Witchetty Grubs Dreaming: 2049 and Beyond and the Future of Food?

Ngarlkirdi Jukurrpa (Witchetty Grub Dreaming)

I saw the movie 'Blade Runner: 2049' a week or two ago and in the opening scene K visits a protein farm to track down an android.
The android is harvesting a moth lava that looks similar to the Australian witchetty grub.

"The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths.

Particularly it applies to the larvae of the cossid moth Endoxyla leucomochla, which feeds on the roots of the witchetty bush (named after the grubs) that is found in central Australia."

As described by Janet Long Nakamarra

"The symbol in the center represents the tree of the witchetty grub. People would go out to look for witchetty. They would come to the tree and look for crack marks on the ground. Once they find the marks they then stab the ground with the digging stick to see if the ground is heavy, they then start to dig to the roots. When they find the root is big it tells them the witchetty grub is in the root.
They then break the root with the digging stick and get the witchetty grub out. Some time you have to be careful with the witchetty, if you try to break the root very hard, then you'll squash the witchetty, once its squashed then you just have to eat it.
There are two different kind of witchetty grubs. One that you can get from the root and one that you can get from the branch of a ghost gum. They are two different colours as well. The one you get from the root is white and the one you get form the branch is pink. They both have different names.
Wapilingi - pink witchetty
Ngarlkirdi - white witchetty"

"The word witchetty comes from Adynyamathanha wityu, "hooked stick" and vartu, "grub". Traditionally it is rare for men to dig for them.

Witchetty grubs feature as Dreamings in many Aboriginal paintings."

Witchetty Grub Dreaming

I also saw a lift-out about future foods in the September 12th edition of my local newspaper where bugs, grubs and beetles were mentioned as food we could be eating within 50 years or more.

And some are eating them now, by the looks.

Sara Menker TED talk

I also watched a pig of a movie on the weekend on Netflix called 'Okja', because a friend talked me into viewing it in a comment from this blogpost over at her website -
OKJA – the movie

'Okja' is a movie about Mija, a young girl who risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a genetically modified animal (pig) named Okja.

'Okja' was a movie that I had to force myself to keep watching, because this movie never knew what it wanted to be, and the acting was as bad as the stuff that was flying out of the animal's backside in the movie.
And I love Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal as actors, but this had to be both of their worst acting roles in a movie I have ever seen them in.
And the director didn't seem to know whether to make this a kid's movie, or an adult action movie, because it plays like a kid's movie which is sprinkled with some very appalling curse words throughout, like "f#cktard" for example.
That aside the film does open up a debate about the future and ethics of food.
I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat pig, so I can relate to vegetarians, Jews and Muslims when it comes to eating pigs and as much as I respect the views of vegetarians with their concerns about eating meat, it's not going to stop me from eating a steak, or fish.
Animals eat other animals, that's just the way the world is ... and probably always will be.
But it's true we need to make food sources sustainable for the planet and growing world population, so we do need to put dreams into action when it comes to sustaining the planet's health.
Before it all becomes one big nightmare.

I also think it's ironic that movies like 'Blade Runner 2049' are looking back to the ancient past for foods to sustain the future of the planet.
I would imagine that there would still be a few bugs to iron out in 'Blade Runner 2049' 's vision of the future;-)
Still, it's all food for thought, I guess?

And I for one don't want to see more SPAM hitting us in the future, either.
Spam thieves target popular meat snack for drug money in Hawaii

"During WWII, Spam was not only eaten but was also incorporated into many other aspects of the war (grease for guns, can for scrap metal, etc.); it was so prominent that Uncle Sam was nicknamed "Uncle Spam".

Other terms influenced by the product’s name include the European invasion fleet, or the "Spam Fleet".

Furthermore, the United Service Organizations (USO) toured the "Spam Circuit""

Uncle Spam Wants YOU!