Chef Joseph Yoon is an Edible Insect Ambassador, a world renowned thought leader in entomophagy, the practice of eating insects. He founded Brooklyn Bugs in 2017 to normalize edible insects through delicious, creative, and educational programming. From kitchens and classrooms to stages around the world, Chef Yoon shares the incredible potential of not only edible insects, but the burgeoning innovation in Insect Agriculture to create resilient solutions for our global food systems.
Joseph Yoon: “One of the ways is not to take it from a theoretical dogmatic approach of... ‘We have a sustainable nutrient dense food. It will solve the climate crisis. All we have to do is eat some bugs, friends.’ That would not work. And I think that that's what a lot of the scientists were actually doing. My approach was entirely from the opposite side. ‘We have this delicious, incredible food source that happens to also be sustainable, incredibly nutrient dense, and we can prepare any single dish you can possibly imagine with it.’ The only limitations with insect protein lie with our imagination.”
01:10 Bugs and sustainable nutrition
02:13 Metamorphosis from fine dining to food justice
04:42 Exploring the wide variety of flavors and functions of edible insects
06:10 Shifting negative thoughts to acceptance and celebration
08:10 Changing our food system is like interdisciplinary calculus
10:42 Regenerative circular nature of insect agriculture
13:18 Following the data to find scalable solutions
15:37 “Bugifying” familiar foods to connect with people
19:28 Balancing marketing, education, and regulations
23:06 Importance of regulatory frameworks, policies, and incentives
24:57 Insect agriculture to improve livelihood
26:16 Elevating the deliciousness of edible insects
29:38 Takeaways for changemakers
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*The views expressed by the guests in this podcast don't necessarily represent the host’s views, nor those of his employer.
What is Food Lab Talk?
A better food system starts with one thing: vision. Food Lab Talk gives global food system changemakers a platform to articulate their vision for the future of food.
The series features interviews with inspiring individuals who are working on the frontlines of many of our most pressing food issues: reducing food loss and waste, enhancing food system transparency, facilitating shifts toward more balanced plant-forward diets, enabling informed individual choices for sustainable lifestyles, and accelerating the transition to a circular food economy.
Join Google’s Michiel Bakker to meet the leaders taking bold action and answering what each of us can do to create a better food system for us all.