An earlier version of this op-ed was originally published in The Southerner, the student newspaper of Midtown High School in Atlanta, Georgia.
In Uganda, street vendors lure in grasshoppers and fry them up. In Thailand, convenience stores are stocked with baked bamboo worms. In Mexico, escamoles — ant larvae — are considered seasonal delicacies. Although they are less common, one can even find edible insects in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Recently, a friend recommended I try cheese-dusted mealworms from Richards Variety Store in Atlanta’s Ansley Mall. The taste and texture was surprisingly similar to Cheetos.
Most Americans would shrink back in disgust if presented with a tube of roasted mealworms, but that’s not the case for a quarter of the world’s population. Over two billion people in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America eat insects regularly as a part of their traditional diet, a practice known as entomophagy. As the world population grows to a predicted 10 billion in 2050, we need sustainable ways to combat food insecurity, and the answer may lie in the 2,200 species of edible insects found across the globe. Even the UN has endorsed entomophagy since 2013 for its low environmental impact and nutritional value. If Americans pushed past their personal and cultural aversion to this alternative source of protein, it would lessen the U.S. reliance on unsustainable foods as our population grows and struggles to feed citizens.
Crickets, mealworms and other insects have a considerably lower carbon footprint than many of the more traditional sources of protein in Western diets. Livestock farming is responsible for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and 37% of methane gas emissions. Insect farming emits considerably less greenhouse gases: an equivalent mass of insects produces 1% of the emissions produced by ruminants like cows and sheep. Given that the amount of food production needs to increase by 56% in the next 25 years to accommodate global population growth, the Western world should adapt to and embrace new food sources like insects.
Another environmental advantage of insects is their space efficiency. Currently, livestock farming takes up 2 billion hectares worldwide, and that number continues to grow as forests and habitats are cut down to make room for farmland. Insects, however, need a comparatively negligible amount of land because they can be farmed efficiently in compact, vertical shelves. If half of the animal protein intake in the world were replaced by insects, it would reduce the amount of farmland needed by 34%.
Insects also have an exceptionally high feed conversion rate, meaning they need a fraction of the amount of the food that traditional livestock need to produce the same quantity of protein. There is also an advantage in what they eat. The diet of traditional livestock consists mainly of corn and soy, two crops that are unsustainable due to their water pollution, air pollution, soil degradation and water consumption. In the United States, air pollution from corn production results in 4,300 premature deaths per year, and a single acre of corn consumes 600,000 gallons of water per year. Unlike traditional livestock, farmed insects can be fed waste from agriculture and breweries that would otherwise end up in a landfill, where they would emit methane.
Not only are insects more sustainable — they are also nutritious and rich in protein. A single handful meets the daily requirements of minerals and vitamins for humans, as they are especially rich in iron, zinc and B. Many types of insects have a higher percentage of protein than plant-based proteins and standard meats — such as grasshoppers and crickets, some of the world’s most commonly eaten insects. Turning away from bugs is a missed opportunity to supplement American diets.
Despite the numerous benefits of entomophagy, the U.S. and Europe remain opposed, and researchers agree that consumer acceptance is the main barrier to the adoption. This is mostly due to a lack of familiarity, since insects have minimal presence in American markets and often disgust customers.
However, younger generations have been shown to be the most accepting of insects as food, since they are more open to new ideas. One way for edible insect companies to increase their presence in American markets would be to devise marketing initiatives aimed at Gen Z, like school programs or sustainability messaging.
While progress is sure to be very slow, a number of companies have nevertheless been working to break into the Western market and expand the edible insect industry. Some, like Entomo Farms in Ontario, Canada and Aspire Food Group in Austin, Texas, have been working on more efficient ways to produce, process and transport insects, including advances in automation and sensor technology. Many companies have focused on integrating insect powder into flour or protein bars to decrease consumer apprehension.
While disgust is a main obstacle for this healthy, sustainable source of protein to overcome, if U.S. consumers could get over their initial hesitancy and join the 128 countries that practice entomophagy, it could revolutionize land use and decrease global warming. Earth cannot afford our disgust.
