"In recent years, this reluctance has been exacerbated by a web of conspiracy theories claiming that "global elites" are forcing the public to abandon meat in favour of bugs."

It's a bit disingenuous to pretend that the WEF and EU have not been suggesting a global switch to insect protein.

[0] 5 reasons why eating insects could reduce climate change

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/02/how-insects-positive...

[1] Why we need to give insects the role they deserve in our food systems

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-...

[2] Saving Lives and the Planet: Balancing Diet with Alternative Proteins Can Cut Deaths by 5% and Emissions by 25%

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/05/europe-insect-based-...

[3] Europe backs insect-based food in a bid to promote alternative protein

https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/01/saving-lives-and-the-p...

[4] Will you be eating insects soon? Can insects feed the world?

https://intelligence.weforum.org/monitor/latest-knowledge/e9...

[5] Meat: The Future series - Alternative Proteins

https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_White_Paper_Alternative_Pr...

[6] EU Regulation authorising the placing on the market of UV-treated powder of whole Tenebrio molitor larvae (yellow mealworm) as a novel food and amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2470

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/89/oj/eng

I'm going to hypothesize that there are two big drivers of this:

1. Everyone has swatted a few flies, or smashed a cricket or a grasshopper, but almost nobody has raised cattle or chickens or especially pigs. Eggs come out of hen's cloacas. It ain't great. If you're comfortable with the reality of farm animals, insect protein doesn't seem that odd.

2. Alex Jones. Globalists forcing you to eat bugs was one of his favorite Boogeymen.

People eat insects all the time without realizing it. The FDA allows insects, rodent poop, mold and foreign matter to be in food at certain levels [1] and that is even before we talk about "natural flavors" in things like strawberry ice cream flavored from beetles. They aren't lying, beetles are natural. This topic goes a lot deeper but I will let others disgust themselves if they wish.

Here's a look at how the world eats bugs on purpose. [2]

[1] - https://www.livescience.com/55459-fda-acceptable-food-defect...

[2] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10904393/