Turns out insects are the answer. Now, before you hurl, let me explain why insects are such a viable food source and why you someday may enjoy these delightful treats.
• Insects are perfectly safe to eat! “Less than 0.5% of all known insect species are harmful to people.” Many mammals, such as pigs and cows, are similar enough to humans that they can pass on diseases that affect us. Remember swine flu and mad cow disease? Insects are so different from us that the risk on getting harmful diseases from them is super low.
• More meat. Insects are cold-blooded, which means they use significantly less energy than mammals because they don’t need energy to keep warm. Result? “Ten pounds of feed yields one pound of beef, three pounds of pork, five pounds of chicken and up to six pounds of insect meat.”
• “Insects produce less waste... The proportion of livestock that is not edible after processing is 30% for pork, 35% for chicken, 45% for beef and 65% for lamb. By contrast, only 20% of a cricket is inedible.”
• Insects are environmentally friendly. Insects don’t use much water, and produce lower quantities of harmful byproducts, such as ammonia and greenhouse gasses. Did you know that livestock is responsible for 10% of greenhouses gases?
• Insects take up less room. Folks get up in arms when livestock aren’t given enough space or living conditions are otherwise poor. Insects like being in close quarters with other bugs. They can be raised on crowded trays in a warehouse. This frees up land that will become increasingly valuable to grow crops and house a growing population.
• Insects can be raised anywhere. Since insects can be raised in warehouses, they can be raised anywhere in the world, hot or cold, rural or urban. Everyone can have access to needed animal protein.
Insects may just be the key to the future.
Mmmmm. Hungry yet?
