My personal opinion about entomophagy

Food containing “cricket powder” was offered as a school lunch at a high school in Japan.

It wasn’t mandatory, so only the students who were interested in it ate it.

However, now, this topic has become controversial in Japan.

The high school and an entomophagy startup have been criticized for various reasons.

In particular, many critics, including specialists and celebrities, say that the school forced students to eat the disgusting food under the pretense of education, and it was really cruel.

I think that such critics are wrong.

I’d like to state my opinion about that.

To tell the truth, I have eaten an insect before.

When I was in elementary school, our class was taken to a rice field by our teacher.

Our teacher said, “Catch grasshoppers! These grasshoppers are your lunch!”

I was very surprised, and said, “I don’t want to eat an insect”.

In the next instant, my teacher hit my face.

My teacher said, “What will become of us if a war breaks out in Japan? We will struggle with a shortage of food.

So we have to eat everything in order to survive, even if it is an insect”.

I chased the grasshoppers while crying.

Our teacher boiled the grasshoppers that we caught in soy sauce and sugar.

Those grasshoppers tasted nicer than I had expected.

But I don’t want to eat them again.

I think that eating an insect was a good opportunity for me.

I learned that I must eat anything I can eat when I need to.

Nobody knows what will happen in our lives.

So, school education should be diverse.

Today’s school education is overprotective.

I think that the school lunch containing “cricket powder” was proper in terms of school education.