????帕特?克勞利原本是美國猶他州的一名水資源規劃師，他一直熱衷于傳播水資源保護理念。但農業界一心只想著如何從科羅拉多河抽取河水來滋養加利福尼亞州和西部其他州的農作物，對于他的理論基本上置若罔聞，這讓克勞利非常沮喪。

????幾年前，這位34歲的漂流愛好者有機會聆聽了一場TED演講，主題是可食用昆蟲。演講者把這些小動物譽為驚人的蛋白質來源。而且，放棄諸如大豆和谷物這類傳統的蛋白質來源，轉而利用小昆蟲，顯然具有節約用水的巨大潛力。他越聽越覺得，可能是時候改變職業了。

????2011年，在抱著玩玩的心態飼養了一些用于動物飼料的昆蟲之后，克勞利和妻子埃里卡?科爾特努克、聯合創始人丹?奧尼爾以及幾個朋友在鹽湖城開設了一家餐廳，開始嘗試著以蟋蟀為原料制作面粉。是的，以蟋蟀為原料。具體流程是，先焙燒這些小蟲子，研磨成粉，然后將它們添加到一種還包括有機棗，堅果和香料的混合物之中。

????一年后，他們推出第一款使用蟋蟀粉制作的能量棒——Chapul蟋蟀棒。每個能量棒包含大約25只蟋蟀，其蛋白質含量據說是競爭對手的兩倍?，F在，這款能量棒已經進入200多家位于全美各地的保健食品、單車和極限運動商店。最新一家合作伙伴是總部位于科羅拉多州，在中西部和西部地區擁有100家門店的Natural Grocers連鎖零售公司。

????克勞利說，“我決定創建一種消費產品，讓人們很容易邁出品嘗昆蟲的第一步，因為這種食品把昆蟲融入一種主食，這樣它就更像是一種營養產品，這種吃法不算特別新奇?！绷糁活^金色長發的克勞利看上去頗像已故歌星科特?柯本?！斑@是一次完全受使命感推動的嘗試。事實證明，市場對我們的努力做出了響應。”

????3月份，當克勞利身穿Chapul T恤，攜帶一個裝滿蟋蟀的容器出現在ABC電視臺收視率極高的創業節目《鯊魚坦克》(SharkTank) 時，這種能量棒的知名度瞬間暴漲。參與這檔商業競爭節目的創業者往往需要使出渾身解數，向一組評委推銷他們的創業點子。乍一聽克勞利介紹完，評委們紛紛表示，“你肯定是在開玩笑，”“我絕對不會吃這玩意，”但他們隨后對這款產品產生了濃厚興趣。擔任評委的達拉斯小牛隊 (Dallas Mavericks)老板馬克?庫班當場拍板，承諾將投資5萬美元購買這家公司15%的股權（“讓我們吃一些蟋蟀吧，”他告訴克勞利）。

????“這是一個解決問題的方法，”庫班通過Twitter表示?！拔覀冃枰玫牡鞍踪|來源，假以時日，我認為消費習慣會發生變化?！?/p>

????事實上，除了Chapul之外，還有十幾家新公司正在嘗試著改變人們看待小昆蟲的方式。布魯克林的EXO公司正在制作蛋白質能量棒。波士頓Six Foods公司打算銷售用蟋蟀粉制作的墨西哥炸玉米片。總部位于佛羅里達州蓋恩斯維爾，由一位昆蟲學家創建的All Things Bugs公司也計劃向這個新興市場銷售自己的蟋蟀粉。與此同時，至少有四家公司正在全球各地針對寵物食品，水產養殖或動物飼料市場生產昆蟲，比如俄亥俄州的EnviroFlight公司和南非的AgriProtein公司。

????As a water planner in Utah, Pat Crowley had grown frustrated that his message of conservation was being largely ignored by an agriculture industry intent on siphoning off the Colorado River to keep crops in California and other Western states succulent.

????Then a few years ago, the 34-year-old whitewater rafting enthusiast was listening to a TED talk on edible insects, which touted the critters as a surprising potent source of protein. The more he heard about the potential water savings from swapping insects for traditional protein like soy and grains, the more he realized it might be time to change professions.

????After toying with farming insects in 2011 for animal feed, Crowley, his wife Erica Koltenuk, co-founder Dan O’Neill and several friends set up shop in a local restaurant in Salt Lake City and began experimenting with making flour from crickets. Yes, crickets– through a process whereby the bugs are roasted, ground into a powder, and added to a mixture that also includes organic dates, nuts and spices.

????A year later, they unveiled Chapul cricket bars, the first-ever energy bar made from cricket flour. The bars, each containing the equivalent of 25 crickets and claiming to contain twice the protein of their competitors, are now in over 200 health food, bike and extreme sports stores nationwide—the latest being Colorado-based Natural Grocers, a chain of 100 stores in the Midwest and West.

????“I decided to create a consumer product that would make it a very easy first step for people to try insects in a way that wasn’t a novelty but incorporate it into a staple food – make it more of a nutritional product,” says Crowley, who has long blond hair and bears a passing resemblance to the late Kurt Cobain. “This was definitely a mission-driven endeavor. It turns out the market has been responsive to it.”

????The bar got a huge boost when Crowley, dressed in a Chapul T-shirt and carrying a container of crickets, was selected to appear in March on the entrepreneur show Shark Tank, the hit business competition show on ABC in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. After initial reactions of “you gotta be kidding” and “there is no way I’m eating that,” the panel warmed to the product—and panelist and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban agreed to invest $50,000 for a 15 percent stake in the business (“Let’s eat some crickets,” he told Crowley).

????“It’s a solution to a problem,” Cuban said via Twitter. “We need better sources of protein and over time I think consumer habits will change.”

????In fact, Chapul is just one of a dozen or more new companies attempting to change the way Americans look at bugs. Brooklyn-based Exo is making protein bars, Boston-based-Six Foods is planning to sell tortilla chips made from cricket flour, and All Things Bugs, a Gainesville, FL-based firm founded by an entomologist, is looking to sell its own cricket flour to this burgeoning market. EnviroFlight in Ohio and AgriProtein in South Africa, meanwhile, are among at least four companies globally producing insects for the pet food, aquaculture or animal feed markets.