About 30 percent of people globally eat insects in some way. Despite that this dietary practice traces back a thousand years and has an abundance of nutritional benefits, it is considered a foreign and even “uncivilized” concept.

Dr. Borgerson’s research explores the relationship between humans and unsustainable hunting, human health, and food security. With Grist, she destigmatizes the idea of eating insects, even comparing the taste of cicadas to a delightful blend between chicken nuggets and sunflower seeds.

According to Dr. Borgerson, “Some insects have an incredible opportunity, and a potential, to reduce our carbon footprint in a delicious, but sustainable, way.”

Written by Sarah Ramirez

“I grew up with shelves of National Geographic magazines in my home and would read them endlessly, dreaming of one day exploring the incredible places and meeting the amazing people featured within its pages,” says Borgerson. “It’s incredibly humbling to think that there could be a kid out there in the world, sitting on their bedroom floor, opening this month’s issue to see me. I want to let them know that they’re next. There is so much in this world to do and discover.”

Bogerson, an anthropologist, primatologist, conservation biologist, and , wants to help save lemurs from hunting without leaving Masoala communities hungry. She has been working with villagers to develop sustainable ways to farm sakondry, or “bacon bugs,” as a staple food source which can fill many of the nutritional gaps left by the famine while reducing the pressure on the shrinking forests.

The sakondry are native to Madagascar and thrive in the current climate, creating a great opportunity to farm the insects and save the endangered lemur population. Borgerson’s early studies in Madagascar showed that in some villages, 75% of animal-source foods come from forest animals, including lemurs. The research also found that there are higher rates of malnutrition in households that hunt lemurs, indicating that the hunting is driven, at least partially, by food insecurity.

Borgerson plans to return to Masoala later this year with her family to continue her research and work with Masoala communities. “It’s truly a place unlike any other left on earth- where critically endangered lemurs live within biodiverse tropical rainforests that reach sandy ocean shores. I’m so incredibly excited for readers around the world to learn about a place that is so very dear to my heart.”

Borgerson’s work was also recently featured in the, which spotlights people and communities dedicating their lives to building a more sustainable world.

Learn more:

BBC’s People Fixing the World podcast
Bugs! They’re What’s For Dinner
Eating Insects to Fight the Climate Crisis
Faculty Spotlight: Cortni Borgerson

The video highlights Borgerson’s work in Madagascar, where climate change and human activity have led to devastating droughts and associated impacts on human health and the environment. Borgerson has been working with villagers to develop sustainable ways to farm sakondry, or “bacon bugs,” as a staple food source which can fill many of the nutritional gaps left by the famine while reducing the pressure on the shrinking forests. The sakondry are native to Madagascar and thrive in the current climate, creating a great opportunity to farm the insects and save the endangered lemur population.

When people get hungry and desperate there, they turn to the forest. Borgerson’s early studies in Madagascar showed that in some villages, 75% of animal-source foods come from forest animals, including lemurs, and that there are higher rates of malnutrition in households that hunt lemurs, indicating that lemur is a “last resort” food.

“Biodiversity conservation depends on understanding why people make the choices that they make,” says Borgerson. “Whether it’s climate change, hunting or habitat loss, all of lemur conservation depends on making people’s lives better.”

Read More:

Bugs! They’re What’s For Dinner
Eating Insects to Fight the Climate Crisis
Faculty Spotlight: Cortni Borgerson

Read the full article or listen to the story on .

Written by Donaelle Benoit

When we do encounter insects, we’re not encountering them on our plates, but we are encountering them as taking our food away through spoilage or pests in our home—as opposed to this exciting new source of incredible food.                      – Cortni Borgerson

Check out the and discover how nutritious, delicious and sustainable eating insects can be!

“It may be tempting to delve into the past when marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day. And yet, even a brief conversation with members of New Jersey’s state-recognized tribes makes clear that Native peoples and cultures are present now and working toward a vibrant future.

This fall, ����vlog launched a new Native American and Indigenous Studies minor, the first of its kind in the state. Thanks to budding university-tribal partnerships with the leadership of the Ramapough Lunaape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, and Powhatan Renape nations, faculty and students have begun to learn about Native lifeways and the dynamic contributions that Indigenous peoples continue to make on behalf of their communities and all of us.

In particular, working with Chief Vincent Mann and Michaeline Picaro of the Ramapough Lunaape Turtle Clan, we have started to collaborate on community-driven projects focused on environmental justice, food sovereignty, and sacred ceremonial stone sites.

This work has everything to do with the history of colonial violence these communities have survived and their determination to thrive as stewards of their ancestral lands. One of the most exciting and potentially transformative efforts is bringing the Munsee language back into greater use.”

Check out the podcast and learn more about how this tiny insect can potentially have a huge impact:

Or

Thirty people in New Jersey died in the catastrophic flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Four of those victims lived at the Oakwood Plaza apartments in Elizabeth, a hub for recently arrived refugees in the region. Ida’s damage was so extensive that the entire Oakwood complex was evacuated. In one night, over 600 residents became homeless including 33 refugee families hailing from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, and Sri Lanka.

Over the past six years, Dr. McCaffrey has drawn on her training as an anthropologist to welcome and integrate resettled families into New Jersey, pushing back against Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The non-profit organization she co-founded with Melina Macall, , has launched to raise emergency funds to assist displaced families.

Moving forward, The United Tastes is a member of the and will work to develop programs to welcome and integrate new Afghan neighbors in the Garden State.

“We knew they were delicious – they taste just like bacon – but it turns out that they’re also nutritious,” says Assistant Anthropology Professor Cortni Borgerson. “The farms we’ve created are really taking off, and insect consumption has increased by more than 1,000%.”

And beyond that, the more insects are eaten in the wilds of Madagascar, the fewer endangered lemurs will be hunted, which has long been Borgerson’s goal.

Until last March, Borgerson split her time each year between the manicured campus of Montclair State and the wilds of the Masoala Peninsula on northeastern Madagascar, where, for the past 15 years, in one way or another, she has been working on both lemur conservation and improving malnutrition. In the last year, her grant-funded project to farm these “bacon bugs” is proving to solve both problems.

Her last trip to Madagascar was this past Spring Break, when, while she was there, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, and many areas of the world locked down. Getting back home was an adventure in itself – starting with having to wait out a cyclone before being able to leave the island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.

“I managed to get on one of the last flights out of Madagascar before everything shut down,” says Borgerson, “but our work continues here, as well as [in Madagascar], thanks to our incredible research team there.”

To read the full article on Borgerson’s research, visit Montclair Magazine.