When Christopher Columbus returned from the Americas, he and members of his expedition used the insect-eating of the native inhabitants as an example of savagery, and as justification for dehumanizing people he would later enslave, said Julie Lesnik, an anthropologist at Wayne State University and author of “Edible Insects and Human Evolution.”

While it wasn’t the only factor, the colonial era deepened the stigmatization of entomophagy in mainland Europe, and in turn among European settlers in the Americas. Further distaste grew as insects threatened profitable agricultural monocultures supported by slavery and industrialization.

It wasn’t always that way. Aristotle loved cicadas. Pliny the Elder preferred beetle larvae. They weren’t that different from insect eaters among other cultures on other continents.

Those who experienced colonialism may lead the way

Evidence of insects in written reports, fossilized feces and mummies found in caves across North America, and corroboration from nearly every other continent, suggest humans have valued insects as food for millenniums.

Today, billions of people still consume more than 2,100 insect species worldwide. Even in the United States, Kutzadika’a people, or “fly eaters,” cherish salty pupae from Mono Lake in California.