As the Covid pandemic and vaccination are losing their political salience, Lithuania’s conspiracy theorists have found a new topic: insects in food.
The Lithuanian Facebook group entitled Food containing crickets/bugs/maggots, created just a few weeks ago, is growing every day, although it is hard to tell whether its members are genuinely concerned or are just trying to sow discord.
Read more: Is there an insect in my bread? EU’s new cricket flour rules spark concerns in Lithuania
Members post pictures of products they have thrown out of their homes because they were suspicious of the ingredients on the label.
The products include biscuits, cheese, meat. Users are looking for insect residues and heavy metals in their food – and blame the vegan movement for purportedly encouraging societies to give up traditional healthy food.
Other groups on social media invite members to share “harmless” food, presumably without suspicious ingredients. Many posts come from businesses offering food products that supposedly cure illnesses, although Lithuanian laws prohibit advertising that claims food products to have medicinal properties.
Scrutiny of food ingredients follows a recent approval by the EU for cricket flour to be used in some foods, as long as it is clearly labelled.
Fears that this will lead to insects replacing more traditional ingredients have been refuted by the food industry and Lithuania’s State Food and Veterinary Service. The latter has assured people that replacing ordinary flour with cricket powder would make no economic sense and would require clear labelling.
Food inspectors also scrutinise companies that farm insects. However, the movement is not slowing down and is even attacking specific businesses – cheese and bread manufacturers have been forced to make statements that they do not use insects in their products. Lithuania’s Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė has also spoken out on the subject, taking a photo with a piece of cottage cheese and assuring that it is safe to eat.
Are insects the new vaccines?
Alfredas Buiko, a scholar studying conspiracy theories, says the scare about food safety and health is not as deep-rooted as the better-known conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 5G network.
However, it employs similar narratives about presumed malevolent puppet-masters who control politics, exploit people, and are building a dystopian world in which everyone will be so impoverished that they’ll have to eat insects to survive.
“Talk of a globalist conspiracy is a new version of the anti-Semitic, anti-Masonic narrative,” Buiko says.
At the same time, the insects-in-food conspiracy theory resonates with new groups, such as the vegan and healthy nutrition communities.
“Healthy living communities are one of the places where conspiracy theories spread very well. Similarly, the radical right, and that’s because both value purity in all senses of the word. In the conspiracy theory communities, there is often talk of a struggle between staying clean and being tainted,” he points out.
Can conspiracy theorists be sued?
Giedrius Galdikas, a communication specialist, says the scare about insects in food has already passed its peak. However, he said, there are still risks.
“It is obvious that businesses are being harmed [...] This is a potential crisis, if businesses remain silent and do nothing, it could worsen. If they see that businesses are unable, unwilling to defend themselves, [the conspiracy theorists] will attack even harder,” he says.
It is hard to say who is behind the scare or what their objectives are, Galdikas says, but “it is obvious that some people are looking for easy targets,” said Galdikas.
According to lawyer Andrius Iškauskas, those who publish misleading information about entrepreneurs may even face legal liability. If someone has posted such information about a business on the internet, they can be required to take it down and issue a retraction.
“This is untrue, defamatory information. It is prohibited by both the Law on Public Information and the Civil Code,” he said.
Damage to reputation can also lead to claims for damages. This applies not only to websites, but also to individuals’ social network accounts.
“If it is not a media outlet, the requirements of the Law on Public Information do not apply, but the requirements of the Civil Code [against defamation] remain applicable. [However,] whether a Facebook page is a public information channel is a very relevant and still debated question,” according to Iškauskas.
Tackling absurd claims
According to Galdikas, Lithuania’s State Food Veterinary Service has performed well in this “crisis”, issuing refutations immediately after misleading information started to trend.
He says public authorities and businesses initially may have been reluctant to make statements about accusations they thought were absurd, lest that would lend them more credibility.
“My recommendation to public authorities would be to communicate more actively, to take a stand on the use of insect flour and protein in food products. Businesses should not remain silent – silence breeds speculation,” says the communication expert.
He also urges companies to take note of the information that is being disseminated about them and to assess it from a legal point of view.
Buiko, the researcher of conspiracy theories, hesitates to make predictions about how quickly the present scare may fizzle out.
“The anti-vaccine movement was also supposed to be short-lived, but it keeps rising and subsiding. But I’m convinced that the movement for healthy eating, orthorexia, isn’t going away. It might get weaker, but for one reason or another, it might come back later, and much stronger,” he says.
