Bugs, the next cash cow - 25th November 2022

Bug burger, anyone? Despite sounding unpalatable to some, bugs are an excellent source of lean protein and contain beneficial vitamins. Crickets are among the most commonly consumed insects globally and they're on track to generate billions of dollars for the food industry.

Bangkok, in Thailand, boasts its own cricket burger eatery, Bounce Burger which not only specialises in cricket burgers but also produces cricket-based products in the form of sausages, cricket balls, cookies and power bars. The spindly arthropods were in need of an image makeover according to restaurant owner Poopipat Thiapairat.

Poopipat Thiapairat: "The problem with crickets is that they get stuck in your throat. The chitin parts of the crickets like legs and wings make them hard to swallow so we came to the idea that we should take off these parts and use only the body of the crickets. It's the same concept as beef or pork where we don't eat the bones."

Traditionally consumed whole after being grilled on a skewer and drizzled with soy sauce, will cricket burgers prove more appetising? They get diner Anut Sotthibandhu's vote.

Anut Sotthibandhu: "The taste is good. The sauce blends over the smell of the crickets so I don't feel like there are crickets in my burger."

Compared to the impact of rearing livestock, cricket farming leaves a far lighter carbon footprint. While the world slowly awakens to the reality of cricket farming and its many perks, Thailand's already pulled ahead by establishing thousands of insect farms supplying bugs fit for human consumption.

The Bricket Co's an R&D company and vertical cricket farm run by Managing Director Thanaphum Muang-ieam.

Thanaphum Muang-ieam: "In our R&D farm, so then we we produce 40 40 kilograms (of crickets) a weeks so that is 160 kilograms yeah a month - It's a R&D scale. And then all of them, we send to our restaurant, Bounce burger, yeah, to be processed in many menus."

This high quality, low carbon source of protein is food for thought as wealthy and developing countries all battle the climate crisis and food insecurity. And with carbon emissions from Thailand's insect industries 10 times lower than in chicken production, bug farming may become agriculture's next cash cow.