CLASS

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2015
Food Politics | Yeah? | Bright?
BUGGIN’ OUT:
Words by Paul Fontaine
Photo by Art Bicnick
Here’s Two Icelanders Who Want You To Eat A Bunch Of Crickets
Best friends Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson and Stefán Atli
Thoroddsen have been tight since they first met up in
secondary school. All grown up now, the duo are getting
ready to commence mass production of what they call a
“Jungle Bar,” which is basically your run-of-the-mill protein
bar, albeit with one key difference. It’s partly made
of bugs. Crickets, to be exact. This is interesting, right?
We thought so, so we sat them down to ask some serious,
hard-hitting journalist questions. Like, why, exactly, do
they feel a need to convince folks to go around eating
compressed, chocolate-covered insects?
What was your initial
inspiration for this project?
Búi: Several things. At one point during
my second year of studying design, I almost
gave up. I was working on a project
and suddenly just thought to myself, "Do
we really need more stuff? Isn't there
something else in this field that would
be more beneficial to the environment, to
society?" So, I created a concept around
using insects for recycling organic matter
in food production.
In this process, I had a lot of breakthroughs
in terms of what kinds of insects
would be best to use, but at the end
of the day, my conclusion was that the
biggest problem wasn't finding mechanisms
for food design; it's basically overcoming
the inevitable stigma. How do
we get people to eat insects? That, to my
mind, is the greatest question on how we
can kickstart this revolution.
What did you think,
Stefán?
Stefán: I was studying marketing at this
time, and my personal opinion on insects
was probably like the opinion of every
other person in the Western world who
hasn't had the opportunity to eat insects:
that I needed to hear the benefits before
I would have a taste. I had a hard time
taking that first taste, but once I did there
was no problem.
With you coming from a marketing
background, it seems like selling
this idea to the public would
pose quite a challenge.
S: It does. But it's probably every marketer's
wet dream, trying to sell the unsellable.
It is a hard sell, definitely. Food
is such a conservative culture, because
any approach involves actually asking
someone to take something, put it in their
mouth, and digest it.
What changed your mind?
S: Discovering that it actually tasted
good. That's the biggest part. It needs to
taste good if it's going to be a business opportunity.
And then there's the benefits.
Insects are so high in protein and minerals
compared to other animals we are
depending on.
The environmental benefits are
one of the main selling points of insect
farming, right? Can you break
down for us how crickets and cows
compare in terms of how much
feed and water they require, and
how much they actually produce?
B: Generally speaking, insects are twenty
times more sustainable than beef. To put
that in real terms, you need eight litres of
water to produce one kilo of protein from
crickets—to produce the same amount
from beef, you need 8,532 litres. Likewise,
you need one and a half kilos of feed
to produce a kilo of protein from crickets,
while beef requires ten kilos.
Farmed fish maybe comes closest to
insects in terms of this kind of sustainability,
but then you have to consider how
much space you need for the operation.
Insects, apart from being much smaller
than traditional sources of protein, also
have a natural tendency to pack themselves
together in groups. They also
produce less waste, and what they do
produce can actually be used as fertilizer—it's
pretty much soil. They also emit
fewer greenhouse gases. But even that's
hard to measure, since a lot of insects
feed on bacteria that produce greenhouse
gases. So there's a level of carbon offsetting
there.
What were some of the initial reactions
you got when you brought
this this up with others?
B: We've been extremely fortunate in that
a lot of people who happened to be visiting
Iceland for a short time were directed
our way. "Here's a couple of guys taking
something most people think is disgusting
and trying to make a food product out
of it," they’d say. I think a lot of people got
inspired by that, and when people hear
the benefits, they get even more sold on
the idea that what we’re making is not
just another protein bar, but a chance to
change something for the better.
S: We live in a time when it's so easy
to get information, and people are so
used to learning about new ideas. They're
willing to try new foods. I mean, the best
restaurant in the world—Noma in Copenhagen—they’ll
serve ants. So this is a seed
that's already been planted in people’s
minds. They tend to understand why
we're doing this.
Where are you at now in terms of
production in Iceland?
S: We're actually not producing in Iceland.
We're producing the bar in Canada.
We tried working with people in Iceland
who are making bars, but they ultimately
didn't have the machinery that we
needed.
B: At the beginning, we were actually
looking into having our own insect
farm here in Iceland. But that process
would have probably taken some five to
ten years. Because it's never been done
before, and navigating the bureaucracy
would have been complicated.
So there's bureaucratic obstacles
to getting this started in Iceland?
S: Yes. Crickets are a foreign animal;
they're not native to Iceland.
B: We have rules and regulations in
place for food products, and these rules
“Food is such a
conservative culture,
because any approach
involves actually asking
someone to take
something, put it in
their mouth, and
digest it.”
have been created around what we've
always been doing—cows, pigs and chickens.
So this raises the question of whether
you need to create new rules for insects,
or find a way to apply the existing rules.
S: But in answer to the question, “Can
we import insect-infused food products?"
the answer is yes.
So where does that leave you—
have any retailers approached you
about putting these products on
their shelves?
B: We've talked to retailers in Iceland,
who are on board.
S: We haven't signed anything,
though. We haven't begun production.
That will commence at the end of October.
We pitched the idea to these retailers,
and they were very positive about what
we're doing and want to help. Something
like 20,000 Jungle Bars wil hopefully be
hitting the shelves here in Iceland at the
end of the month. We have the licensing,
we have their declaration of interest,
so now all we need to do is wait and see
what happens.
I understand you're also hoping to
market the product abroad.
S: Yes. I mean, we don't think of Iceland as
a big market for us, although the market
for start-ups here is very good at the moment.
We've been able to secure enough
funding to pay ourselves a little salary
and continue to focus on the project. We
want to experiment here, see what works
and what doesn't, and then apply what we
learn to other markets. The most promising
markets we've seen are in the US, the
Netherlands, Norway, the UK, New Zealand,
Australia, Portugal...
B: We've been contacted by very big
parties from within the food industry
in the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.
The smallest retailer has 112 stores,
and the biggest one has thousands. We
get scores of emails from journalists
and consumers, producers and retailers
from all over the world. That's been very
inspiring.
S: That's what keeps us going.
If you could have your way, what
would be your dream situation?
B: That the Jungle Bar becomes a gateway
to accepting insects as food. That it
helps change people's opinions about an
entire aspect of food production. Not only
regarding the food itself, but in terms of
engineering and responsible use of resources.
S: I've always said that money is a byproduct
of doing something great. This is
why we're doing this. I love the idea of being
able to change culture in a way that's
good for humanity.