another element that could corroborate this hypothesis is a visit to the cave "Les trois frères" in Ariège, which takes its name from the sons of Count Henri Bégouen who discovered it in 1914. On the walls of the cave there is an image of a grasshopper dating back more than 10,000 years.

But perhaps not everyone will believe that the grasshopper, like other painted animals, is the representation of what the inhabitants of the cave ate, so let's move from scientific and iconographic evidence to those writings that show how insects were considered food to feed humans.

The first testimonies date back to 2000 BC and tell how the king of Syria was fond of locusts and how it was the custom of Assyrians and Syrians to eat them after having captured them in the periods when they invaded the crops.

In the Assyrian palace of Nineveh, on the walls of a long corridor, there are representations of servants carrying the dishes of a banquet, among which are recognizable locust skewers.

Let's take another step forward in time and find Babylonian letters that talk about insect-based recipes.

Another document is the Old Testament, where some passages are dedicated to insects:

"You will also abhor every winged insect that walks on four feet. However, of all the winged insects that walk on four feet, you will eat those that have legs above their feet that are suitable for jumping on the earth. Of these you can eat: every kind of grasshopper, every kind of locust, acrids and crickets. Every other winged insect that has four feet will be an abomination to you. These animals will make you unclean; Anyone who touches their dead body will be unclean until the evening. Whoever carries their dead bodies will wash his garments and be unclean until the evening." 

Still on the subject of the Old Testament, the Israeli entomologist Shimon Fritz Bodenheimer put forward a hypothesis in the 1950s on the identification of manna that fell from heaven on the Jews: according to the scholar, it would be a secretion produced by a species of coccis widespread in the Sinai Peninsula.

It doesn't end here, illustrious characters of our past tell of ancient entomophagous customs.

Herodotus tells of Libyan people who used to eat locusts mixed with milk. Aristotle writes about how cicadas are better in the chrysalis state. Pliny, in his Naturalis Historia, speaks of a larva called Cossus (larva of Lucanus cervus or Prionus coriarius) served in very delicate dishes at Roman banquets.

The Gospels also testify to the consumption of insects by referring to John the Baptist as a glutton for locusts and wild honey.

In medieval times we find writings of Germanic soldiers who in Italy would have eaten fried silkworms.

At the same time, but moving several thousand kilometers further east, the consumption of insects was a common practice in China; There is evidence of this during all the dynasties from 600 to 1600.

Moving even closer to our times and moving to the Americas, we know that the Aztec people fed on 91 different species of insects cooked in the most varied ways and it is said that they were prepared at court, for breakfast, to the emperor every morning.

A little further north, the Amerindians relied on fish, insects, and birds for their protein intake.

Around 1880, M.W. de Fonvielle, a member of the French Senate, published a recipe for a beetle soup, and at the same time the vice-president of the Paris Insect Society gave a lecture and swallowed a handful of it with relish in front of the audience.

These are just some of the examples that testify to the ancient roots of the custom of eating insects that still persists today in a large slice of the planet.

According to anthropologist Marvin Harris (1990), Americans and Europeans do not eat insects because there are fewer insects in these parts of the world than in tropical areas and because they are not the best choice in terms of cost and benefit.

It is therefore not only the quantity of a certain food that determines its consumption, but its contribution to the overall profitability of food production.

Insects, despite being easy to breed and capture and have a high nutritional value, have not allowed a significant economic profit for food producers and preparers in Europe if this is commensurate with that of the large mammal and fish market.

Also in Europe, horse meat has never been considered a regular food either, especially in the past, given the abundance of pork, sheep, goat, poultry and fish. Why care about insects?

On the contrary, in tropical forests where it is difficult to find game and the habitat is rich in insects, even large ones, which often move in droves, the diet will tend to be insectivorous.

Finally, whether a species is appreciated or abhorred also depends on what is called residual usefulness or harmfulness. In India, a cow provides milk and manure and is therefore deified and not slaughtered.

In past centuries, the horse in some countries was ridden in battle and used to plough the fields, thus becoming a noble creature not to be eaten.

A pig that doesn't plow the fields, doesn't produce milk, doesn't help win wars has instead become an object of abomination in Arab and Muslim cultures.

Insects in Europe or North America are considered even worse than pigs: not only do they damage agriculture, but they consume food in pantries, poke and bite the skin, itch, suck blood ...

It is not surprising that there are those who react phobically and that the rare species of insects that have an obvious utility (such as those that devour other insects or those that pollinate plants) have not been considered sufficient to compensate for the immense array of their annoying relatives.

Disgust with insects in Western countries has therefore grown over time for reasons related to daily life.

With the advent of agriculture, the need to contain insects has increased considerably, along with the aversion to them.

Since the end of the Second World War, cattle breeding and meat consumption have also increased.

In Italy, for example, the intake of animal proteins has increased tenfold compared to the years of the Risorgimento and fivefold compared to the last years of the fascist regime, and animal proteins have gone from being a luxury good to a consumer good.

Although insects are certainly not the basis of our diet, they are not completely excluded either.

Undoubtedly, the exception that proves the rule is the "cheese with worms" typical of some regions of France (specifically Corsica) and Italy such as Sardinia, Sicily, Piedmont, Friuli, Abruzzo and Emilia-Romagna.

In addition, although few people are aware of it, some insect extracts, such as cochineal red, have long been widely used to color foods such as yogurt, candy, bitters, and more.

If in Western countries the entomophagic culture has almost completely disappeared, in many other parts of the planet it is a widespread practice, contributing up to 50% of the protein intake of some populations.