Icelanders Hope To Produce “Insect-Powered” Protein Bar

A pair of Icelanders hope to produce the first power bar using cricket flour, and make a compelling case for what makes the insects a sustainable choice.

The product, called Jungle Bar, is made from “dates, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, chocolate and cricket flour”. As in made from crickets, the insects.

The Jungle Bar is the brainchild of Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson and Stefán Atli Thoroddsen, whose Kickstarter is already about halfway to their $15,000 goal, with 25 days left until the deadline. They hope to begin full production in July.

“The situation right now is that after 20 years, there will be no [arable] land left,” Búi told Vísir, in terms of their motivation for trying to get the Jungle Bar into production. “We will need to either add land, or import from Asia. According to the UN, insects could possibly be the answer.”

In fact, there are numerous advantages to using insects rather than livestock as a protein source. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it takes about 1.7kg of feed and 8 litres of water to produce 1kg of protein from crickets; to produce the same amount of protein from cows requires 10kg of feed and 8,350 litres of water. Crickets also take up considerably less space for farming them than cows do.

Below, you can watch the promotional video for the Jungle Bar, and learn more about what goes into its making.

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/1772519/video-522486-h264_high.mp4