Students eat insects; GOP dumps aid plan

The Associated Press For a biology project at Georgia Southern University, French's students concocted recipes using termites, crickets and other bugs. Some used wild plants, but French awarded extra points for insects. The toughest part of this semester's assignment: The students had to eat their creations, including creamy termite dip and crunchy cricket clusters. "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone," said Gretchen Van Duyke, whose back-to-nature pizza was topped with termites and crickets. The assignment helps students understand food sources around them. "They learn that a lot of wild plants and arthropods are, in fact, edible," French said. Many insects are good sources of protein and fats, French said. "A pound of termites has more nutrients than a pound of beef or pork." Thomas Maloy made crunchy cricket clusters by coating roasted crickets, cereal and peanuts with white chocolate. Rob Uribe created creamy termite dip from termites, garlic butter, pink salmon and cream cheese. French has eaten termites and crickets -- without cheese, chocolate or salmon. Termites have a sweet, nutty flavor, "probably due to the natural fat in them, plus the wood contents they've been eating," he said. Roasted crickets "taste like a fat-laden hors d'oeuvres," but it's best to remove the legs and heads first. "The legs aren't very palatable, and the heads are quite objectionable," French said. · NEW YORK -- After protests from colleges and universities, Congressional Republicans have backed off a plan to deny higher education aid to legal immigrants, The New York Times reported Sunday. GOP welfare legislation would limit, and in some cases deny, the right of legal aliens to receive most kinds of federal aid, including food stamps, Medicaid and short-term child welfare. But after protests from campuses that education was not welfare, a House-Senate conference committee decided last week to drop the proposed ban on immigrants receiving Pell grants, which provide aid to college students, the newspaper reported. Much of the pressure came from colleges and universities in states with large numbers of immigrants, especially California, Florida and New York, because they feared the limits would end up costing them students. "Education is a fundamental tool of being successful, and everyone should have equal access to it," said Rep. E. Clay Shaw, a Florida Republican. The conference members decided instead to require that immigrants have a citizen co-sign their federal college loans, the Times said. Still included in the welfare legislation, however, is a plan to limit access to the Head Start preschool program for the youngest legal aliens. It was an issue that faced little organized opposition, the Times said. The House-Senate conferees agreed that legal immigrants could take part in Head Start, but that their access should be restricted by counting not only their parents' income, but the income of whomever sponsored them as immigrants, in determining whether they were poor enough to be eligible. President Clinton's aides have said he will veto the welfare bill because of other aspects, in particular reductions in spending for child nutrition and aid to the disabled. But the issue of education aid will not go away. It is also part of a big budget reconciliation bill, which Clinton has promised to negotiate with GOP leaders next week.