Eating insects for the environment

If you are concerned about eating meat because of the contribution of livestock to greenhouse gas emissions but are not averse to other animal proteins, you may be interested in a recently published paper in the journal PLoS ONE.

Researchers from the Netherlands conducted an experiment to quantify production of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ammonia by five insect species, including mealworms, house crickets and locusts, all of which are considered edible.

Large differences were found among the species regarding their production of greenhouse gases. The insects had a higher relative growth rate and emitted comparable or lower amounts of greenhouse gases than described in published literature for pigs and much lower amounts of greenhouse gases than cattle.

The same was true for carbon dioxide production per kg of metabolic weight and per kg of mass gain. The production of ammonia by insects was also lower than for conventional livestock.

But, if you do not want to get your hands dirty, you can buy a box of milk chocolate spiders, slugs and maggots for a mere £8.99.