posted
So, I had a thought. Suppose you feed a bunch of dung beetles on your household production of shit. Then you fry and eat the dung beetles. How much money do you save by not having to buy food?
Which raises the question: What are the tradeoffs that make the current efficiency of our intestines optimal? There clearly is more energy to be extracted.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
You know, another forum I lurk on has someone who is fascinated by dung beetles, too. Is this a new type of minor forum character, the Dung Beetle Facts Dropper?
Posts: 628 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
They are important out on the plains, as they collect, ball up, and bury much of the waste that our livestock make. Without them things wouldn't be very nice.
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Well, it doesn't have to be dung beetles. Flies will do. The point is to ask how much additional energy you could extract from your food by using an external stomach like this.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Telperion the Silver: They are important out on the plains, as they collect, ball up, and bury much of the waste that our livestock make. Without them things wouldn't be very nice.
Hm...I don't know that this is true in America.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
KoM, cut out the middle man and just eat your own arm.
I do believe a law of diminishing returns is why we don't recycle our waste. The best way to recycle it is to use it as fertilizer and eat what grows from it.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Dan_raven: KoM, cut out the middle man and just eat your own arm.
I do believe a law of diminishing returns is why we don't recycle our waste. The best way to recycle it is to use it as fertilizer and eat what grows from it.
Arms are not replaceable.
Potatoes are just a variety of dung beetle, in this context. However, potatoes require quite a bit of space and also access to sunlight. Dung beetles can extract the energy directly, without the need for sunlight; you can keep them in a basement, or an apartment. Mushrooms would do as well, but my wife doesn't like mushrooms.
Incidentally, pigs used to be fed on what was politely called 'offal'. I don't think the practice has really changed that much, although they no longer run free in streets/sewers to find their own.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Potatoes are just a variety of dung beetle, in this context.
Not really. Potatoes extract only nitrogen and minerals from the waste, they get the majority of their carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (i.e. what they use to make the starches that we might feed on) from air and water using the energy from sunlight. So if you grow potatoes in the "offal", you get much more useable energy out of the process than was contained in the waste products you started with. Dung beetles and mushrooms use only what's in the waste material to start with. It is a very significant difference.
quote:Mushrooms would do as well, but my wife doesn't like mushrooms.
You seem to be saying that she does like eating dung beetles??
I know a lot of people who don't like mushrooms. I don't know any who wouldn't prefer them over dung beetles.
I still haven't been able to find any references to people eating dung beetles. Can you give us a source on this. As I mentioned earlier, not all bugs are edible, even fewer are tasty.
On the other hand, I recently ate some termites. They taste like carrots (seriously).
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
I'm not particularly hung up on the dung beetles, and have no idea if they're actually edible or not. The point was to increase your digestive efficiency by having an external stomach. Anything that eats human waste will do. It could get the kitchen scraps as well, although perhaps there are better recycling uses for that.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Dan_raven: I do believe a law of diminishing returns is why we don't recycle our waste. The best way to recycle it is to use it as fertilizer and eat what grows from it.
Um, I thought the reason we don't recycle our waste is that it leads to the spread of disease and lots of death and stuff.
Unless we want to eat diseased cadavers...
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Maybe I'd try it, but i couldn't get over their INSECTNESS! Plus they live in DUNG. I don't think human dung is the same as buffalo dung, so I doubt they'd like it. Not sure, but it's still nontheless DUNG! Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Eat your dung beetles or no dessert for you, young lady! There's plenty of starving children in Africa would be glad of a nice plate of dung beetles like you've got there.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I took a look around that site. When I got to the Giant Centipede Whiskey, I had to close the window. Remind me to be very suspicious if I ever go to Thailand. I can easily see that sort of thing being a joke they play on tourists.
I think I need a shower now. I dislike creepy-crawlies, and I really hate centipedes.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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