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Dutch student Walinka van Tol inspects the worm protruding from a half-eaten chocolate praline she's holding, steels herself with a shrug, then pops it into her mouth.
"Tasty ... kind of nutty!" the 20-year-old assures her companions clutching an array of creepy crawly pastries at a seminar, which forecast that larvae and locusts will invade Western menus as the price of steak and chops skyrocket.
Van Tol and about 200 other tasters were guinea pigs for a group of Dutch scientists doing groundbreaking research into insects replacing animal meat as a healthier, more environmentally friendly source of protein.
"There will come a day when a Big Mac costs 120 euros ($163) and a Bug Mac 12 euros, when more people will eat insects than other meat," head researcher Arnold van Huis told a disbelieving audience at Wageningen University in the central Netherlands.
"The best way to start is to try it once," the entomologist insisted.
At break time, there is a sprint for the snack tables with a spread of Thai marinated grasshopper spring rolls, buffalo worm chocolate gnache, and a seemingly innocent pastry "just like a quiche lorraine, but with meal worms instead of bacon or ham", according to chef Henk van Gurp.
The snacks disappear quickly to the delight of the chef and organizers. But the university's head of entomology Marcel Dicke knows that changing Westerners' mindset will take more than disguising a worm in chocolate.
"The problem is here," he says, pointing at his head while examining an exhibition featuring a handful of the world's more than 1,200 edible insect species including worms, gnats, wasps, termites and beetles.
Three species: meal worms, buffalo worms and grasshoppers, are cultivated by three farmers in the Netherlands for a small but growing group of adventurous foodies.
"People think it is something dirty. It generates a Fear Factor response," citing the reality series that tests competitors' toughness by feeding them live insects.
Dicke said Westerners had no choice but to shed their bug bias, with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization predicting there will be nine billion people on the planet by 2050 and agricultural land already under pressure.
"We have to eat less meat or find an alternative," said Dicke, who claims to sit down to a family meal of insects on a regular basis.
Bugs are high in protein, low in fat and efficient to cultivate -- 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of feed yields six to eight kilograms of insect meat compared to one kilogram of beef, states the university's research.
Insects are abundant, produce less greenhouse gas and manure, and do not transfer any diseases, when eaten, that can mutate into a dangerous human form, say the researchers.
"The question really should be: 'Why do we NOT eat insects?" said Dicke, citing research that the average person unwittingly eats about 500 grams of bug particles a year anyway -- in strawberry jam, bread and other processed foods.
According to Van Huis, about 500 types of insects are eaten in Mexico, 250 in Africa and 180 in China and other parts of Asia -- mostly they are a delicacy.
One avid European convert is Marian Peters, secretary of the Dutch insect breeders association, Venik, who likes to snack on grasshoppers and refers to them as "the caviar of insects."
On a visit to an insect farm in Deurne in the south east Netherlands, she greedily peels the wings and legs off a freeze dried locust and crunches down with gusto.
"They are delicious stir fried with good oil, garlic and red pepper and served in a taco," said Peters.
The owner of the farm, Roland van de Ven, produces 1,200kg of meal worms a week of which "one or two percent" for human consumption, the rest as animal feed.
"When you see an insect, it is a barrier. I think people will come around if the insects are processed and not visible in food," he explains while running his fingers through a plastic tray teeming with worms -- one of hundreds stacked ceiling-high in refrigerated breeding rooms.
"It is harder to eat a pig you have seen on a spit than a store-bought steak. This is similar."
The farmer said human demand for his "mini-livestock" was growing slowly -- from 300 kilograms in 2008 to 900 kilograms last year.
For those who won't be swayed, there is hope for less grizzly alternative. Wageningen University is leading research into the viability of extracting insect protein for use in food products.
"We want to determine if we can texturize it to resemble meat, like they do with soy," said Peters, clutching a bag of pinkish powder -- protein taken from meal worms she hopes will one day be a common pizza ingredient.
參考譯文：
荷蘭學生 Walinka van Tol 觀察著她手中咬了一半的巧克力果仁糖中伸出的蟲子，聳了聳肩，然后堅定地把它送入口中。
“好吃……有點堅果味！”這個20歲的女孩在一次研討會上說服她的同伴握緊一系列令人毛骨悚然的糕點，還說這預示著幼蟲和蝗蟲將會入侵西方菜單，價格竄升堪比牛排和豬排。
Van Tol 和大約 200 位食客成為了一組荷蘭科學家的小白鼠，進行一項創新研究，試圖讓昆蟲取代動物肉類，成為一種更健康、更環保的蛋白質來源。
“將來有一天會出現售價 120 歐元（163 美元）的巨無霸和 12 歐元的蟲無霸，到時候人們吃昆蟲比其他肉類更多，”首席研究員 Arnold van Huis 在荷蘭中部的瓦赫寧根大學告訴一群對此不相信的聽眾。
“最好的開始方式就是嘗試一下，”這位昆蟲學家堅持道。
Henk van Gurp 廚師表示，他們曾在早餐時段小吃表單上列出過一小段時間的泰式腌制蚱蜢春卷、buffalo worm 夾心巧克力，以及看上去沒什么問題的糕點“就像是洛林糕，但取代培根或火腿的是面粉蟲”。
令廚師和組織者高興的是，這些小吃很快售空。但該大學昆蟲學的領軍人物 Marcel Dicke 明白，要改變西方人的觀念，把蟲子偽裝在巧克力中是遠遠不夠的。
“問題在于這兒，”他邊說，邊指向一邊展覽著的全世界超過 1200 種可食用昆蟲，其中包括蠕蟲、蠓蟲、黃蜂、白蟻和甲蟲。
荷蘭有三位農場主養殖面粉蟲、buffalo worms 和蚱蜢，提供給數量小但不斷增長的愛冒險的美食家們。
“人們覺得這是骯臟的東西。這形成了一種害怕因素反應，”引自測試挑戰者對食用活蟲的忍耐力的紀實類系列節目。
Dicke 說西方人別無選擇，必須擺脫他們的蟲子偏見，因為聯合國糧食及農業組織預計到 2050 年地球上將有九十億人口，而農業用地早已壓力重重。
“我們不得不少吃肉，或者尋找一種替代品，”Dicke 說，他呼吁可經常在家庭主食中嘗試些昆蟲類。
蟲子蛋白質含量高，脂肪含量少，培育效率高——該大學的研究表明，10 千克（22 磅）飼料可以喂養六至八千克的昆蟲肉，而只能喂養一千克的牛肉。
研究人員稱，昆蟲數量充足，產生很少的溫室氣體和糞便，而且不會傳播任何疾病（食入導致危險的人類構成突變）。
“真正的問題應該是：‘為什么我們不吃昆蟲呢？’”Dicke 說，他引用了某項研究，稱無論如何一般人每年都會無意識地吃下大約 500 克的蟲子顆粒——在草莓果醬、面包和其他加工食品中。
Van Huis 表示，在墨西哥，大約 500 種昆蟲被人食用，非洲有 250 種，中國和亞洲其他地區 180 種——幾乎全是佳肴。
Marian Peters 是一位狂熱的歐洲食蟲者，她是荷蘭 Venik 昆蟲飼養者協會的秘書，喜歡拿蚱蜢當點心，稱其為“昆蟲魚子醬”。
在她參觀荷蘭東南部德爾訥的一家昆蟲農場時，她貪婪地剝下一只凍干的蝗蟲的翅膀和腿，然后興奮地吞下了肚。
“它們用提純油、大蒜和紅辣椒混合爆炒，再裹在墨西哥煎玉米卷里真是美味極了，”Peters 說。
這家農場的主人 Roland van de Ven 每周生產1200kg膳食蠕蟲，其中1~2%供人類食用，剩下的作為動物飼料。
“當你看到一只昆蟲時，就形成了障礙。我認為如果昆蟲經過處理，在食物中看不出來的話，人們就比較容易接受了，”他邊解釋，邊將手指穿過一張布滿了蟲子的塑料托盤——這是冷藏飼養室中堆得天花板那么高的上百個托盤中的一個。
“你很難看到插在烤串上的一頭豬后想吃它，卻能很輕易地吃下現成的牛排。這是類似的道理。”
這位農場主說，人們對他的“迷你家畜”的需求正緩慢上升——從 2008 年的 300千克到去年的 900千克。
對那些不會動心的人們而言，這里有一種不那么灰暗的選擇。瓦赫寧根大學正在引領一項有關提取昆蟲蛋白質用于食品制造的可行性的研究。
“我們想要確認是否可以修改其結構，變得和肉類相似，就像別人拿大豆做的那樣，”Peters 邊說邊抓著一袋粉紅色粉末——從面粉蟲中獲取的蛋白質，她希望這將有朝一日成為普通的匹薩配料。
