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> Humans have been eating insects for a long time. In south africa they eat ants, china they eat scorpio, thailand they eat crickets...

I'm in South Africa. I've never heard of the ants thing, but it is most definitely NOT NORMAL over here to eat those things; rich people may do it as a delicacy, like they would eat caviar, but it never was normal to eat insects over here.




https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33396313/

"Indigenous Knowledge about Consumption of Edible Insects in South Africa"

>Edible insects are a nutritious diet and play an important role in people's livelihoods in rural areas.

Just how many rich people are out there in SA's rural areas?


From that study:

> This might be the main reason why the consumption of insects is largely practiced in rural areas where high levels of unemployment and people with no formal education are found. In addition, people who are unemployed consume edible insects more because they have to do so to meet nutritional requirement needs.

Well, that actually explains why I have not seen or even heard of people eating insects in the 40-odd years that I've lived here: I'm not usually talking to unemployed people in rural areas who face famine without insects.

Unemployed rural people are still in the minority, and that still makes it 'not-normal'. The poor people and unemployed people I see in non-rural South Africa still don't eat insects.


Normal for who ? There are 11 official languages in SA, the population is very diverse, and indigenous people have different habits than city dwellers.




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