By Paul Adams
08.02.2010
Grasshoppers william.neuheisel (CC licensed)
The raising of livestock consumes two-thirds of the planet's
farmland, and is a major source of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, tons of edible,
sustainable protein swarms all around us, free for the taking. In a new policy
paper being considered
by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
Belgian entomologist
Farming edible insects like mealworms and
crickets would produce far less greenhouse gas -- 10 times less methane and 100
times less nitrous oxide -- than the large mammals we
currently farm. Insects are metabolically much more efficient, which makes them
far cheaper to feed and raise; and, since they're so
biologically different from humans, they are less subject to contagious disease
scares like mad cow. They are high in protein and calcium, and, with over 1,000
edible species, offer plenty of delicious variety.
In April, the FAO started a pilot locust-farming project in
Introducing a bug-rich diet to the western world might be more of
a challenge, although it's certainly not unheard
of. A British author named Vincent Holt published
an essay advocating it in 1885, along with a nice selection of menus -- moths
on toast, anyone? -- in a pamphlet called Why Not Eat Insects?
Van Huis proposes a two-phase plan:
first just farming insects to feed to more conventional livestock; and then
gradually introducing them directly to the menu for humans. "We're looking
at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more
recognizable to western palates," he says.