Can This Home Grasshopper Grower Ease Food Shortages?

Soon the crunch of a cricket between your teeth will be as unmistakable as that of a potato chip. If this thought churns your stomach, consider the ever-snowballing global food crisis. The Lepsis hopes to reduce this problem.

The Lepsis is a terrarium that breeds edible insects right in your own home. It contains everything needed to process grasshoppers, from growing to preparing them for edibility. Designer Mansour Ourasanah developed the Lepsis with the help of KitchenAid. Insects make an excellent food source thanks to their protein content and the fact that they reproduce quickly and in great numbers, and there is a seemingly infinite variety of them.

Ourasanah took notice of a recent UN report that recommends the consumption of insects on a more global scale. Regional and international stigmas exist regarding the consumption of insects as a source of protein, even though 80% of the world already does so. Ourasanah hopes introducing the Lepsis to urban environments will help break these stigmas. “In order to move toward a sustainable future, we must do away with our culinary hangups and redefine the paradigm of food,” he says.