You've heard the arguments. Insects are cheap to grow, easy on the environment, and high in protein and minerals. In contrast, livestock such as pigs and cows are expensive, produce noxious chemicals such as methane and ammonia, and take up land and grains that humans could use directly. The United Nations has been urging people in Western countries to eat insects for years. Well, should that venerable organization succeed, perhaps
the resulting farms will look something like this. China, always the forefront of the future, has been undergoing a cockroach farm boom, the Los Angeles Times reports. There are about 100 farms in the country and the largest
producer has an estimated 10 million insects in six farms. Cosmetics companies and traditional Chinese medicine manufacturers buy the insects for their protein and cellulose, the Times reports. Farmers also promote them
as feed for fish and traditional livestock.
The correct way to eat a cockroach, at least in this corner of northern China , is to fry it not once but twice in a wok of
smoking hot oil. The cockroach, whose innards resemble cottage cheese,
has an earthy taste, with a slight twinge of ammonia. But they have become popular in China not for their taste, but
for their medicinal benefits. "They really are a miracle drug," said Liu Yusheng, a
professor at the Shandong Agricultural university and the head of Shandong province's Insect Association. "They
can cure a number of ailments and they work much faster than other medicine."
For a decade, Mr Wang farmed another type of insect, Eupolyphaga Sinensis, which is also used in Traditional
Chinese Medicine.
But in the past two years, the demand for cockroaches has soared, and Mr Wang has switched his entire production to Periplaneta americana, or the American cockroach, a copper-coloured insect that grows to just over an inch and a half.
"These are not the same ones you see in your home, those are German cockroaches," he said. "There are
hundreds of species of cockroaches, but only this one has any medicinal value. It is native to Guangdong province." Inside his bunkers are hundreds of nests bolted together from concrete roof tiles, that line the shelves of dark corridors.
The doorways are lined with mesh, but some cockroaches have clustered on the low ceilings overhead and the air is
heavy with a fetid stink. "That is just how they smell," Mr Wang shrugged.
Last month was harvest time across Shandong. As farmers elsewhere in the province picked apples and cut corn, Mr Wang reaped huge sackfuls of roaches.
"We kill them before they reach four months old, because then their wings are fully grown and they can fly," he said.
"They are very easy to kill, we take large vats of boiling water into the corridors and dunk the nests into them." His entire output is sold to pharmaceutical companies, he said, and the price has risen strongly. Since 2011, he has
quintupled production, to more than 100 tons a year, and he has eight workers.
Outside his farm, another man is waiting to be shown around. Since this spring, Mr Wang has had 100 enquiries from would-be cockroach farmers and has helped to build 30 other farms. "Oh, the money is good," said Xiao Zhongwu, a wiry 49-year-old who has a smaller set of farms in the countryside near Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. "I have a trucking business too, transporting marble, paper and farm products for local companies. But that brings in pocket money: it is cockroaches that bring in the big money."
Mr Xiao said he had invested £160,000 in building a series of small farms, their windows taped over with plastic sheeting to stop the cockroaches from escaping. But, he said, he earns at least £30,000 a year from the insects, and up to £90,000 in a good year. "The pharmaceutical companies set the price, but I stockpile my cockroaches when the supply is plentiful to wait for when the demand picks.
Moral of the story: I wont doubt it when next I hear the chinese eats Agama Lizards.
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