Nasa can't send humans to Mars until it gets the food right

[Drashner1]

This might terrify some people but a more likely scenario is that the cuisine of such colonies would simply not include red meat or poultry. Fish from aquaculture and insect meat is far more efficient in terms of growing space and both play more important roles in a controlled ecosystem. Aquaculture is especially useful because it can be combined with hydroponics, taking up the same space but producing a greater diversity of food.

Early space colonies may base their cuisine on something closer to Japanese food, mixed with Mediterranean leafy salads with oil, rather than western diets.

It certainly doesn't terrify me. From everything I've read insects are a vastly more efficient source of protein than 'Western' sources of such. Much of the planet outside of the North America and Europe already eat insects, either as a matter of course or as a delicacy. And if you consider things like shrimp, crabs, and lobsters, then arthropods (some of the biggest ones on the planet) are actually considered a delicacy in the West, too.

That all said, I will admit that I can't face softshell crabs at dinner - the legs in the air just get to me. But I'm pretty confident I could handle a properly processed insect based based. And of course, that's just a local cultural bias and what I'm used to. I'd sure I'd get used to more...buggy cuisine fairly quickly.

I would actually be unsurprised if insect based protein plays an increasing role in both the RL and the early part of the OA timeline, eventually become a far more common protein source than red meat.

Todd