If you want a truly diverse source of animal protein, I submit the
arthropods and annelids for consideration. Talk about sustainable:
you can raise lots of different species of earthworms in any home (not
to mention some of the six-legged creatures we don't like to admit we
house.) Talk about culturally diverse: imagine what we can learn from
cultures the world over about dining on grubs, grasshoppers, termites,
ants, and larvae. Talk about possibilities for constructing alternative
products and markets: the first beachheads of entomophagy have hit
the US--The Insect Club in Washington, DC, does, I understand, a fine
business; the NY Entomological Society hosts Bug Banquet, written up
in the NY Times and New Yorker; the Montreal Insectarium hosts a
bug munch. In my role as Culture Watcher, I predict a great expansion
of this in the next five decades.
Proponents of dietary diversity regarding animal proteins might enjoy
a subscription to the Food Insects Newsletter, published three times
per year by the UW Madison Dept. of Entomology, 1630 Linden Drive,
Madison, 53706. It has nearly 2,500 subscribers, 1,900 of those in the
US. There's also a cookbook available from a small publisher in Calif.,
"Entertaining with Insects," and they aren't talking about the kind that
drop in on your petroleum-fired barbeques.
I occasionally eat lamb and chicken grown by farmer neighbors in
what I consider to be a manner less hostile to the home planet. I don't
see that makes my diet "more diverse." The only nonmarine
arthropods I've ever eaten knowingly were during my motorcycle-ridin'
youth, as well as what falls in the cookpot while hiking. Would I
knowingly eat a bug? Hmm. Depends. Who's cooking it?
Peace--
Michele
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Michele Gale-Sinex
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
Agricultural Technology and Family Farm Institute
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1450 Linden Drive, Room 146
Madison, WI 53706
Internet: GALE-SINEX@AE.AGECON.WISC.EDU
Voice: (608) 262-8018
FAX: (608) 265-3020
Sec'y: (608) 265-2908 or 262-5200