Crickets are not typically associated with food.  Crickets smell like dirt and they look like something that you just picked off the heel of your shoe, and not many people know that that heel dirt is one of the most nutritious foods we could eat.

Crickets are loaded with protein and have enough nutrients to fuel a horse. Not to mention that crickets use way less land, water and other resources than your average cow. According to the Huffington Post, just two pounds of beef needs about 4,068 gallons of water while 10,000 crickets only need ten gallons of water. This means we can take even longer showers without getting parent rants.

Crickets actually taste great, too, which is unexpected given its unappealing complection. This conclusion isn’t of my own, however, as this week I gave unsuspecting students two flavors of brownies, one cricket and one regular. Eleven out of 20 chose the cricket. Then of course I had to tell them that there were crickets in them, which didn’t go over so well. I did not ask which they prefered after I told them.  

The crickets weren’t hard to get either. All it took was a little digging on Amazon, and then, poof, 100% pure cricket powder for 11.99 on prime. The next thing you know I was making brownies. My kitchen still smells like the inside of a shoe, and don’t even get me started on the garbage disposal.   

Farming crickets is more humane than farming other livestock like cows and pigs. We’ve all seen the PETA commercials that show the poor old chickens being crammed in cages stacked in warehouses and most of us turn a blind eye. I know I can not give up my Chick-fil-A sandwich. Crickets however, are small and tend to cluster together, so you can have a guilt free protein source that requires zero PETA protests.  

Of course there’s one main reason no one eats crickets, they’re nasty. And while that may be true, there are plenty of other nasty things that we eat every day.  Lil Xan was just hospitalized for eating too many Hot Cheetos. Nobody has been hospitalized for eating too many crickets. Five years ago  nobody would have expected edible charcoal to make it in their ice cream, lattes, and teas. But here we are. These seem like absurd suggestions, just as crickets are today. So next time someone offers you crickets, don’t be so quick to turn it down, throw it in some brownies and eat it with pride.