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Makes me think if you can take maggots and make it look like steak would people eat it knowing what it used to be... it's like that video on YouTube of kids watching a guy blend random chicken parts and asking if they'd eat it, then he turns it into a chicken nugget and asks again, all the kids raise their hands.
It's the Snowpiercer food bar
By tomaytotomato 2026-01-1416:23 That "guy" on Youtube is Jamie Oliver, a world class chef who made a documentary on processed food in American diets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwL5G5HbGA
Some people find him a bit too preachy or wears his heart on his sleeve. However his battles for healthier food in schools is commendable.
By pstuart 2026-01-1416:34 I think "chicken" nuggets are a better form factor. We already know that most of them are made of meat scraps, and if they're tasty and look "normal" then who's to know ;-)
I'm hoping that cultivated meat can make itself a viable commercial product. And then there's Air Protein, which should be acceptable to all: https://www.airprotein.com/
It depends on the person's disgust response.
There was a study in the 90s wherein the authors sterilized a cockroach and dipped it in some juice. Despite knowing the juice was perfectly safe rationally, most people would refuse to drink it. I find myself in that camp.
People also rejected fudge shaped like dog feces or soup stirred with a brand-new flyswatter.
By fortran77 2026-01-1416:42 > People also rejected fudge shaped like dog feces
Have you ever seen the popular Halloween party food "Cat Litter Box Cookies"?
Here's some examples: https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/302/Litterbox_Cookies...
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15195/cat-poop-cookies-ii/
In my experience, people don't mind eating them. We served them at a Humane Society event once.
By darepublic 2026-01-1416:41 maggot nuggies with french cricket fries please
By philipkglass 2026-01-1416:591 reply There are diminishing returns to further optimization of lower-climate-impact meat sources. Look at greenhouse gas emissions per 100 grams of protein in various foods:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ghg-per-protein-poore
Beef is really high at 48.89 kg CO2e, but pork is only 7.6 kg CO2e. Farmed fish is 5.98 and poultry is 5.7. If you can get people to switch from high-climate-impact meat to low-climate-impact meat, you've already reaped most of the possible climate gains from dietary change. To meet a given protein consumption target, you cut 88% of the emissions by getting protein from chicken instead of beef. Trying to get people to eat unfamiliar and potentially "icky" protein sources after they've already switched to chicken can only produce minor gains.
Though most people are reacting to the headline about how humans could eat maggots, the article says that these maggots are actually being fed to chickens, farmed fish, and other animals. That approach reduces waste streams, slightly reduces the already-modest climate impact of farmed fish and poultry, and doesn't have the enormous uphill battle toward regulatory and consumer acceptance that direct human consumption would face.
By seec 2026-01-158:33 And the problem with those comparisons is that they make it look like everything is swappable without any issue.
Places where we raise cows generally do not support other types of agriculture (especially milk cows in the mountains).
You may stop raising cows, but it doesn't mean you will be able to grow nuts or pulses in the same place. That causes big problems for food security and economic networks.
All the arguments around emissions or caloric efficiency are way too simplistic to accurately describe the problem.
By givemeethekeys 2026-01-1416:341 reply People keep trying to push for this. It won't happen. Masses will go vegan before they eat maggots if we run out of meat.
By aziaziazi 2026-01-1418:43 I wouldn’t be so sure about what will happen or not in general, and in that case it’s certainly an option as
- people already do eat maggot without noticing (and pretty sure some *do* notice) - if you don’t know about cheese you wouldn’t believe I’m eating fat’s mold. - our siblings ape, pigs and other animals eat them too, it’s a good nutrient source - someone from the past wouldn’t believe modern humans eat stuff made from petroleum, animals from gigafactories - being *not-vegan* is like a religion for some and I’m wondering if they would think about cannibalism before realizing they get plenty of nutrients from the plants already on the menu.
