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Want Flies With That? EU Critics Have a New Conspiracy Theory

Some populist politicians say Brussels is now targeting traditional diets.

Crickets sit in plastic containers in a climate controlled growth room on the Siikonen family farm in Forssa, Finland, 2018.

Crickets sit in plastic containers in a climate controlled growth room on the Siikonen family farm in Forssa, Finland, 2018.

Photographer: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg

After immigrants, “woke” liberals and Brussels bureaucrats, some of Europe’s political agitators have found another — rather smaller — enemy in their culture war: insects.

From Italy’s Matteo Salvini to Britain’s Nigel Farage, self-proclaimed defenders of tradition say there’s a plan afoot to make the public dine on crickets, locusts and grasshoppers. Politicians from Poland’s ruling party are telling voters to reelect them or else the opposition will make them eat bugs.