Overthinking: Crickets, Cotton, and Colonialsim

Bugs are not part of the modern Southern diet. Most of the locals go happily through their days without considering eating them.

Most locals don't have a stupidly sensitive stomach and a restricted diet. My protein sources are limited to animal products and less than half of the commercial available seeds and nuts. I have next to no 'shelf-stable' proteins.

I've been strongly considering eating bugs, cricket specifically.

Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for my family who shares the kitchen) crickets will not be added to my menu any time soon. The only crickets for sale were novelty snacks on Amazon. Everything else would require international shipping.

This didn't make sense to me. Less than ten years ago crickets and 'cricket flour' rose in popularity as a superfood and a less environmentally damaging protein. What had happened to the crickets?

I dug a little more and found part of the answer on a U.K. supplier's site. “No Arsenic” they boasted. Apparently, there had been a big recall of cricket flour after a quality tester found multiple brands containment with arsenic. The bad PR pretty much killed the cricket's popularity.

A normal person would have given up at this point. “Too expensive. Too risky.”

I, however, reverted to my environmental science brain. “How the heck did that happen? Arsenic is not naturally occurring in crickets. It can't be like cherry pits and cyanide?”

Obviously, the crickets had eaten the arsenic at some point in their lives. How had they gotten access to it?

This answer was easier to find than edible cricket. The farmers had accidentally fed arsenic to the crickets with their food supply, cheap rice. The rice had arsenic.

Finally, all the pieces fell into place. The U.S.A has long had a problem with arsenic contamination in the soil.

Ironically, we can blame the Southern cotton industry. Arsenic was historically used to protect the plants from...bugs. The toxin then leeches into the fields and water supply. As the fields were repurposed, the new plants uptake the arsenic.
Rice is a thirsty plant and can easily become too tainted for human consumption. (Despite producing over 20 billion pounds of it per year. The U.S.A. still must import food grade rice.)

So, the cricket farmers must have bought the cheaper, local, low quality rice to feed their stock. However, unlike traditional livestock, the crickets can't be butchered. The arsenic stayed in the insect bodies even after roasting and milling.

“Yet another victim of colonization and industrialization,” I sighed to myself and began scrolling through examples of cricket cuisines in other countries. Little did I know my hunch was dead right.

“They eat all the snakes, and lizards, and spiders, and worms, that they find upon the ground;

so that, to my fancy, their bestiality is greater than that of any beast upon the face of the earth,” Diego Álvarez Chanca

This wonderfully dehumanizing quote is from a companion of Christopher Columbus, (im)famous European explorer who launched the colonization of the American continents.

Colonialsim depends on viewing the indigenous populations as primative, stupid or any number of justifications to treat them as lesser beings. In the European mind, insect diets were yet another excuse to justify supplanting the locals.

As the Europeans brought their own culture and values, native populations became shamed out of eating bugs. The few who weren't shamed would find the once bountiful food source dying off as insecticides and invasive species were introduced.

Land became converted to cash crop production. The goal wasn't local biodiversity. It was how much cash crop you could produce. Even animal protein followed this trend: cattle, swine, and sheep. Why bother with bugs?

Colonialism is the stage for many injustices, slavery, racism, genocide. In comparison, a white gal with a tender stomach not being able to buy crickets seems not worth mentioning.
However, that's the thing about toxins, there is not a single generation of victims. The consequences of poisoning the land and ideologies are long lasting. It impoverishes the future – whether through limited dietary options, families living near pollution become trapped in poverty due to compromised health, or using food to mock and belittle people.

In a better world, I could eat crickets.

Overthinking: I'm a Writer?

 

In August 2024 , I finished the second draft of Don't Fireball the Neighbors (Title Pending). My next challenge was to figure out how to turn my manuscript into a published novel.
One of the first things I did was met with Janice Buswell, a local novelist. I bribed her with lunch at a Thai resturance to pick her brain. It was a productive meeting.

I didn't walk away with ten step plan to grow a platform or a agency contact. What I got was advise on finding an editor and restructuring my time management. Basically, it was time to stop treating writing as a hobby and take it to the next step.

“Introduce yourself as a writer,” She told me “When you walked over, you mentioned your petsitting business.”

She continued to explain that introducing myself as a writer directs the conversation to my work and writer's platform. It's good advise from a self-promotion stand point. (It's the many reason I use “House and PetSitter” in my intro's. I find new clients and good booking that way.)

As with all good advise, it's easier said than done. Can I call myself a writer?

A large part of my mental block to claiming "Yes, I'm a writer" is that is was never my career focus. In college, I tended to the other half of the brain - WatchMaking and MircoTech and then later Environmental Engineering. 

I also lack the hallmarks of 'serious writers.' My membership in writer's groups has been patchy due to distance and my various side-jobs. 

More damning, I've never published anything. I wrote essays for my humanities electives, made modifications to some Dungeons and Dragons games I hosted, but never submitted anything since a church poetry contest in my late teen.

Writing fiction has never been a professional focus in my life. Why call myself a writer?

After stewing the question over, I used my old stand-by for decisions – A “Why?” and “Why Not?” list

Surprisingly, the Why List was longer and had heavier point values.

The first thing that jump off the page was a counter to my lack of literature background. I've been working on the Lands of Mundus for 2/3^rd of my life, since I was thirteen. I've been writing, rewriting, and looking for feedback constantly. I'm not just throwing words into chat-bot. I practice and try to strengthen my skills.

A hobbyist writer is still a writer.

In a similar vein, I am a storyteller. The written word is my strongest method of telling stories. Spend 2/3^rd of your life practicing something and you will improve, even if the practice was not the most efficient or structured.

My storytelling skills are specialized around writing.

Finally, I selfishly want to be remembered as a writer. Good books enrich people's lives. I want to create something that does that. (Pet-sitting is service, and a valued one. However, after the first two or so bookings, my clients' honeymoon phase is over. I'm enriching their lives the same way a house-keeper or yard service might.)

Weighing all the pro and cons, I realized the many thing stopping me was overly specific standards for 'what a real writer is,' a habit of undervaluing my own efforts, and the social phobia of having to listen to the follow up question “but does it pay?”

I have nothing to lose but false modesty by introducing my as a writer (my social status is non-existent as a disable adult co-habituating with family). What I gain is the chance to talk about my passion – writing stories.

Calling myself a writer is a truthful description. It's not like I'm claiming to be 'future best selling author' or “Newbery Award Winner.”  I write stories.