Will Americans Buy Bug Snacks?

[Bob Of Burleson]

Maybe ... If They're Funny And Cute

NPR.org

Insects can be a great source of protein, and in many parts of the world, people gobble them up.

But here in the U.S., a certain "ick factor" has kept consumers from eating crickets, locusts and mealworms. To combat the ickiness and convert skeptical consumers, bug-food advocates are trying a specific marketing tactic: be clever and cute.

Behind a table at the 2014 Denver County Fair, Wendy Lu McGill, an advocate of eating bugs — a practice known as — preached the benefits of crickets and locusts. Fairgoers, lured in by the trays of bite-sized cookies and protein bar samples, heard about cricket nutrition.

"Crickets have as much calcium as milk," McGill says. "And then, environmentally, they're a lot more sustainable than chickens and particularly cows and pigs."

She's usually met with scrunched-up noses and looks of disgust, at least from the adults. Children tend to be more receptive, McGill says. She's been promoting entomophagy for years, so she's used to it, she says.

McGill's table is full of sleekly designed packages and clever names. There are and protein bars from , a Brooklyn-based food company, both made with crickets.

"I just noticed the X of Exo are antennae, plus 'Exo' as in exoskeleton, so it's all intelligent cutesiness," McGill says.

Intelligent cutesiness is a good way to describe this entire sector. Massachusetts-based is rolling out chips later in 2014 with a cricket base called, get this, Chirps. There have been to rename locusts "sky prawns," to make them more appetizing. The thought is, if you can make people laugh with a pun or cute graphic, it might be enough for them to let their guard down.

"There is obviously a hurdle to get over, in terms of the 'yuck factor,' " Jack Ceadel, founder of the Austin, Texas-based Hopper Foods, says. His company is just one of a handful of bug-infused startups that have popped up in Utah, Massachusetts and California.

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[bodine]

Oh.Hell.No.

[ann jusko]

Absolutely not. You spend a lifetime of making sure the food you buy is bug-free. I'm not going to invite the bugs on to my menu.

[grouchy]

Yes.