Is this what America has become? Forced to give up steak for bugs?
BOISE, Idaho — Joanna Madden was a curious 11-year-old growing up on a small farm in rural southwestern Oregon when she went to see the newly released action-adventure movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” at the local theater in downtown Medford.
After surviving a jump from a cargo plane in the Himalayas, archeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), nightclub singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), and a young orphan named Short Round (Ke Huy Quan) arrive at the sacred village of Mayapur in northern India. The villagers welcome the strangers and serve them plates of local fare.
“I remember when the camera zooms in on the plate, I was thinking ‘Oh, those are insects,”’ said Madden, 49, a senior development associate at a national consulting firm and a mother of two in Boise, Idaho. “And then the camera pans out to the people waiting for them to enjoy the food. It was the first time that option had occurred to me.”
Although insects are not staples of Western cuisine, it is estimated that at least 2 billion people worldwide — about 25% of the current global population — include insects in their regular diets.