Tag Archives: Bugs on the Menu

05.14.16
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Bug Appetite! Bugs on the Menu Victoria Debut and Where to Eat Them!

Bugs_on_the_Menu_-_The_Vic_Poster_for_Web_2_250f94b0a36d369d5b4497e974f0aed8

The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas Street.
Victoria, BC

May 15, 2016, 7pm

Bugs on the Menu is a very eye-opening documentary about entomophagy, the art of eating insects. While not everyone like the-the idea of snacking on, for example, crickets, other countries around the world are already preparing it in culinary ways. In a grander sense, not every culture has the infrastructure required to raise farm animals like chickens, pigs and cattle (the big three) for feeding a civilization. When compared to the smaller environmental and ecological footprint required to cultivate these smaller creatures, the evidence of which is easier to grow is very clear.

This film began with a discussion of water conservation, and the massive droughts that some parts of the world face. Before I knew it, the discussion about how insects can be made as a new food source was in full force. It also makes a very compelling argument for changing over to a different organism to sustain a growing population, and in what I liked, just where people can go to try these insects is peppered throughout the film. When prepared right, they can add spice to any dish, including rice!

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05.12.16
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You Don’t Have to Be Afraid of “Bugs on the Menu” at The Vic Theatre May 13th!

Bugs_on_the_Menu_-_The_Vic_Poster_for_Web_2_250f94b0a36d369d5b4497e974f0aed8Plays at The Vic Theatre
808 Douglas Street.
Victoria, BC

May 13, 2016, 7pm
May 15, 2016, 7pm

Food samples will be offered before the screening of this film.

Director Ian Toews and Producer Mark Bradley will be present for a Q&A afterwards.

If you give me a home where edible bugs roam, I can easily snack on them all day like popcorn. Not everyone is keen on the concept, but I’m open to the idea of nibbling on mealworms or crickets. Some folks think of it as just a gimmick to add to the gross factor, but when the apocalypse comes and most of the traditional livestock are gone, irradiated, just what else can a person eat? It’s almost as simple as digging in one’s back yard!

Or you better know the difference between edible fungi and the poisonous ones. Eating insects should not be a shocker. I point out one famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Dr. René Belloq had some bug climb into his mouth and it never came out. Not even in editing did Steven Spielberg consider cutting that scene out or using a different take (who knows how many times that moment was filmed). If actor Paul Freeman was ever asked about that one scene, I’m sure he’d say it was delicious!

The documentary Bugs on the Menu looks at a new movement of cultivating sustainability in the food market that’s taking place all around the world. Instead of the traditional meats and “the harm” animal rights advocates are opining about, humanity can find a new way of sustaining itself by growing certain bugs for human consumption. People can’t randomly capture them in the wild for concerns over what kind of toxins may be in them, so they have to be raised. Documentarian Ian Toews travels to South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana to learn about what’s being farmed. From Mopane caterpillars to termites, the thought of trying to eat the latter will have some folks gagging at the thought. No, I doubt Indy would have been able to eat his way out of a red soldier ant brigade, but the fourth (and lamented) film in this series did come to mind.

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