I really need an explanation on this since people are not shutting up for months that EU is apparently putting insects in food for the people to be forced to buy and feed on like survivalists in jungle would? I know that EU is completely unhinged nazi hellhole and whatnot, but to this extent to feed themselves on bugs? I don't think so.
Can somebody please tell me about this, they are not shutting up about it on social media for months?!
It's a propaganda campaign by reactionaries to disrupt all discussions about the relationship between meat and climate change. Now any time anyone says that we need to decrease beef and pork consumption, it's proof that "they" want to force us to live in shipping containers and eat bugs. There are huge industrial interests that don't want the public to seriously engage with the idea that we are going to have to change our diets or anything else to adapt to a changing world.
From what I can tell insects are sometimes looked at as an alternative to meat. It's nutritious and is far less damaging to the environment. I don't think it's a weird thing to do, apart from ignoring various plant based meat alternatives.
Now, you have some weird people out there, claiming we should all eat bugs or purposely sending pictures of whole grasshoppers for people to eat. I think that's partly to blame by the meat lobby or just some racist bullshit about Africans eating bugs.
I don't think bug burgers are going to win against plant based ones or lab grown meat if it ever gets that far. Not that I have to worry about that, I don't eat meat in the first place.
I checked an international english exam (hippo english olympiad) who's participants are mostly from global south countries and it had an article on eating insects that even suggested vegans to eat insects.
I see the suggestion of "eat insect to combat climate change" similar to if the brits told indians to eat a cows and pork to stop a famine they've started. Of course bugs are edible and eating them can help or someshit, but this is just watering down the climate change issue as a natural occurrence instead of something entirely caused by those same ones telling us to eat insects.
They think European consumption being equalized with Africans means that they'll have to eat bugs, because this is their view of Africa...
And not shit like, chocolate being more expensive (relative to wages) and less available because African farmers aren't being superexploited by Neo-Colonialism.
It's a psyop by museums to get a new generation to eat candied insects.
Sorry, I don't really know. Is it part of an anti-vegan campaign? Is it simply hedging bets against mammal farming? Is the EU's plan to sneak cricket powder into food a larger plot to loosen food standards? I'm afraid I have more questions than you!
Reactionaries really hate it though. They think a Jewish (old-school anti-semite) or transgender (new, hip anti-semite) world government is going to force everyone to eat bugs and live in pods. Typical right wing conspiracy stuff.
Remeber how Marx in Capital wrote about multitute of methods to increase the rate of exploitation or worker class? One of chief methods there is to decrease the costs of labour reproduction, that is, the lowering the workers livelihood. Including cost of food, Marx given example how potatoes massively replaced bread in workers diet. There are multiple examples in the last centuries, junk food, chemical treating of foods in market etc. etc.
Bugs are next step, and the media campaign for it is normalisation of something that is universally treated as incredibly repulsive in basically every European culture - eating bugs is basically synonym for starvation, and even in starvation people sometimes prefer to die rather than eat bugs.
So i think this is not as much anti vegan as anti worker and pro bourgeoisie.
Finally, an actual Marxist analysis of the situation. So many of the other comments here sound, unfortunately, like something you'd find on liberal reddit under a post about "green lifestyles."
I don't really get the big deal about eating bugs. I think, if we survive climate change, eating crickets for protein is sort of the least of our worries.
I don't want to do it under a capitalist paradigm, and definitely not to let the fat cats live in luxury. I'm not very interested in it, I just don't see the big deal.
As a vegetarian, I really don't see the difference. I don't want to eat bugs because the concept of eating meat sounds gross, but I don't understand how someone can eat other kinds of meat yet find insects disgusting.
I'm not really sold on the specie-ist argument for veganism.
I care much more about the well being of humans than insects.
I don't want to re-hash larger arguments, and know there's relatively little likelihood of either of us changing our minds here, so I don't really want to pursue the larger vegan/not-vegan argument here!
Insects are fine. Had them a few times. What's a hilarious thought to me though I'd that someone so vehemently against the eating of bugs wouldn't just opt out of eating animals all together and become a veggie
Wondering if I want to bother defending the practice of entomophagy on a post where people are outraged at eating bugs... I don't see it as any different from eating other forms of meat, and like any animal the quality of the meat is determined from the control, not the source. Grasshoppers bred for human consumption aren't going to be dirty or diseased if the industry maintains standards. Or they shouldn't be, anyway. The issues with it faces are the same issues other meat industries face under capitalism.
I could use some reassurance from non-vegan comrades that any outrage you feel towards liberal trendsetters promoting entomophagy is because of liberalism, and not entomophagy. And vegan comrades, you don't need to explain your reasoning. I understand where you're coming from, as insects are animals.