With modern cutlery we have added a new pair of fingers to the dinner table. We use our augmented hands to prepare, serve and especially eat our food. Needless to say that eating utilities are adjusted to our habits. Due to the predicted food crisis of 2050, we might want to change these habits. Therefore, designer Wataru Kobayashi created BUGBUG, a picnic cutlery set to promote the consumption of insects (entomophagy) .


Bugs are not a very usual ingredient; at least not in the Western cuisine. However, insects are a common food in Latin America, Africa and Asia, they are a vital source of protein and minerals. “Most of the meat that we eat is fairly similar [to insects] in terms of nutritional composition” says Charlotte Payne, research associate at the University of Oxford. According to the FAO, at least two billion people worldwide eat insects.


Designer Wataru Kobayashi created a picnic cutlery set to promote eating insects.


BUGBUG is for the families of the future that are concerned about their daily food intake. According to Kobayashi “The main difficulty in promoting entomophagy is the distance towards insects as foods. Eating insects once wouldn’t achieve people habitually changing their rituals in daily life; most people need more time for entomophagy to become acceptable”.


While some foods sell themselves, others need a little help. Adding futuristic cutlery to the gastronomic experience is only one way to do it. Keeping in mind that insects only take eight to ten percent of the resources needed in comparison to the production of meat, the implementation of bugs to our diet might not be as odd as it sounds.


Source: Inhabitat. Images: Wataru Kobayashi

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