VOA慢速英语2015 AS IT IS 2015-05-21 Bugs Are the New Food

AS IT IS 2015-05-21 Bugs¹ Are the New Food

Americans are generally unwilling² to eat bugs. But for at least two billion people worldwide, bugs or insects are a normal part of the diet.

For instance, fried caterpillars³ are popular in Tanzania. In Mexico, many people enjoy chili-toasted grasshoppers⁴. And some Thais like crunchy giant water bugs.

Now, a business in the U.S. state of Oregon is selling finely-ground crickets as human food.

The company's name is Cricket Flours -- that's "flour" as in the white, powdery substance usually used in baking. Charles Wilson is the founder⁵ and CEO. He says he became interested in crickets when he learned he could not eat some common foods, including a protein powder he used to build muscle.

"So I started looking for alternative proteins and alternative food ingredients and I stumbled across cricket flour."

Wilson says he recognized crickets could be more than a replacement⁶ for protein. He sensed a business opportunity. At the time, Wilson was attending the University of Oregon's law school. He mentioned the idea to his friend, Omar Ellis, who was studying at the business school.

Mr. Ellis said the idea of selling cricket protein powder was terrible.

“I just spent my first year in business school basically doing market research. My intuition is that's going to fail horribly."

Yet Charles Wilson convinced his friend to become a co-founder and leader of Cricket Flours.

At a recent conference in Oregon, Mr. Ellis gives people free samples of cricket protein powder.

"Why crickets? They're very sustainable. They take one-tenth the feed and one-sixth the water to get the same amount of protein that you would get from beef. It's got more iron than spinach⁷, more calcium⁸ than milk. It's quite amazing..."

Charles Wilson and Omar Ellis buy large amounts of dried, crushed crickets. Then, the entrepreneurs sell cricket flour, chocolate flavored cricket flour, and baking mixes online.

Mr. Wilson says cricket flour does not have a strong taste. Maybe, he says, it tastes a little like nuts.

Two people who attended the Oregon food conference were willing to try cricket flour on breakfast cereal.

"Well, It's a little bit disconcerting, clearly not going to work for a vegetarian⁹. But ultimately there's a problem finding good protein powders that are not flavored and this isn't."

"In any other form, I would never do this. [laughs]. But definitely it might be something for the future. You never know."

Cricket Flours is one of more than a dozen new U.S businesses in the food insects industry. Other businesses focus on cricket farming or snacks made from cricket powder.

Mr. Ellis says it takes about 10,000 crickets to make a kilogram of cricket flour. In other words, cricket food costs a lot of crickets.

Words in This Story

supplement – n. something that is added to something else in order to make it complete

ingredient – n. one of the things used to make a food or product

alternative – adj. offering or expressing a choice

stumble – v. to find or learn about something unexpectedly

disconcert – v. to make someone upset or embarrassed

1 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

3 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

4 grasshoppers   

n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的

参考例句：

• Grasshoppers die in fall. 蚱蜢在秋天死去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are usually a lot of grasshoppers in the rice fields. 稻田里通常有许多蚱蜢。 来自辞典例句

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

7 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

8 calcium   

n.钙(化学符号Ca)

参考例句：

• We need calcium to make bones.我们需要钙来壮骨。
• Calcium is found most abundantly in milk.奶含钙最丰富。

9 vegetarian   

n.素食者；adj.素食的

参考例句：

• She got used gradually to the vegetarian diet.她逐渐习惯吃素食。
• I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.我不知道你是个素食者。