昆蟲食品引發下一波飲食潮流大綱

As a water planner in Utah, Pat Crowley had grown frustrated that his message of conservation was being largely ignored by an agriculture industry intent on siphoning off the Colorado River to keep crops in California and other Western states succulent.

帕特·克勞利原本是美國猶他州的一名水資源規劃師，他一直熱衷於傳播水資源保護理念。但農業界一心只想着如何從科羅拉多河抽取河水來滋養加利福尼亞州和西部其他州的農作物，對於他的理論基本上置若罔聞，這讓克勞利非常沮喪。

Then a few years ago, the 34-year-old whitewater rafting enthusiast was listening to a TED talk on edible insects, which touted the critters as a surprising potent source of protein. The more he heard about the potential water savings from swapping insects for traditional protein like soy and grains, the more he realized it might be time to change professions.

幾年前，這位34歲的漂流愛好者有機會聆聽了一場TED演講，主題是可食用昆蟲。演講者把這些小動物譽爲驚人的蛋白質來源。而且，放棄諸如大豆和穀物這類傳統的蛋白質來源，轉而利用小昆蟲，顯然具有節約用水的巨大潛力。他越聽越覺得，可能是時候改變職業了。

After toying with farming insects in 2011 for animal feed, Crowley, his wife Erica Koltenuk, co-founder Dan O’Neill and several friends set up shop in a local restaurant in Salt Lake City and began experimenting with making flour from crickets. Yes, crickets– through a process whereby the bugs are roasted, ground into a powder, and added to a mixture that also includes organic dates, nuts and spices.

2011年，在抱着玩玩的心態飼養了一些用於動物飼料的昆蟲之後，克勞利和妻子埃裏卡o科爾特努克、聯合創始人丹o奧尼爾以及幾個朋友在鹽湖城開設了一家餐廳，開始嘗試着以蟋蟀爲原料製作麪粉。是的，以蟋蟀爲原料。具體流程是，先焙燒這些小蟲子，研磨成粉，然後將它們添加到一種還包括有機棗，堅果和香料的混合物之中。

A year later, they unveiled Chapul cricket bars, the first-ever energy bar made from cricket flour. The bars, each containing the equivalent of 25 crickets and claiming to contain twice the protein of their competitors, are now in over 200 health food, bike and extreme sports stores nationwide—the latest being Colorado-based Natural Grocers, a chain of 100 stores in the Midwest and West.

一年後，他們推出第一款使用蟋蟀粉製作的能量棒——Chapul蟋蟀棒。每個能量棒包含大約25只蟋蟀，其蛋白質含量據說是競爭對手的兩倍。現在，這款能量棒已經進入200多家位於全美各地的保健食品、單車和極限運動商店。最新一家合作伙伴是總部位於科羅拉多州，在中西部和西部地區擁有100家門店的Natural Grocers連鎖零售公司。

“I decided to create a consumer product that would make it a very easy first step for people to try insects in a way that wasn’t a novelty but incorporate it into a staple food – make it more of a nutritional product,” says Crowley, who has long blond hair and bears a passing resemblance to the late Kurt Cobain. “This was definitely a mission-driven endeavor. It turns out the market has been responsive to it.”

克勞利說，“我決定創建一種消費產品，讓人們很容易邁出品嚐昆蟲的第一步，因爲這種食品把昆蟲融入一種主食，這樣它就更像是一種營養產品，這種吃法不算特別新奇。”留着一頭金色長髮的克勞利看上去頗像已故歌星科特o柯本。“這是一次完全受使命感推動的嘗試。事實證明，市場對我們的努力做出了響應。”

The bar got a huge boost when Crowley, dressed in a Chapul T-shirt and carrying a container of crickets, was selected to appear in March on the entrepreneur show Shark Tank, the hit business competition show on ABC in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. After initial reactions of “you gotta be kidding” and “there is no way I’m eating that,” the panel warmed to the product—and panelist and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban agreed to invest $50,000 for a 15 percent stake in the business (“Let’s eat some crickets,” he told Crowley).

3月份，當克勞利身穿Chapul T恤，攜帶一個裝滿蟋蟀的容器出現在ABC電視臺收視率極高的創業節目《鯊魚坦克》(SharkTank) 時，這種能量棒的知名度瞬間暴漲。參與這檔商業競爭節目的創業者往往需要使出渾身解數，向一組評委推銷他們的創業點子。乍一聽克勞利介紹完，評委們紛紛表示，“你肯定是在開玩笑，”“我絕對不會吃這玩意，”但他們隨後對這款產品產生了濃厚興趣。擔任評委的達拉斯小牛隊 (Dallas Mavericks)老闆馬克o庫班當場拍板，承諾將投資5萬美元購買這家公司15%的股權（“讓我們吃一些蟋蟀吧，”他告訴克勞利）。

“It’s a solution to a problem,” Cuban said via Twitter. “We need better sources of protein and over time I think consumer habits will change.”

“這是一個解決問題的方法，”庫班通過Twitter表示。“我們需要更好的蛋白質來源，假以時日，我認爲消費習慣會發生變化。”

In fact, Chapul is just one of a dozen or more new companies attempting to change the way Americans look at bugs. Brooklyn-based Exo is making protein bars, Boston-based-Six Foods is planning to sell tortilla chips made from cricket flour, and All Things Bugs, a Gainesville, FL-based firm founded by an entomologist, is looking to sell its own cricket flour to this burgeoning market. EnviroFlight in Ohio and AgriProtein in South Africa, meanwhile, are among at least four companies globally producing insects for the pet food, aquaculture or animal feed markets.

事實上，除了Chapul之外，還有十幾家新公司正在嘗試着改變人們看待小昆蟲的方式。布魯克林的EXO公司正在製作蛋白質能量棒。波士頓Six Foods公司打算銷售用蟋蟀粉製作的墨西哥炸玉米片。總部位於佛羅里達州蓋恩斯維爾，由一位昆蟲學家創建的All Things Bugs公司也計劃向這個新興市場銷售自己的蟋蟀粉。與此同時，至少有四家公司正在全球各地針對寵物食品，水產養殖或動物飼料市場生產昆蟲，比如俄亥俄州的EnviroFlight公司和南非的AgriProtein公司。

The big opportunity they see: the consumption of insects as protein is much less taxing on the environment—growing, harvesting and processing them takes far less resources than chickens, cows and pigs, one percent of the greenhouse gasses of cattle and 100 times less water—so they tap into the current sustainability craze. They’re rich in protein and other key nutrients like omega-3 acids. And the products can be made at a low cost—until now, with very little competition.

他們看到了一個大機遇：消費昆蟲蛋白質對環境的損害要遠低於傳統蛋白質來源——與雞、牛和豬相比，飼養、收穫和加工昆蟲耗費的資源要少得多。因此，這類食品特別容易撥動熱衷於可持續發展理念的當代人的心絃。昆蟲含有豐富的蛋白質和諸如ω-3脂肪酸這類關鍵的營養素。這類產品的製作成本相對較低，而且直到目前，競爭對手寥寥無幾。

But convincing Americans to eat anything containing creepy crawlers is not an easy sell. Unlike the developing world, where the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that two billion people depend daily on as many as 1,900 insect species for food, Americans and much of the West have long considered spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, flies and bees to be a nuisance that must be swatted away or stamped out.

但要說服美國人吃任何一種以令人毛骨悚然的爬蟲爲原料的食物，可不是一件容易做到的事情。不同於很多發展中國家——聯合國糧農組織(Food and Agriculture Organization)估計，有20億發展中國家人口每天依靠多達1,900種昆蟲爲食——美國人和其他西方國家一向認爲蜘蛛、蝗蟲、蟋蟀、蒼蠅和蜜蜂皆是令人不勝其擾的小動物，必須趕緊驅離，或者乾脆當場殲滅。

But Crowley and other edible insect aficionados are counting on younger, environmentally-conscious Millennials to move the sector beyond gag gifts like lollipops with scorpions or one-off bug buffets to become a staple in health food stores, snack stands and the larger food chain. The key, they say, is playing up the health benefits of eating products with insects while emphasizing bugs’ small environmental footprint.

但克勞利和其他可食用昆蟲愛好者正在把推動這個行業的希望寄託在更年輕，更具環保意識的千禧一代身上，希望他們不只是把昆蟲食品當作類似蠍子棒棒糖這種惡作劇禮物，或者一次性自助餐，還會推動這類食品成爲健康食品商店、小吃店和大食品連鎖店銷售的一種主食。他們聲稱，關鍵是要大力宣揚吃昆蟲產品對健康的好處，同時要強調昆蟲食品的環境足跡要遠小於傳統蛋白質來源這一事實。

“We are trying to set up future generations with a more sustainable food system, one that is more resource efficient and one that is more adaptable to a more changing climate,” Crowley says.

“我們正在努力爲子孫後代建立一個更具可持續性，更節約資源，更適應氣候變化的食物系統，”克勞利說。

Rose Wang, co-founder of Six Foods, which in May raised $70,000 on Kickstarter to make its Chirps cricket chips and hopes to have the product in stores by fall, agrees. “It’s all about the vision of what eating insects can be,” Wang said in an e-mail interview, pointing out that the bugs are high in protein, low in fat, and can be raised humanely in small spaces, without antibiotics or growth hormones. “There is no question that insects are the most humane way to eat meat,” she says, “And as people become more cognizant of where their food comes from and how it is produced, they are becoming more open to new sustainable foods like insects.”

露絲o王認同這種看法。五月份，這位Six Foods公司聯合創始人在衆籌平臺Kickstarter上籌集了7萬美元，開始製作Chirps蟋蟀條，她希望這款產品能夠在今年秋天進入食品店。在接受電郵採訪時，王女士表示，“這就是吃昆蟲能夠帶給我們的美好願景。”她指出，昆蟲不僅具有高蛋白，低脂肪等特質，而且可以在小空間內人性化飼養，無需使用抗生素或生長激素。“毫無疑問，昆蟲是最人性化的吃肉方式，”她說。“隨着人們對於食物的來源和生產方式有了更深入的瞭解，他們越來越願意接受像昆蟲這種全新的可持續性食物。”

Glen Courtright, CEO and founder of EnviroFlight, is going even further with the environmental approach. His company takes some of the estimated 36 million tons of food waste that ends up in landfills each year and feeds it to the larvae of black soldier flies. A protein meal and oil derived from the dehydrated fly larvae are then packaged and shipped to the pet trade–as well as fish and pig farmers who are clamoring for a protein substitute for fishmeal, which comes from already overfished oceans.

在環保之路上，EnviroFlight公司創始人兼CEO格倫o考特賴特走得更遠。他的公司每年利用估計3,600 萬噸運送至垃圾填滿場的食品垃圾，來餵養被他稱爲黑士兵的蒼蠅幼蟲。然後，衍生自脫水蠅蛆的蛋白粉和油被打包運送到寵物市場，以及養魚戶和養豬戶。這些農民一直吵着要求獲得一種能夠替代魚粉的蛋白物質——海洋已經被過度捕撈，難以爲繼。

EnviroFlight is also partnering with the feed industry around the world to provide its technology and know-how on raising insects for animal feed. Courtright expects to see growth of 50 percent this year, adding that he is struggling to keep up with demand.

此外，EnviroFlight正在與世界各地的飼料行業合作，爲後者提供養育昆蟲飼料的技術和專業知識支持。考特賴特預計今年的業務量將增長50%，他正在努力跟上不斷增長的需求。

“Big business understands there has to be a fish meal replacement, a sustainable fish meal replacement,” said Courtright, who initially explored producing oil from insects, bacteria and then algae for biofuels before shifting to the feed sector. “They are seeing the viability of the product and they are understanding insect technologies are real and they are coming.”

考特賴特聲稱，“大企業明白，必須找到一種傳統魚粉的替代物，一種具有可持續性的替代物。”在轉向飼料行業之前，他起初嘗試着從昆蟲、細菌和藻類中提煉生物燃料。“他們將發現這種產品是可行的，意識到昆蟲技術不是騙局，就會找上門來。”

But will insects catch on as pizza did after World War II or sushi did in the 1970s?

但這些小動物能否像比薩餅在二戰後，或壽司在20世紀70年代那樣風行一時？

Some experts think the deluge of new insect-related companies could be a turning point in entomophagists’ (that’s those who advocate for insects as food) decades-long battle to get the six and eight-legged critters onto the plates of consumers.

數十年來，食蟲學家（即那些主張食用昆蟲的人士）一直在竭力推動六條腿和八條腿的小動物進入消費者的餐盤。有專家認爲，與昆蟲相關的新企業不斷涌現，或將成爲這種努力的轉折點。

“This is more than a blip. This is the beginning of a curve that will go steadily up,” said Montana State University Associate Prof. Florence V. Dunkel, a leading edible insect expert who organizes an annual bug buffet on campus each year featuring delicacies like wax moth larvae quesadillas, curried mealworms and Chinese stir fry made with crickets.

“這種現象不是曇花一現，而會成爲一條將穩步上升的曲線的開端，”蒙大拿州立大學(Montana State University )副教授弗洛倫斯o鄧克爾說。這位著名的食用昆蟲專家每年都在校園組織一場昆蟲自助餐，其中的特色佳餚包括蠟蛾幼蟲油炸玉米餅、用咖哩粉烹調的黃粉蟲和爆炒蟋蟀。

“There was the environment,” she says, ticking off forces that are driving interest in the new food group. “There was the need to have more nutrients. And then there was the openness of the Millennial generation to search out better ways to live,” she added. “It’s a no-brainer to begin to incorporate insects into our diet as a protein source.”

她列舉驅動人們對這種全新食物類別產生興趣的力量，“當時的環境，對更多營養物質的需要，還有就是千禧一代在搜尋更好生活方式時抱有的開放心態，”她補充說。“在這些因素的推動下，人們開始不假思索地把昆蟲作爲一種蛋白質來源融入我們的飲食。”

But while Dunkel predicts that shoppers in the next few years could find bags of frozen moth larvae next to the frozen shrimp, others, including the FAO, are more cautious. They say consumer products will remain a “niche market” for at least another generation, mostly attracting thrill-seeking Westerners as well as immigrant communities in the West pining for traditional insect favorites like grasshoppers from Mexico or Mopane worms from southern Africa.

不過，雖然鄧克爾預測稱，在未來幾年，冷凍蛾幼蟲將與冷凍蝦一道出現在消費者的購物袋之中，但其他人，包括聯合國糧農組織，都比較謹慎。他們表示，至少對下一代人來說，昆蟲消費類產品將依然是一個“縫隙市場”，其主要受衆是尋求刺激的西方人，以及西方國家中渴望享受墨西哥蚱蜢或南部非洲可樂豆木蠕蟲等傳統昆蟲美食的移民社區。

The FAO’s Paul Vantomme, who coordinates the agency’s insect program, says he thinks the greatest potential is in the animal feed sector, noting that insects could represent up to 10 percent of the 150 million tons of protein sold each year in two decades. The insects would replace fishmeal and supplement soybean meal, Vantomme said.

負責協調糧農組織昆蟲項目的聯合國官員保羅o旺託姆表示，他認爲最大的潛力將是動物飼料領域。他指出，在未來20年每年售出的大約1,500萬噸蛋白質中，昆蟲的佔比有望達到10%。在他看來，昆蟲將取代魚粉，還將成爲大豆粉的補充。

“China imports 30 million tons of soybean meal in order to supply its chicken and pig farms,” Vantomme says. “The average Chinese eats meat once a week, and that is expected to double in the next five years. That means they will be importing 60 million tons. Even China is looking for alternatives for these imports. For them, it’s a big problem.”

“爲了滿足養雞場和養豬場的需要，中國每年進口大約3,000萬噸大豆粉，”旺託姆說。“中國老百姓通常一週吃一次肉，他們的肉食需求預計將在未來5年翻一番。這意味着，他們將進口6,000萬噸。就連中國也開始爲這些進口飼料尋找替代品。對他們來說，這是一個大問題。”

EnviroFlight’sCourtright also says he expects the animal feed sector to offer the most potential for investors. “For animal feed, definitely. For human feed, I don’t think the West is ready,” Courtright says. “We’re not that hungry yet. We are not starving and insects are not part of our culture.”

此外，EnviroFlight公司的考特賴特表示，他預計飼料行業將成爲最有潛力吸引投資的領域。“對於飼料產業來說，肯定如此。但我不認爲西方公衆已經做好了食用昆蟲的準備，”考特賴特說。“我們還沒有餓到那份上。我們目前還沒有體會到捱餓的滋味，也不具備吃昆蟲的文化傳統。”

Some of that trepidation was on display the other day at Fortune when several reporters said they were scared to even try samples of the Chapur coconut, ginger and lime or the peanut butter and chocolate bar. Much of the apprehension came from expecting to bite into a cricket, as famously seen on the TV show Fear Factor, although the bars have no visible cricket parts and lack the woodsy flavor of chirping insects. The taste and consistency are closer to a chocolate or tropical power bar.

前幾天，就在《財富》(Fortune) 雜誌社，當幾位記者繪聲繪色地描述他們顫顫巍巍地品嚐Chapul椰子、薑汁、酸橙或花生醬和巧克力棒樣品的經歷時，有好幾位編輯都露出了驚恐萬分的表情。其中很大一部分憂慮恐怕跟有可能咬到一隻蟋蟀有關——就像他們在電視節目《誰敢來挑戰》(Fear Factor)中看到的那個著名場景——儘管這些能量棒看不到明顯的蟋蟀痕跡，也缺乏這種吱吱叫的昆蟲身上特有的那股木香味。這些食物的口味和一致性更接近於巧克力或熱帶棒狀食品。

A few blocks away, the bars were on sale at midtown Manhattan’s Westerly Natural Market natural foods store. Positioned alongside a protein bar featuring Chia seeds and another one claiming to save lives with each sale, staffers said the Chapul cricket bars were selling mostly to “hard-core” customers trying to tap into the latest health food trends. Sales have been slow due to limited marketing and the foreign concept of edible insects, they said.

幾個街區之外，在曼哈頓中城的西風自然市場 (Westerly Natural Market)，有不少天然食品商店正在銷售這些棒狀食品。其中有一款蛋白質棒包含野鼠尾草籽，和另一種據稱每銷售一筆就能拯救許多生命的草籽。站在一旁的銷售人員表示，Chapul蟋蟀棒主要賣給了那些嘗試着迎合最新保健食品趨勢的“死忠”顧客。由於市場營銷活動有限，再加上公衆對食用昆蟲的概念還非常陌生，這些產品的銷售一直非常遲緩，他們說。

For his part, Chapul’s Crowley has grown accustomed to the naysayers and acknowledges he still has work to do to help consumers overcome their fears of eating products like his with insects. But he believes his company has plenty of room to grow, predicting that it could see $1 million in revenue in 2015 and more than $10 million in five years.

不過，對於各種反調，克勞利早已習以爲常，並且承認在幫助消費者克服對昆蟲食品的恐懼方面，他依然需要做大量工作。但克勞利相信他的公司有足夠大的成長空間，他預計公司營收將在2015年達到100萬美元，並且將在五年內突破1,000 萬美元大關。

“I have no doubt that the industry will continue to grow,” Crowley says, noting that he expects Chapul to be in 10,000 stores in five years. “We need to diversify our food system,” he says. “We are not trying to eliminate food sources. We are just trying to add insects to the menu of the American diet.”

克勞利說，“這個行業將繼續增長，我對此堅信不疑。”他預計Chapul將在五年內進入1萬家商店。“我們需要豐富我們的食品系統，”他說。“我們不是在嘗試着消除食物來源。我們僅僅是想把昆蟲添加到人們的飲食菜單之中。”