Crickets lovely Crickets

Taste buds tired of potato crisps or carrot sticks? Try roasted crickets or deep fried spiders - possibly a more sustainable snack on our land-strapped planet. (For recipes click through from "Biting on Bugs")

From an ancient Chinese culture that has traditionally eaten anything that moves it is encouraging to see from Jonathan Watts some signs of a home-grown NGO movement emerging to challenge the decimation of endangered wildlife in the cooking pots of the country:

"The nascent NGO conservation movement is stepping in where the authorities have had limited success by monitoring markets and restaurants, reporting sales of endangered species and trying to change the consumer culture. Among the youngest of several small groups is the Asian Turtle Rehabilitation Project, established earlier this year to save the reptiles from the soup pot. The founding members say they are trying to cross the divide between the culture in which they were raised and the global conservation concerns they have been exposed to via the internet and schooling".

Hopefully not too late for tasty, tortured, troubled turtles and their ilk.

(Photo above copyright Dr. Stephen Browne, with permission).