bug appetizerCome get some grub!Photo: Dane Larsen

Americans have issues with meat. They eat too much too often, and the means of production all too commonly end up being unhealthy for animal, person, and planet.

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Maybe meat itself isn’t the problem. What if the meat Americans are eating is just too big? 

A growing trend in sustainable eating seems to favor the flavor of the small: mini cows, goats, squab (pigeons!), and most crunchy — insects. From a daily diet of caterpillars in the Congo to Brooklynites going bug-eyed over mod mealworms, entomophagy (bug eating) is slowly worming its way onto American plates.

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San Francisco chef Phil Ross needs no convincing about its environmental merit: “I have my month’s meat growing in my office. It’s taking up almost no space, it’s organically raised, it’s as fresh as I want it to be and the waste from it is garden compost.”

Comestibles creating compostables — perhaps for your organic veggie garden? What’s not to lick?

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