Disgust and the Human Ecology of Insect Consumption: Examining the Barriers to Anthropo-Entomophagy
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Anthropology Senior Theses Department of Anthropology Spring 2014 Disgust and the Human Ecology of Insect Consumption: Examining the Barriers to Anthropo-Entomophagy Christen Jun-Li Chan Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Chan, Christen Jun-Li, "Disgust and the Human Ecology of Insect Consumption: Examining the Barriers to Anthropo-Entomophagy" (2014). Anthropology Senior Theses. Paper 158. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses/158 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Disgust and the Human Ecology of Insect Consumption: Examining the Barriers to Anthropo-Entomophagy Abstract With growing threats to food security worldwide, academic and popular literature has increasingly highlighted the prospect of using insects, given the attractive nutritional profile and productive efficiency of many species, as a protein source for humans. This project adopts anthropological and psychological perspectives to understand both the acceptance of and reluctance to using insects as food, as they continue to be traditional foodstuffs in many cultures. To do so, the project overviews in-depth case studies of traditional insect consumption in Mexico, Japan, and New Guinea. To complement this ethnographic inquiry, survey responses from adults in the United States and India are analyzed to help identify predictors of willingness to consume insects. Integrating these secondary and primary research insights underscore the prominence of disgust as a mediating factor in the acceptability of insect foods. Implications for policymakers and future researchers to transform attitudes and verify sustainability are discussed, given this prevalent cultural and psychological barrier. Disciplines Anthropology This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_seniortheses/158 DISGUST AND THE HUMAN ECOLOGY OF INSECT CONSUMPTION: EXAMINING THE BARRIERS TO ANTHROPO-ENTOMOPHAGY By Christen Jun-Li Chan In Anthropology Submitted to the Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Thesis Advisors: Dr. Katherine Mattison Moore and Dr. Paul Rozin 2014 ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my advisors, Dr. Katherine Mattison Moore and Dr. Paul Rozin, for their unending support, feedback, and insight throughout this entire thesis project. I could not have done it without either of you and am so thankful for everything along the way. Dr. Moore, your knowledge and passion for the anthropology of food has inspired me since my spring semester freshmen year, and I am so grateful to have had your mentorship in my final year of college. It was such a privilege to learn from you, and I appreciate all of your time, thoughtfulness, and patience. Dr. Rozin, your food seminar is the reason this project exists and I cannot thank you enough. It was such an honor to have learned from you as well, and I admire your love of research and discovery very deeply. You are a truly inspiring mentor. Thank you for everything, including the support to deploy our survey instrument and collect the Mturk data. To Dr. Matthew Ruby for his additional perspectives and the countless things I have learned from him. I appreciate all of your help in scrutinizing the survey design and analyses and in showing me how to compute the appropriate statistics on SPSS. It was a pleasure to have met you and to have had your insights throughout this research process. Many, many thanks. To the Institutional Review Board for approving use of data originally collected for classroom purposes and its speedy approval of the primary research aspects of this project. To all my PSYC 070 classmates for making the seminar such a formative part of my college experience. A special thanks to Lois Lee who was directly involved in the survey-side of the class research project and helped to develop the first version of the survey coding last spring. To my friends and family for supporting me throughout this entire process. Special thanks to Cathy Wang, Junia Zhang, Mia Garuccio, Eddy Bueser, the entire MUSE crew, and my mom, dad, and sister for their encouragement and patience. Much love and happy reading! ! i! ABSTRACT With growing threats to food security worldwide, academic and popular literature has increasingly highlighted the prospect of using insects, given the attractive nutritional profile and productive efficiency of many species, as a protein source for humans. This project adopts anthropological and psychological perspectives to understand both the acceptance of and reluctance to using insects as food, as they continue to be traditional foodstuffs in many cultures. To do so, the project overviews in-depth case studies of traditional insect consumption in Mexico, Japan, and New Guinea. To complement this ethnographic inquiry, survey responses from adults in the United States and India are analyzed to help identify predictors of willingness to consume insects. Integrating these secondary and primary research insights underscore the prominence of disgust as a mediating factor in the acceptability of insect foods. Implications for policymakers and future researchers to transform attitudes and verify sustainability are discussed, given this prevalent cultural and psychological barrier. ! ! ! ii! TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Background 6 In-Depth Case Studies Mexico – Aquatic Abundance 16 Japan – Nostalgic Nibbles 24 New Guinea – Grubs Galore 32 Case Study Analysis 38 Survey Design and Implementation Survey Design and Method 47 Description of Survey Sample 51 Survey Results and Analysis 59 Discussion 97 Conclusion 126 Appendix Section A – Overview of Typical Diets in the US and India 132 Section B – Survey Questions 137 Section C – Additional Analyses for Sample Description 160 Section D – Supporting Analyses for Survey Results 164 References Cited 195 ! ! iii! INTRODUCTION A World Fraught with Risks In 2012, Earth became home to seven billion humans, almost triple the 2.5 billion figure from 1950 and approximately double the 3.7 billion figure from 1970 (Alexandratos and Bruinsma 2012:1). With the United Nations projecting a world population between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050, international leaders face an alarming reality that this rapid growth will require current food production to increase twofold (Van Huis et al. 2013:ix; United Nations 2013:xviii). However, under current agricultural circumstances and dietary patterns, there are scarce and ever-dwindling resources to meet such requirements (Yen 2009). Given concerns for existing nutritional challenges, as 14 percent of humans worldwide already face chronic hunger, addressing food insecurity is a critical issue, more salient than ever, for international leaders (Van Huis et al. 2013:ix). Indeed, from a Malthusian, maximal-load perspective, scientists and policymakers alike acknowledge that, given the inequities arising from existing economic, cultural, and political realities, the planet’s carrying capacity may soon be exceeded as available food, habitat, water, and other necessities are abused, depleted, and mismanaged (Hui 2006; Looy et al. 2013). Without significant innovation in food production systems, these trends threaten to exacerbate current food inequalities while further jeopardizing our planet’s environmental wellbeing. For instance, global demand for agricultural products is expected to increase at 1.1 percent per year until 2050 (Alexandratos and Bruinsma 2012:3). Worryingly, agrarian activities can be very destructive to the environment, contributing to deforestation and land degradation. Combined with changing climates, growing urbanization, and water shortages, heightened demand for agricultural products can have a devastating ecological impact (Yen 2009). However, 1 it is of particular concern that developing countries are increasingly adopting larger amounts of animal protein into their diets as their economies prosper (Steinfeld et al. 2006:16). Livestock production occupies 70 percent of agricultural land (amounting to 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface), either for direct grazing or for growing feed (Steinfeld et al. 2006:xxi). Raising livestock is notoriously harmful to the environment, contributing to 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (and disproportionately so to particularly problematic compounds like nitrous oxide and methane) (Steinfeld et al. 2006:xxi). Indeed, Van Huis (2013) notes that agriculture produces almost all of the world’s “anthropogenic atmospheric ammonia emissions, [which are] responsible for eutrophication of surface water and acidification of soils,” with livestock production contributing to two-thirds of these harmful emissions (565). Finally, livestock production entails a relatively inefficient transformation of plant food to animal food, collectively requiring 77 million tons of plant biomass to produce 58 million tons of animal biomass for human consumption (Steinfeld et al. 2006:270). Steinfeld et al. (2006) note that, “in terms of dietary energy, the relative loss is much higher” (270). The Promise of Insects Given the overall unsustainability of conventional animal-based foods for both existing and future populations, alternatives must be evaluated to avoid even greater hunger and ecological predicaments. In this vein, insects are ideal candidates for augmenting and replacing conventional protein sustenance to more sustainably