Years ago, I was invited to participate in a panel at the 5th US-Japan Youth Forum in Tokyo. One of my fellow panellists was Kjerstin Erickson, who founded a successful non-profit organization, FORGE, at the age of 20. On stage, she was an amazing and inspiring speaker. But in person, too, she was an extremely honest, intelligent and thoughtful person to bounce ideas around with. She was also a lot of fun! We had a great time visiting one of my favourite things to see in Tokyo, the Elvises in Yoyogi Park...

Last year, Kjerstin posted something on Facebook about her new startup - Simbi, a website for people to trade skills and services, without any money changing hands. Members offer or requests services - anything from edits to illustrations to yoga lessons to babysitting to IT support to gardening to language lessons - and instead of paying in money, everything is paid for in a virual currency. This currency can then be exchanged for more services! The currency has no cash value, so all the effort you put in only goes towards helping other individuals. Also, everyone starts out equal, which is how the world ought to be. 

It's a very simple idea, and pretty intuitive, too, so it's been really successful. Just a year after it was founded, Simbi is now a brilliant and thriving online community, populated by a huge number of people, all of whom share a common set of values. I really recommend it to everyone and anyone.

The point of this story is firstly to encourage you to join Simbi! But also to introduce my first fieldwork video :)

A few days ago, I sent a few of my unedited video clips - taken this year in Burkina Faso - to another Simbi member. In no time at all, he put a lovely short film together for me. It's only a minute and a half long, and it shows caterpillars in Burkina Faso being prepared by my Burkinabe neighbours, Argita and Momoni, and you can watch it here on YouTube. I hope you like it!

Here are a few screenshots from the film, and also one of the Simbi manifesto:

When I got back from fieldwork in Burkina Faso, this book was waiting for me!

It's a fairly detailed, comprehensive and up-to-date summary of the use of insects as food, covering their history, their nutritional value, their efficiency when farmed, and modern technologies for farming and processing insects. It also gives a good overview of food safety with regard to edible insects. 

Best of all, it opens with the sentence "This book is about optimism."

I'm biased, because I co-wrote that first chapter.. But that first sentence was penned by my wonderful co-author, Florence Dunkel, who's spent the majority of her academic career working on edible insects. She edited the Food Insects Newsletter - still a great resource for anyone who's interested - and has held annual Bug Banquets for over 25 years.

She also wrote the final sentence of our Chapter, which is simply: "Enjoy!" 

I hope that everyone and anyone who reads it - or in fact everyone and anyone who is working in this exciting field - does exactly that. And if you'd like a copy of the book, do let me know, I might be able to send you something!