Daniel's GRS Blog

I heard that my friend Dom was raising bugs in his apartment. I turned this story into a short piece of audio journalism. Here is the transcript of an interview I did with Dom for this project.

How did you become interested in Bug Farming?

I was thinking about where the world is going to get its protein source in the future. I know a lot of people just choose to eat vegetables and be vegan or vegetarians. But, for me I just don’t see that as an option. And I came across a few articles explaining the benefits of eating insects. How nutritious they are. They are full of fat and protein and lots of other nutrients. They are very efficient at converting plant matter to protein. Theoretically a lot better than animals are. So, right now they say that it might be a future source of protein for huge populations of people.

Right now, a majority of people have eaten bugs. Actually, everyone on the planet has eaten bugs. Consciously, a majority of the planet actually does eat bugs. For a large portion of the world’s population it is an actual food source for them, an important food source.

Do you think that people’s acceptance of bugs as a food source is changing?

It might be. I think that it is changing, slowly. I think that now westerners are seeing the benefits and realizing that it isn’t so gross. I think that it on its way there, but it still has a long way to go.

Do you think that More people are going to become interested in raising bugs in their home in the future?

I definitely see that as something that people might do to produce food in their home. I mean, it is so easy, and why wouldn’t you? For me it is a no brainer. For most people, probably not. It is hard to say how long it will take and when. It’s hard to say.

Are you ever afraid that they will get out?

Okay. So I basically just have a big rubbermaid container with dried grains as feed and for bedding. I am raising, or rearing, darkling beetles. They don’t like the light. They burrow underneath. There’s no risk of them getting out. If you had something like crickets, that would be another story. They like the jump and move about. But these guys are really quiet, calm, chill. And they are very low maintenance too. Because they need very little moisture. They just eat dried grains. You have to add a little bit of water every once and a while.

How do most people react when you tell them they you are raising bugs in your apartment?

Most people give me a weird look at first. If they’re more open minded that might ask me, “why are you doing that?”. Or say, “That’s interesting”. That’s if they are pretty open minded. Other people who haven’t heard of it or are interested in food issues probably think it’s gross, or that I am kind of weird or crazy. It’s hard to say, because most of the people I hang out with now are from the Faculty of Land and Food systems and are pretty open minded about food.

Do you have any plans for expanding your bug production?

Right now I am in the pre pre preliminary stages. Very experimental pre stage stuff. I don’t have plans for expanding quite yet. I would like to get another bin and produce a bit more. But, I am not trying to feed the world right now. I would like to look more into this and do more research and learn more about it. Right now, I am doing some research for a directed studies. And, I am hoping that it will help me out learning about everything to do with insects as food. In the near future, I won’t be expanding very much. But who knows? Maybe I could start a business. Someday, my bugs could feed Vancouver.

Would you like to be a bug man someday?

I would love to be a bug man someday. I would be honored if people just knew me as the bug man. And people would say, “Hey! there is the bug man.” That would be really cool.

Are there other types of bugs that you can raise in your home?

I think crickets, grasshoppers, those types of things are pretty doable. Other than that, I don’t know. Mealworms, which are the larva of the beetle, are pretty doable. I am just starting off with them because they’re the easiest. I have eaten ants from an anthill. But, I don’t know how doable those would be.

Why are people so against eating bugs?

Now that I’m doing this I ask myself that all the time and I think that it is ridiculous that people are so apprehensive. They just think that it is gross. Why do they think that it is gross? There probably are a number of reasons. I think that people just don’t see bugs anymore. People are just in their homes. They don’t get outside in nature. And, when we see them we have to kill them because they’re going to eat our food or bite us. We are just so detached from nature now. It’s like, why don’t we eat dogs? Why don’t we eat cats? We could get into a long discussion about this.

Would you recommend other apartment dwellers to start bug farms?

Absolutely! I gave a friend a little container with beetles and some feed. I’ve heard that they’re doing quite well. I try to encourage people to do it. If anything wants to get into this, come talk to me. I would be happy to help out in anyway I can.