Every so often the media rolls its sleeves up and tries to once again get us all to eat gross, filthy bugs instead of delicious, healthy, clean meat.
Sadly, 2025 is no exception, with NPR once again making a bid to have us eat literal larva:
In markets in the capital Kinshasa, tubs full of writhing white maggots line the alleyways, and women traders fry caterpillars, spiced with chili, over charcoal fires. "The more you eat caterpillars, the more you'll have a long life," says Trésor Kisanbu, clutching a small plastic bag of fried caterpillars, in Kinshasa's largest market, Marché Liberté. "It strengthens your muscles and your eyes, it's really organic," he adds.
Me when they tell me to eat caterpillars and white maggots:
Just to sweeten the pot, NPR lets us know that local villagers harvest the slimy, gut-filled grubs "from rotting tree trunks in forested areas in the Congolese interior."
Even NPR can't hide the desperation inherent in eating literal grubs. They note that insect consumption only increased in some parts of Congo after the late 1970s, a period which coincided with "drought and the gradual degradation of forests, and subsequent scarcity of bushmeat," along with "back-to-back civil wars in the 1990s and 2000s [that] cratered the economy."
Maggots are an appealing alternative to starvation only after decades of environmental ruin, war and a severely depressed economy?
I'll stick with my burger, thanks!
P.S. Now check out our latest video, featuring Kirk Cameron 👇
