postapocalypse insect farming
February 12, 2016 10:36 AM Subscribe
After reading about the benefits of using insects as a food supply, I'm wondering why insect farming isn't used in the post apocalyptic fiction I've read (or maybe it is, and I have a bad memory). It seems like insect farming would work really well depending on the scenario! Recommend me some stories.
Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy, a series I describe as "badass female bounty hunters on a Mad Max planet", uses bugs as technology, fuel, and (I think) food. Highly recommended!
Here's the first book, God's War.
posted by homodachi at 10:49 AM on February 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Here's the first book, God's War.
posted by homodachi at 10:49 AM on February 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Seconding homodachi. Pretty much the entire economy of Hurley's worldbuilding relies on bugs for food, medicine, etc.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 12:05 PM on February 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 12:05 PM on February 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Insect farming is a reasonably complex industry. Getting a useful protein yield requires a lot of management and some control over pests, temperature and humidity, etc. Pigs and goats are a lot simpler to get to yield especially with abundant post apocalyptic water and forage. (Chickens are actually on the complicated side; eggs and chicken meat were quite expensive until recent industrial advances in the poultry business.)
posted by MattD at 1:03 PM on February 12, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by MattD at 1:03 PM on February 12, 2016 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: MattD, I didn't realize that. Maybe I should take a foray in to non-fiction about insect farming. Do you have any recommendations? (I can also read wikipedia and do a search, but I wouldn't mind some specific recommendations).
posted by bleary at 7:49 AM on February 16, 2016
posted by bleary at 7:49 AM on February 16, 2016
Response by poster: Thanks Michele, It's interesting even though it's not about insects.
posted by bleary at 10:02 AM on February 17, 2016
posted by bleary at 10:02 AM on February 17, 2016
cricket farming article
Mostly about how this is a hot market segment rather than about how it is done.
posted by Michele in California at 11:50 AM on February 19, 2016
Mostly about how this is a hot market segment rather than about how it is done.
posted by Michele in California at 11:50 AM on February 19, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GuyZero at 10:41 AM on February 12, 2016 [6 favorites]