How might we overcome ‘Western’ resistance to eating insects?
File(s)
OA Location
Author(s)
McDade, Harry
Collins, Catherine
Type
Chapter
Abstract
Entomophagy, the consumption of insects as a food source, occurs at a global scale with over 2 billion people seeing it as traditional. This practice does not extend into mainstream Western culture where its introduction is often met by a range of barriers, leaving entomophagy often seen as a taboo. The ‘disgust response’ of food neophobia and a lack of social and cultural contexts that reduce adoption may be overcome by strategic application of tools arising from innovation diffusion theory: relative advantage; compatibility; low complexity; trialability and observability. This chapter accessibly reviews known barriers to uptake and outlines the potential application of these concepts in promoting the wider acceptance of entomophagy.
Editor(s)
Mikkola, Heimo
Date Issued
2019-10
Citation
Edible Insects, 2019
ISBN
978-1-78985-636-1
Publisher
IntechOpen
Journal / Book Title
Edible Insects
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Identifier
https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/how-might-we-overcome-western-resistance-to-eating-insects
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2019-08-06