The anti-meat propaganda war is dialing up

 

We've discussed on several occasions how the World Economic Forum's "Build Back Better" initiative includes discouraging the use of meat, instead encouraging us to eat insects and their byproducts.  It's noteworthy that many W.E.F. advocates (take a bow, Bill Gates) are investing in insect processing plants to produce such food . . . and in farmland, where they can grow something rather tastier for themselves and their "woke" cronies.

As part of that effort, we're seeing anti-meat and pro-insect propaganda articles and programming spreading throughout the news media and social media.  Here's an example from the BBC yesterday.

The air in my family home in Uganda was filled with a distinct aroma, not dissimilar to the smell of beef being grilled. It was December 2000 and my sister, Maggie, was frying grasshoppers. The more she stirred the green, crispy locust-like insects, the stronger and richer the aroma became. As they sizzled and steam rose from the pan, my taste buds tingled – I couldn't wait to eat this delicious snack.

This wasn't my first experience of eating grasshoppers – I used to eat them regularly during my childhood. In Uganda, grasshoppers are a nutritious delicacy and a much sought-after snack.

. . .

Some 22 years later, in June this year, I was feeling nostalgic for this taste of home, so I decided to recreate some of my favourite grasshopper snacks. It gave me the idea for an experiment – could I swap all the meat in my diet for these crunchy critters? I had heard about the sustainability benefits of eating insects and was intrigued to find out how much I could lower my carbon footprint if I introduced grasshoppers as my main source of protein.

. . .

The beauty of grasshoppers is that you can eat them with many types of food in the same way you would eat chicken wings with French fries. Over the four days of my experiment, I ate grasshoppers with cassava, potatoes, rice and cowpeas stew.

A cup of grasshoppers is slightly more expensive than a kilogram (2.2lbs) of beef, which goes for around 13,000USh (£2.86/$3.42). However, with only one cup of grasshoppers, I made three meals.

On the second day, I had grasshoppers and potatoes, which I normally eat with meat or bean stew. On the third and fourth day, I paired the grasshoppers with rice and cowpeas stew.  

I might have reduced the carbon emissions from my diet by a factor of ten by substituting beef for grasshoppers as my main source of protein.

To me, grasshoppers are like popcorn – a snack that I never want to stop eating and don't get bored of. While I personally find beef starts to taste bland if I eat it too often, my appetite for grasshoppers didn't wane, even after eating it four days in a row.

There's more at the link, if you can stomach it (you should pardon the expression).

It's all propaganda, of course.  I know that, because I've been to Uganda (and many other African nations) many times.  I am an African, dammit!  I was born and bred there.  The fact that I'm also Caucasian (in other words - gasp! shock! horror! - white) is irrelevant.  I know what Africans eat in most parts of that continent, and what they like - certainly better than almost all outsiders.

• Sure, Africans eat grasshoppers - mostly because the grasshoppers have eaten their crops, and they've got to eat something or starve to death.  I've eaten grasshoppers myself on occasion.  They were just another food-from-necessity, certainly not food-because-I-love-their-flavor.  (Don't eat the hind legs.  They're barbed.  They bite back.)
• Yes, vegetables and side dishes can be eaten with grasshoppers - just as they can with any other main course.  Try them with meat or fish or chicken, too.  What's your point?
• Every single time I've offered a Ugandan, or Kenyan, or Chadian, or [insert African country name here] a meal with meat or fish or poultry, instead of grasshoppers, they've been all over it like white on rice (you should pardon that expression, too).  In general, they don't eat grasshoppers because it's a preferred food:  they eat them because they can't afford anything better.  As soon as they can afford something better, they'll eat that for preference.  (Try walking in on an average African bush peasant family who are busily eating grasshoppers, and hold up a can of Chef Boyardee.  If you're lucky, you'll survive the frenzied scramble to be the first to snatch it out of your hand.  If you're very lucky, you might even survive without permanent injury, disfigurement or disability.)
• You don't see any commercially processed, canned or frozen grasshoppers on African supermarket shelves, do you?  That might be what detectives call "a clue".  If it was in high demand, businesses would find a way to make money out of it.  They don't, because they can't.  Q.E.D.

All this bushwa enthusiasm over grasshoppers as a meat replacement is so much hogwash.  Every word rings false.  This article is so over-the-top tra-la-la about "lowering my carbon footprint" and "sustainability benefits" that it's laughable.  No normal person, particularly in Africa, bothers to use such expressions in daily conversation.  This is nothing more than heavily emphasized and recycled left-wing progressive talking points.  It's propaganda to the max.  It's "beat readers over the head with political correctness until they're so punch-drunk they're anesthetized to the facts".  It's verbal effluent.

When you read such articles, remember to ask yourself, "Would locals really talk like that?  Would the average African, or South American, or South-East Asian, really blather on about their carbon footprint and meat alternatives and eating insects like they were absolutely fascinated by the subject?"  Of course they wouldn't!  When someone tries to imply that they do, you'll know where they're coming from.

Peter

P.S.:  This morning my wife and I are driving to a town about an hour away, where we'll be placing an order with a meat processor for an entire cow.  We're buying it to divide among four households.  That's about 800 pounds (hanging weight) of freshly slaughtered beef - and if I find a single grasshopper in or near it, I'll demand a replacement cow, plus compensation!