Marcel Dicke offers host Joris Luyendijk insect bonbons at TEDxAmsterdam 2009
If Prof. Marcel Dicke of the Laboratory of Entomology at Wageningen UR, has the final word, we would change our daily menu and add some insect delicacies to it. He suggests eating crispy grasshoppers instead of shrimps, and juicy dragonfly larvae instead of burgers – and he certainly convinced many in the audience at TEDxAmsterdam last year.
The reason for this suggested change of menu? Flying, walking or jumping creatures deliver a varied source of protein and producing them is significantly more sustainable than meat production.
Today, Marcel is still trying to catch his breath after the recent surprise tidal wave of publicity for his muesli bar containing mealworms. It was voted as the tastiest insect snack in May this year during an ‘insect snack poll,’ conducted by the Dutch Insect Breeders’ Collective (Venik). The news made the front page of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
“I’m very happy with this win,” says Dicke. “The best part was that many people thought it was a pity that the insects were not more recognizable in the snacks. We paid a lot of attention to our product ‘design’ to make it appealing, but it seems that people are even more open to eating insects than we thought,” says Marcel.
Venik is now working on further developing those bars so they can be made availabile in supermarkets.” Now there’s a thought – mealworms on the shelf next to muesli.
Strawberries and insects, a TEDxAmsterdam delicacy
Marcel’s TEDxAmsterdam talk in November last year turned out to be the start of a public movement – and much more. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality recently provided Marcel with financial support to the tune of 1 million euros for research.
“The TEDxAmsterdam talk was a chance to let more and more people get to know about a subject which has been on my agenda for almost 15 years. For a long time I was ‘that weird professor’ with my ideas on eating insects, and now we are actually creating real food products. This proves that a lot of ideas finally will reach a turning point and people are getting convinced that this is the future. I guess that’s what ‘ideas worth spreading’ is all about.”
This year’s TEDxAmsterdam theme Science and Fiction relates to Marcel’s other fascination: how plants can communicate with insects.
“Plants can defend themselves against herbivores (insects and mites) by producing specific volatile chemicals that attract enemies of their enemies. Within one species, some plants can actually ‘scream’ louder to get rid of insects than others. In the future, farmers can choose between ‘screamers’ or ‘whisperers’, so less pesticides are needed.”
Marcel says: “In the beginning, a lot of people referred all this to a popular science book called “The secret life of plants” by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. In the book, it was posited that plants could recognize murderers when they entered a crime scene again. Nowadays, it’s common logic: some plants just can defend themselves better. So fiction becomes science, but somehow fiction or ‘ideas’ are needed to start it. Science and fiction are so related, sometimes it is difficult to tell them apart.”
Marcel notes that science and fiction – he interprets the latter now as ‘culture’ – were once divided in the past, but nowadays it’s more mixed. “We have a richer image of the world as a result. The worst case scenario puts science or culture outside the real world. The government in The Hague shouldn’t pinch and scrape on the culture budget because, like science, it lays the foundation of our society. We need them both, without borders to develop our civilization.”
Besides the rich content of TED(x), Marcel also mentions the VPRO television series Van de Schoonheid en de Troost as an important source of science and fiction stories. “It’s a series of television interviews with famous writers, scientists, philosophers, musicians and artists who talk about themes like beauty and consolation. Take your time to see that, it reveals a lot.”
What does the future hold for Marcel Dicke? “I’d love to further develop our scientific research on the ecology of insects with the Entomology lab at Wageningen University, and to transfer my fascination with the biology of insects to the general public so that they understand more about the little creatures who share this planet with us.” Dicke was also invited to share his story with the TED community at TED Global, this july in Oxford.
To watch Prof. Marcel Dicke’s talk at TEDxAmsterdam, check the video below.
At TEDxAmsterdam last year, Marcel Dicke made his point on why we should be eating insects… and actually made us eat some!
This post is part of a series exploring the journey of TEDxAmsterdam speakers since they appeared at our first event last year.
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