Adding Bugs : Examining the state of entomophagy in Sweden

Abstract: This ethnographic study examines the state of entomophagy in Sweden amongst a group of ‘middle-class’ individuals living in urban areas of the country. In this endeavor, an analytical perspective that focuses on the embodied cultural-sensorial processes which influence how people perceive and engage with insects as food provides a richer picture, as opposed to an approach that privileges exclusively symbolic or discursive representations. The rejection of insects as food is not considered to be a fixed state, but instead as something continuously made in everyday life, and therefore subject to change. It is found that those that currently do not eat insects experience notions of aversion at the prospect, and this is because the presence of insects in food, and in places associated with eating, go against the sensibilities they have embodied as members of their cultural group. The absence of insects as food in Sweden is contextualized by discussing the history of entomophagy in Europe, the politics of commercially produced and sold insects, as well as the consequent non-existent market of insect-based food products in Sweden. The incorporation of insects into a number of enthusiasts’ consumption of food is also examined, focusing on the perceptual and sensorial negotiation that underlies this culinary integration. What is argued is that further attention should be given to the contextually situated bodily experiences associated with food and eating that determines the potential presence of insects in people’s consumption of food.