The Lepsis Is a Terrarium For Growing Edible Insects At Home

An anonymous reader writes "A recent UN report suggested that people should be eating more insects, because they're much less harmful to the environment that traditional meat. In response, designer Mansour Ourasanah has created the Lepsis, a small insect breeder that could be used to grow and harvest grasshoppers in urban homes."

Comments

Eating bugs is gross!

[oodaloop]

Now excuse me while I rip apart this lobster!

Re:I'm sorry, but...

[lxs]

I wouldn't mind, but if I get to raise them myself I couldn't bear to eat them. Look at those cute little mandibles. Look at them!

why not garden and have chickens instead?

[SpaceManFlip]

many people have lawns. Lawns are mowed to look nice. Nice looking lawns are not useful for food production. Kill the grass and plant the whole yard with food for your family, and then maybe they won't have to eat bugs.

also if you have a yard, you could parcel off a small bit of it for a chicken coop for not too much money and grow your own eggs / chickens

I think I'll probably try things like that before I raise insects for food.

Re:why not garden and have chickens instead?

[niado]

many people have lawns. Lawns are mowed to look nice. Nice looking lawns are not useful for food production. Kill the grass and plant the whole yard with food for your family, and then maybe they won't have to eat bugs.

also if you have a yard, you could parcel off a small bit of it for a chicken coop for not too much money and grow your own eggs / chickens

In most municipalities, you can't really raise chickens. E.g where I live chickens cannot be kept within ~100 feet of a dwelling structure.

Gardening is usually doable though! Unless you are under a super obnoxious HOA, you can usually get away with a food-garden.

this is a ridiculous recommendation

[nimbius]

and because 'eat some bugs' gets clicks, slashdot cant stop peddling it.

full disclosure: im vegetarian

most bugs dont contain anything more than protein and a bit of fat, and the ones that do are hands-down unapproachable by a consumer whos traditionally a meat and potatoes person.
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectnutrition.html
if you want some calcium, it would mean getting used to this guy in your mouth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belostomatidae

Its absurd, but hey so is the chicken nugget/finger/ring and its violent extrusion the KFC "double down."
Are we seriously so opposed to broccoli and other vegetables much loathed as children that we're going to eat bugs instead? we already have alternatives to meat that are cheaper, more nutritious, and widely available. The issue at hand is that we put meat in absolutely everything whether it needs it or not. Speaking for the midwest, even salads have cold-cuts liberally interspersed between the nutritionally devoid iceburg lettuce trucked in from new mexico and california. "lets eat bugs" is not a solution to the "meat is expensive" issue because it ignores the underlying problems of factory farming, monocultural foods, and a population of nutritionally ignorant and chronically obese adults and children. until we solve that shitstorm then no matter what we select as our meat methodone its just going to go down the same route.

Re:I'm sorry, but...

[slim]

A proper meat eater isn't put off by blood and gore.

I've eaten pig in the farmhouse next to which it was raised, and let me tell you, we enjoyed it all the more for knowing exactly where it had come from.

Yes, it's cultural and conditioned, and if we'd been brought up eating insects we might find the idea of grasshopper mouth-watering. However, most of us were not.

Re:I'm sorry, but...

[KGIII]

I am something of a "character" I guess. I'll eat anything on the menu. During AIT we also ate insects. I mention that because I want to tell you that I have eaten insects and, frankly, they're not that good. The only "good" one I have found was the chocolate covered ant, because I couldn't taste the ant.