I just sent a bunch of you, family and friends, a copy of an email sent to me about food shortages already happening in the world and possible food shortages in the U.S. I also read a lot of economic websites and am worried about that area, as well. It doesn't look good, folks. I don't trust politicians to tell me everything is all right because they want to get elected, and you don't get elected by spreading bad news, whether or not it's true. Just look at some of the candidates the media has made fun of in the past who have tried to tell Americans that things are not going the way they should in the economy and our nation's policies. I don't want to beat a dead horse. Some of you I've bugged about this a couple times already. I'm worried for my own family because we are trying to be prepared but we just aren't quite there yet.
As an effort to be more fully prepared in case something should happen that prevents us from getting food, I bought a book and just received it in the mail yesterday. It's called The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook by David George Gordon. The first reaction I got from my family was predictable. "EEEEEEEEEW!" Husband said, "You're not going to make us eat any of that, are you?" Oldest Child slapped her hand over her mouth and made vomiting noises. It was great.
All right, I didn't just buy it for the shock value. I have read the cookbook now and Gordon makes a good case for eating insects. No, really! Edible bugs are high in nutrients and protein, they are plentiful and they take less space than beef cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. They are more efficient in turning food into edible parts, unlike beef and sheep, which are really inefficient. And people have been eating bugs for millenia. We, in the U.S., are pretty sqeamish about it because we have always been taught that bugs are dirty and nasty and should be squashed or choked with pesticides.
I admit, as intriguing as the idea is, eating things like "Spin-akopita" (which is made with wolf spiders) or "Giant Water Bug on Watercress" kind of makes me gulp. I think I could handle fried crickets or chocolate-covered grasshoppers, maybe even wax worms if they're dead and mushed or otherwise disguised. I could graduate to deep-fried scorpions; but I draw the line at "Baked Bird-Eating Spider," which is a spider the size if a dinner plate. No, thanks. Honk if you agree.
Still, it's a fun book to read, even if you never intend to ingest our exoskeleton friends. Think about it, though: if you could eat bugs without puking and there was a huge swarm of locusts in your town, you'd be set. Roasted locusts, fried locusts, frozen locusts you could grind into flour, the possibilities are endless. Sure, you'd get tired of locust ("Aw, Mom, not locust casserole AGAIN!), but it would be cheaper than beef. Way cheaper than wheat or corn are going to be in the near future, that's for sure. Grow some sprouts, juice some wheatgrass, eat a vegetable from your garden and you've got a full meal.Yum.
In other news, I relaxed the no-TV rule just for today. It's been going really well, much to my surprise. No one has been complaining too much about it and the kids are entertaining themselves pretty well. But today was very cold and rainy and I thought, what the heck. I got two movies from the Redbox ("27 Dresses" and "Shrek the Third") and told the kids they could watch them a couple times each. I should have vetted "27 Dresses" first. Oops. They haven't even watched Shrek, and they didn't bother whining about wanting to watch TV as well. They were happy with what they got. Weird.
Just for fun, go to www.time.com/video and watch Gordon cook up some buggy grub. Don't throw up.
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