Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1919 — Locusts as Food Date Back to the Days of John the Baptist, and Others [ARTICLE]

Locusts as Food Date Back to the Days of John the Baptist, and Others

It was not necessary for a learned entomologist in the Johns Hopkins faculty to prove the edibility of locusts by eating a few of them and surviving the experiment. For unnumbered centuries these insects have been an occasional, but considerable, part of the diet of millions of people in several parts of the world, and if ever those people hear of the Johns Hopkins man’s exploit they will smile superiorly and wonder at the belatedness of his audacity. The history of John the Baptist is not the only recorded instance in which empirical persons have anticipated the scientist. Of course, locusts are edible; so are hundreds of other Insects —thousands of them, probably —and it might not be at all injudicious at this time, when so much of the world’s population Is going hungry, if more attention were bestowed on what is, after all, the largest of new food sources. Still, the locusts in this country are not in much danger as a result of the professors revelation, even though he does say that they taste like shrimp.