The Fly in your Soup Is the Point

Ensuring fair competition in the messaging for alternate diets.

As our supreme overlords in the World Economic Forum want us eating insects, I’m curious as to when Klaus Schwab will release his personal cookbook for bug burgers. Does an aged Tempranillo pair best with beetle bourguignon?

Everywhere mainstream media is pushing the notion that Westerners should start eating insects and/or lab-grown “meat.” Predictably there is lots of indignation to such suggestions, based mainly on the sources making them. When an organization like the World Economic Forum – the express purpose of which is to co-opt governments worldwide – says that Westerners will eat bugs and like it, any reasonable person should know that this is less a suggestion and more a command veiling a threat. And New York City Mayor Eric Adams' personal story about reversing a diagnosis of diabetes by adopting a vegan diet would normally be inspirational… except that he tells it only as justification for autocratically precluding New Yorkers’ culinary options in the name of unabashed paternalism. More’s the pity since this love-it-or-else approach will predispose many people outright to reject any dietary change, which 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 healthier for certain people, and possibly more economical.

First things first, there are many cultures around the world which customarily eat insects. From Africa to Asia to cricket-crackers in Mexico, certain insects reliably provide a source of sustenance for some cultures. As anyone who has travelled a bit will say when encountering unfamiliar cuisine, you should always try it graciously since such cuisine has been the key to a culture’s survival. There is nothing bad 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦 about eating certain insects properly prepared, so it’s best not to spurn the practice based on ethnocentric preferences.

The more worrisome implication behind the pressure towards the new diet is what it will mean for life as we know it. It’s a no-brainer that vertically stacked bug-farms and modular laboratories synthesizing BeyondMeat® will occupy far less space than sprawling cattle ranches, and proportionately they’ll need less water. Is the idea then to sow millions of acres’ worth of present grazing pastures with soy? Combined with the WEF’s drive to herd all humanity into dense “carbon-neutral” cities – and WEF contributor Bill Gates’ documented purchases of large tracts of farmland currently amounting to 270,000 acres or 1/3 the size of Rhode Island – one has to wonder what the WEF has in mind. Though it says that these changes are all about “sustainably” feeding humanity, it sounds a lot like a set-up for the Hunger Games.

Libertarian argumentation in opposition to calls for a vegan or insectivorous diet needs to be more nuanced than were we legacy statists. We seek no protectionism for favored agricultural industries. We favor people having more options, not fewer, so alternative food sources are fine insofar as they are allowed to compete freely with traditional sources.

Taste is subjective, so maybe you’ll fall in love with an Impossible™Burger at first bite. Maybe you’ll derive droll pleasure in nibbling carob-coated termites which otherwise could be nibbling your porch. No matter what, we remain vigilant against government unduly coercing the industries which produce traditional foodstuffs.

Originally published August 14th, 2023, on Facebook.