[Music]
listen
[Applause]
is that perhaps the sound of the surf
moving the small rocks around on port
wreaths Beach you’re walking along the
beach with your dog you get a stick you
throw it into the surf the dog fetches
the stick
it’s a lovely dare the Cornish Sun is
setting softly over gold rock it’s not
the surf I’m caught on poetry speech or
perhaps that’s the sound of the
television broadcast broadcasting after
the film that you’ve been watching us
finished you’re lying on a comfy couch
the fire is warm
you’ve doors doff oh time to go to bed
that’s not the sound of TV static what
you’re listening to is the sound of
10,000 mealworms they’re writhing and
crawling across one another and that
sound is the sound of scaly skin
scraping across scaly skin imagine
putting your hands into those mealworms
imagine them squirming between your
fingers crawling up your arm bust your L
box your shoulder imagine them on your
neck here if you’ve got a beard you can
imagine them going into the hair of your
beard
imagine them on your face
whoa imagine one crawling into your
mouth imagine feeling one burst between
your teeth if you’re anything like me
you’ll be feeling something right about
now and judging from your reactions you
probably are maybe you’re feeling a
little bit like you want to step back
maybe sink back into your seat a bit
maybe you’re feeling a fluttering in
your stomach maybe a chill on your skin
maybe a constriction in the throat maybe
your mouth wants to gape a little maybe
your tongue wants to protrude if we’re
to look into your brain right now we
might see heightened activity in your
anterior insular your thalamus your
medial prefrontal cortex we know what
this is this is discussed and we are
very very good at allowing insects to
produce that feeling in us there’s
several reasons why we meet with them
you might feel discussed several
theories are being proposed from a
Darwinian evolutionary perspective
disgust is the body’s way of telling us
that we’re in the presence of something
dangerous or something toxic something
infectious something pestilential those
of our ancestors who were repelled by
the ideas of maggot infested carrion or
excrement or rotten flesh those who felt
repulsed by that were less likely to
fall ill less likely to die less likely
to reproduce and we carry the genes of
that aversion in the form of our disgust
insects by association seem to have been
caught up in that evolutionary habit
unfairly in my opinion from a
psychoanalytic perspective you might
think of it slightly differently for a
psychoanalyst maybe disgust it’s just a
flipside of desire a symptom of
repression perhaps a repulsive force
given power by the existence of a
attractive opposite are we secretly a
to insects is this the love that dare
not speak its name
some have suggests did the philosopher
old Alvin Orel : I for example that one
of the things that we find disgusting
about insects is that we don’t see them
as individuals they exist for us as a
teeming conglomerate as plagues and
swarms that threatened to engulf us to
overwhelm us to out breed us it is this
quality of duck what corn I refers to us
there they’re teaming sexual fecundity
excessive sexual for Conda G for coal
nine that we find so threatening
whatever the reason insects are pretty
disgusting really really disgusting but
there’s something funny about insects
too and if you’ve been reading the
papers or watching television any sudden
last three or four years you’ll know
that insects seem to be having a bit of
a time in the Sun right now you’ll have
seen articles pointing out how high in
protein insects they are or higher than
traditional livestock you’re perhaps
have read that they contain more vitamin
b12 and you’d find in fish more iron
that you’d find in spinach also high in
zinc in calcium and potassium and other
nutrients low in fat high in fiber you
might have come across those kind of
ideas you might have also read that some
of the major companies in in the world
today including PepsiCo and Nestle are
investing millions in the idea of
insects as the future of food and if
corporations that size are investing in
it you know it’s not just a passing fad
it’s been estimated that the global
market federal insects will go to over
half a billion by 2023 you might even
have heard that there was a report
published in 2013 by the United Nations
the Food and Agriculture Association of
the United Nations indeed not only
detailing how many insects are already
consumed around the world over two
billion people almost a third of the
world’s population already consumed over
2000 types of edible insects but also in
this report pointing out their benefits
in terms of
their nobility in terms of production in
terms of energy use in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions insects are off
the charts they use less feed to produce
more protein make less greenhouse gas
require less energy and less space so we
seem to be in a bit of a cleft stick
here insects are simultaneously
disgusting and brilliant they could save
the world and to make our stomach turn
over and give us chills in our skin
perhaps make us want to be sick but
we’ve been here before this ugly looking
bottom feeder as you’ll know is a
lobster and a hundred years ago 150
years ago this was completely beyond the
bounds of good taste anyone with any
kind of gustatory experience would
reject this wholesale these will only
fit for prisoners and indentured
servants now a Cornish lobster is about
35 pounds a kilo and features on the
menus of the best restaurants so what
should we do those of us who are
interested in advocating for greater
consumption of edible insects so we just
wait around and hope that as with the
lobster we all just kind of get over
this noise you’re about insects well we
could but manufacturers are also doing
other things manufacturers are also
trying to find ways to introduce edible
insects into the food supply using those
traditional methods of rebranding and
judicious use of euphemism let me
introduce you to this fella this is an
insect called Diplodocus caucus and if
you put it in the palm of your hand and
smush it with your finger it leaves a
crimson smear on your skin like that if
you take that and dry it to a powder you
can use it to color all manner of things
the Aztecs used it to color yarn for
fabrics you could alternatively add it
to a strawberry
Pacino to give it that healthy red look
as a major coffee chain didn’t sell very
recently you could also add it to yogurt
or to fruit juice real label it as
carmine and sell it on the supermarket’s
you could even give it the innocuous
designation e120 and add it to the
sweets that you give your children next
time you’re in the supermarket check
your levels okay you’re already eating a
lot of insect in fact it’s forget
estimated that all of us get about 500
grams of insects that’s a bag about this
big about 500 grams of insects
accidentally or intentionally every year
so we’re already doing it the future
will be more of the same let me show you
a list of ingredients this is what a
list of ingredients might look like in a
supermarket before too long as you can
see two of those ingredients are
highlighted in red fairy
and Grillin nice innocuous sounding
additives Farion is one of the proposed
names for Sanabria Molitor which is
mealworms mealworms dried ground to a
powder marketed as fairing added to
existing food foodstuffs Grillin is the
equivalent for crickets ground crickets
so as I say expect to see that within
five years except of course you don’t
really need to wait five years these
delicious-looking falafel locally
produced here in Cornwall are made with
exactly those ingredients and recently
won an award in the test the West Awards
and the yes they do contain mealworms
and crickets so if have you seen the new
blade or the film having seen any
pleasure and film okay
if you haven’t seen the new blade or the
film there are several scenes in it
which indicate that in the future people
will be eating insects they seem to be
just around the place at train stations
you know like your sushi is now
but we don’t have to wait till 2049 for
insects to become routine we might never
become accustomed to those phases and
teaming for kunda t that strange
overwhelming sexuality they have but
we’ll get used to them somehow through
the use of euphemism so we are living in
quite a unique moment actually in the
history of tests in gustatory history
because our kids now grandkids why 2049
this will all be routine behavior to
them they won’t have that experience
that we have of seeing insects what is
the future of food and there’s something
that’s turns your stomach over as
simultaneously raw revolting and
desirable they want to have any of that
they’ll look back to us and think what
was it like granddad what was it like to
be alive in 2017 when you had this weird
ambivalence about insects I think we
should be able to tell them I think we
ought to describe in detail what it is
like to be confronted with something
that’s strange and alien and unpleasant
and creepy and similar and also
desirable and healthy and maybe even
tasty the only way we’re going to be
able to tell them that story is by
trying them ourselves so I want to
encourage you to embrace that paradox
that cleft stick I talked about between
desire and and then disgust to savor
that the pleasures of that disgust and
to embrace this moment savor the moment
you might say thanks very much
you
you
listen
[Applause]
is that perhaps the sound of the surf
moving the small rocks around on port
wreaths Beach you’re walking along the
beach with your dog you get a stick you
throw it into the surf the dog fetches
the stick
it’s a lovely dare the Cornish Sun is
setting softly over gold rock it’s not
the surf I’m caught on poetry speech or
perhaps that’s the sound of the
television broadcast broadcasting after
the film that you’ve been watching us
finished you’re lying on a comfy couch
the fire is warm
you’ve doors doff oh time to go to bed
that’s not the sound of TV static what
you’re listening to is the sound of
10,000 mealworms they’re writhing and
crawling across one another and that
sound is the sound of scaly skin
scraping across scaly skin imagine
putting your hands into those mealworms
imagine them squirming between your
fingers crawling up your arm bust your L
box your shoulder imagine them on your
neck here if you’ve got a beard you can
imagine them going into the hair of your
beard
imagine them on your face
whoa imagine one crawling into your
mouth imagine feeling one burst between
your teeth if you’re anything like me
you’ll be feeling something right about
now and judging from your reactions you
probably are maybe you’re feeling a
little bit like you want to step back
maybe sink back into your seat a bit
maybe you’re feeling a fluttering in
your stomach maybe a chill on your skin
maybe a constriction in the throat maybe
your mouth wants to gape a little maybe
your tongue wants to protrude if we’re
to look into your brain right now we
might see heightened activity in your
anterior insular your thalamus your
medial prefrontal cortex we know what
this is this is discussed and we are
very very good at allowing insects to
produce that feeling in us there’s
several reasons why we meet with them
you might feel discussed several
theories are being proposed from a
Darwinian evolutionary perspective
disgust is the body’s way of telling us
that we’re in the presence of something
dangerous or something toxic something
infectious something pestilential those
of our ancestors who were repelled by
the ideas of maggot infested carrion or
excrement or rotten flesh those who felt
repulsed by that were less likely to
fall ill less likely to die less likely
to reproduce and we carry the genes of
that aversion in the form of our disgust
insects by association seem to have been
caught up in that evolutionary habit
unfairly in my opinion from a
psychoanalytic perspective you might
think of it slightly differently for a
psychoanalyst maybe disgust it’s just a
flipside of desire a symptom of
repression perhaps a repulsive force
given power by the existence of a
attractive opposite are we secretly a
to insects is this the love that dare
not speak its name
some have suggests did the philosopher
old Alvin Orel : I for example that one
of the things that we find disgusting
about insects is that we don’t see them
as individuals they exist for us as a
teeming conglomerate as plagues and
swarms that threatened to engulf us to
overwhelm us to out breed us it is this
quality of duck what corn I refers to us
there they’re teaming sexual fecundity
excessive sexual for Conda G for coal
nine that we find so threatening
whatever the reason insects are pretty
disgusting really really disgusting but
there’s something funny about insects
too and if you’ve been reading the
papers or watching television any sudden
last three or four years you’ll know
that insects seem to be having a bit of
a time in the Sun right now you’ll have
seen articles pointing out how high in
protein insects they are or higher than
traditional livestock you’re perhaps
have read that they contain more vitamin
b12 and you’d find in fish more iron
that you’d find in spinach also high in
zinc in calcium and potassium and other
nutrients low in fat high in fiber you
might have come across those kind of
ideas you might have also read that some
of the major companies in in the world
today including PepsiCo and Nestle are
investing millions in the idea of
insects as the future of food and if
corporations that size are investing in
it you know it’s not just a passing fad
it’s been estimated that the global
market federal insects will go to over
half a billion by 2023 you might even
have heard that there was a report
published in 2013 by the United Nations
the Food and Agriculture Association of
the United Nations indeed not only
detailing how many insects are already
consumed around the world over two
billion people almost a third of the
world’s population already consumed over
2000 types of edible insects but also in
this report pointing out their benefits
in terms of
their nobility in terms of production in
terms of energy use in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions insects are off
the charts they use less feed to produce
more protein make less greenhouse gas
require less energy and less space so we
seem to be in a bit of a cleft stick
here insects are simultaneously
disgusting and brilliant they could save
the world and to make our stomach turn
over and give us chills in our skin
perhaps make us want to be sick but
we’ve been here before this ugly looking
bottom feeder as you’ll know is a
lobster and a hundred years ago 150
years ago this was completely beyond the
bounds of good taste anyone with any
kind of gustatory experience would
reject this wholesale these will only
fit for prisoners and indentured
servants now a Cornish lobster is about
35 pounds a kilo and features on the
menus of the best restaurants so what
should we do those of us who are
interested in advocating for greater
consumption of edible insects so we just
wait around and hope that as with the
lobster we all just kind of get over
this noise you’re about insects well we
could but manufacturers are also doing
other things manufacturers are also
trying to find ways to introduce edible
insects into the food supply using those
traditional methods of rebranding and
judicious use of euphemism let me
introduce you to this fella this is an
insect called Diplodocus caucus and if
you put it in the palm of your hand and
smush it with your finger it leaves a
crimson smear on your skin like that if
you take that and dry it to a powder you
can use it to color all manner of things
the Aztecs used it to color yarn for
fabrics you could alternatively add it
to a strawberry
Pacino to give it that healthy red look
as a major coffee chain didn’t sell very
recently you could also add it to yogurt
or to fruit juice real label it as
carmine and sell it on the supermarket’s
you could even give it the innocuous
designation e120 and add it to the
sweets that you give your children next
time you’re in the supermarket check
your levels okay you’re already eating a
lot of insect in fact it’s forget
estimated that all of us get about 500
grams of insects that’s a bag about this
big about 500 grams of insects
accidentally or intentionally every year
so we’re already doing it the future
will be more of the same let me show you
a list of ingredients this is what a
list of ingredients might look like in a
supermarket before too long as you can
see two of those ingredients are
highlighted in red fairy
and Grillin nice innocuous sounding
additives Farion is one of the proposed
names for Sanabria Molitor which is
mealworms mealworms dried ground to a
powder marketed as fairing added to
existing food foodstuffs Grillin is the
equivalent for crickets ground crickets
so as I say expect to see that within
five years except of course you don’t
really need to wait five years these
delicious-looking falafel locally
produced here in Cornwall are made with
exactly those ingredients and recently
won an award in the test the West Awards
and the yes they do contain mealworms
and crickets so if have you seen the new
blade or the film having seen any
pleasure and film okay
if you haven’t seen the new blade or the
film there are several scenes in it
which indicate that in the future people
will be eating insects they seem to be
just around the place at train stations
you know like your sushi is now
but we don’t have to wait till 2049 for
insects to become routine we might never
become accustomed to those phases and
teaming for kunda t that strange
overwhelming sexuality they have but
we’ll get used to them somehow through
the use of euphemism so we are living in
quite a unique moment actually in the
history of tests in gustatory history
because our kids now grandkids why 2049
this will all be routine behavior to
them they won’t have that experience
that we have of seeing insects what is
the future of food and there’s something
that’s turns your stomach over as
simultaneously raw revolting and
desirable they want to have any of that
they’ll look back to us and think what
was it like granddad what was it like to
be alive in 2017 when you had this weird
ambivalence about insects I think we
should be able to tell them I think we
ought to describe in detail what it is
like to be confronted with something
that’s strange and alien and unpleasant
and creepy and similar and also
desirable and healthy and maybe even
tasty the only way we’re going to be
able to tell them that story is by
trying them ourselves so I want to
encourage you to embrace that paradox
that cleft stick I talked about between
desire and and then disgust to savor
that the pleasures of that disgust and
to embrace this moment savor the moment
you might say thanks very much
you
you
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