Edible insects touted as an environment-friendly alternative
CONSUMING INSECTS AND IMITATION MEAT — SUCH AS SOYBEANBASED FOODS — ARE THE MOST SUSTAINABLE AS THEY REQUIRE THE LEAST LAND AND ENERGY TO PRODUCE
LONDON: Consuming insects such as crickets and mealworms could help tackle climate change by reducing harmful emissions linked to livestock production, new research suggests.
The study showed that replacing half of the meat eaten worldwide with crickets and mealworms would cut farmland use by a third, substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Further, consuming insects and imitation meat — such as soybean-based foods like tofu —are the most sustainable as they require the least land and energy to produce, the study stated.
Lab-grown meat was also found to be no more sustainable than chicken or eggs, requiring an equivalent area of land but using more energy in production.
For the study, the team used data collected primarily by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and compared the environmental impacts of conventional meat production with those of alternative food sources.
Halving global consumption of animal products by eating more insects or imitation meat would free up 1,680 million hectares of land, the researchers said.
As well as being a major contributor to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, current livestock production has other environmental impacts.
Globally, pasture covers twice the area of cropland and livestock consume around a third of all harvested crops, they said in the report published in the journal Global Food Security