Believe it or not, but not all insect species are considered edible within Asian countries. Much like Americans, there are certain insect species that Chinese citizens find repellent. Not surprisingly, roaches provide the best example of one of these repellent insect types. Perhaps the widespread hatred that people seem to naturally feel toward cockroaches transcends borders and even cultures. It seems that cockroaches are universally dreaded and despised among the world’s human population. Although mankind’s collective disgust of cockroaches may seem all but confirmed at this point in history, there does exist one man who wants to see giant cockroaches adorning dinner plates in the future. A Chinese cockroach farmer, Wang Fuming, runs the premier cockroach cultivation farm in Jinan, China. Although Fuming cultivates cockroaches in order to sell them to pharmaceutical companies, it is Fuming’s dream to one day introduce the world to the joys of cockroach cooking and eating.
Lately, the American media has released many news articles describing China’s current obsession with cockroach farms. China’s citizenry has long regarded cockroaches as being useful as beauty products and medical therapies. The recent boom in the cockroach cultivation industry came as the result of increased demand for cockroaches. This demand is mostly coming from Pharmaceutical companies that are based in China. These companies use cockroaches as ingredients in several different types of medicine. Many Chinese women were told about secret beauty methods involving the application of cockroach guts onto a person’s skin. Different beauty remedies involving cockroaches have been passed down through numerous generations in Chinese society. Now, the cockroach revolution is seeing a plethora of commercial beauty and medicinal products that contain roaches.
Although Fuming is pleased to sell his cockroaches to pharmaceutical companies, he would like to see more people consuming cockroaches in an effort to maintain a healthy diet. Cockroaches are notorious for being filthy, as they forage in waste, but Fuming claims that all pathogens present on a roaches’ body can be destroyed by properly cooking the roaches. Fuming is pushing the cockroach diet due to the medical benefits that could be gained by maintaining a diet rich in roaches, and the insects could also provide China’s large population with adequate servings of protein.
Would you be willing to taste a cooked cockroach?