This mulberry silk moth (Bombyx mori) is a product of over 5,000 years of domestication and rearing. The domestication of the hundreds of species of insects that we currently rear should be a testimony that rearing is not for dummies. In contrast to the popular trend of simplifying everything from Artificial Intelligence to Vegetarian Cooking (over 300 “For Dummies” titles listed in Amazon), I am going against the grain in touting my writings and teachings (my online and in person classes) as being intellectually based and seeking to give a deep and far-reaching understanding of the complexities of insect rearing.
I hasten to say that I think it’s a clever way to approach topics that would put people off (Economics, Physics, Religious Philosophy, etc.), but without deliberately relegating insect rearing as a “for dummies” concept, the entomological community has done a disservice to the potential of insect rearing to contribute even more than it has to the well-being of humanity.
I have devoted several recent posts and will devote several more to make my point about how the statement attributed to Socrates “The unexamined life is not worth living” applies to the complex practice of insect rearing.
I hope you will examine some of my posts.
==Allen Carson Cohen