Are insects the future of food? | Megan Miller | TEDxManhattan

Megan Miller is founder of Bitty, a San Francisco-based food startup that uses high-protein cricket flour as the basis for a line of energy bars and gluten-free baked goods. Bitty seeks to remove cultural taboos around eating insects and popularize them as a delicious, sustainable ingredient that may help alleviate global food scarcity. Megan's passions for food, sustainability and innovation led her circuitously to the creation of Bitty.
In her early twenties, she studied anthropology and agriculture at the University of Maryland with a focus on human-food relationships, worked for the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, apprenticed on an organic farm and cooked in the pastry kitchen of a fine-dining restaurant. She also backpacked around Mexico and Thailand, where she first sampled edible insects from street-food vendors. After earning her MA in philosophy at St. John's College, she moved to New York City, where she worked in editorial and digital roles at National Geographic Adventure, New York magazine and Popular Science. Megan became regarded as an expert in digital media innovation, appearing frequently as a TV talking head and speaker at events like CES and SXSW Interactive.
In 2010, she relocated to San Francisco to head the U.S. R&D team for a global media company. Business travel took her around the world, including visits back to Latin America and Asia, where she developed the idea of introducing edible insects to Western culture. Surrounded by the Bay Area's food and entrepreneurship communities, she launched Bitty to make that dream a reality.
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