Insect protein is healthy and sustainable. But now it is also at the centre of a far-reaching conspiracy theory.
"I will not eat the bugs" first appeared on 4chan, an anonymous forum site, as early as August 2019, but its popularity surged after it merged with The Great Reset conspiracy during the Covid-19 pandemic, says Aniano. In 2021, the WEF published an article saying that insects are more sustainable than meat, both in terms of tackling climate change and food insecurity. "The bugs conspiracy folds into this idea that to vote for the left is a one-way ticket to the end of modern society as we know it," says Aniano. A necessity as seemingly simple as food is loaded with markers of culture and identity, she adds. The EU approved four insects as novel foods in January 2023, allowing limited insect species to be used as ingredients in the EU market under certain conditions of use. The four approved insects are the house cricket, larvae of the grain beetle, the migratory locust and the dried larvae of the flour beetle. That decision caused an outcry on social media. French right-wing politician Laurent Duplomb criticised the EU's new food permission, saying: "We cannot allow the French to eat insects without their knowledge." This false claim suggests that the EU does not require insects to be clearly labelled when they are combined with other ingredients. Under EU law, the presence of insects in a product must be clearly and explicitly declared on its label.
5 September 2025
