21. Joseph Yoon, Brooklyn Bugs

Food Lab Talk

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.”

00:23 Intro to Joseph

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

Links

• Brooklyn Bugs
• FAO Report: Edible Insects Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security
• International Fund for Agriculture Development

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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.