More and more companies around the world are starting to manufacture products with insects. In Japan, too, there are now grilling ramen, grilling beer and other treats made from crawling animals. However, many people continue to have concerns about eating the protein alternative. A Japanese student now wants to eliminate this with the help of YouTube.
The 21-year-old Kazuki Shimizu from the agricultural faculty at Kindai University in Nara started the unusual project. His goal is to show how the perception of insects as food changes and he wants to share the change with other people.
Coffee made from crawfish
Shimizu himself first ate grasshoppers cooked in soy sauce in high school during biology class. He was very surprised at how good the insects can taste. Then he tried other insects, such as fried beetle larvae, which are often used as fish food.
Over time he tasted the prepared insects so good that he began to eat regularly in restaurants that had dishes with the animals. In order to share his unusual taste with others, he started in April his YouTube channel with the name KonTube. It’s a play on words from the Japanese word for insect, Konchu, and the name YouTube.
In his videos, Shimizu introduces recipes with cicadas, grasshoppers, bees and other insects that normally nobody would eat. His passion was already paying off. He started a collaboration with a cafe in Osaka and a venture capital company in Tokushima to develop a coffee made from crickets.
Insects will become more important in the future
The insect powder coffee got a lot of positive feedback from other students after it was distributed at an event in December. Some had to force themselves to drink, but were then surprised at how normal the drink actually tasted.
Shimizu understands that it is difficult to change the image of insects as food that many still see as strange. But he wants to continue to participate in activities that help show people how delicious the crawfish are. So he will continue to hold on to his passion.
A rethink among the population could become important in the future, as insects are seen as a possible solution to global food insecurity, which is likely to increase in the future.
Disgust for insect foods is also a problem in Japan
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated in 2013 that insects should be promoted as food because they need less feed than cattle and pigs, but at the same time provide the same amount of protein. The environmental impact is also significantly lower compared to the meat industry.
At the same time, the UN noted in its report that consumers in many Western countries continue to be disgusted with food containing insects. In Japan there is also the problem, which is why suppliers of insect foods tend to offer their goods quietly and clandestinely so as not to scare anyone.
For example, a restaurant in Nara has dishes with insects, but they are not on the menu for fear of losing guests. This means that people can only know about the offer if they’ve heard about it or received an early press release. There is still a long way to go in Japan before roasted locusts are no longer seen as a test of courage.
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