“Don’t yuck my yum” has become a common refrain from parents teaching their children to respect food that others like that they might not. Turns out we could all learn that lesson. According to Julie Lesnik of the Department of Anthropology at Wayne State University in Michigan, when Europeans first arrived in America they were aghast that indigenous peoples ate insects. But Lesnik says billions of people on the planet today eat insects, and this just shows an “ability to exhibit dietary flexibility in order to make lives for ourselves in a wide range of environments.” Their way of life is actually far more sustainable than ours. “When I give talks and offer insect-based snacks,” she says, “it does not matter to me if people will not try them; however, I ask people to respect them.”
