Abstract
An innovative food sector is emerging in North America and Europe: edible insects. Eating insects is not new; farming insects for human consumption is novel. This article provides an overview of entomophagy to contextualise this upsurge in ‘minilivestock’ farming. It also charts the rise of ‘feeder’ insect farms, because their ability to mass rear invertebrates – for exotic pets, reptiles and other insectivores – is of much interest to those starting and intensifying edible insect farms. A descriptive characterisation of frontier farmers will be provided by preliminary profile findings from 17 semi-structured pilot interviews with people with varying experience of rearing feeder and/or food insects. Since conventional livestock workers were the ‘forgotten pillar’ in agricultural research, this article affords timely insights into the socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle interests and farming experiences of ‘entopreneurs’ shaping this new ‘insect industry’.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 520-537 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of Sociology |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 12 Dec 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2018 |
Bibliographical note
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Keywords
- edible insects
- entomophagy
- ‘minilivestock’
- cricket farming
- ‘entopreneurs’