A new study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that eating insects could help save the planet.
The report released by the FAO argues that there is a need for humans to reevaluate “what we eat and how we produce it” if the human population is, in fact, going to reach 9 billion by 2050.
Many of the current forms of agriculture are unsustainable and may not suffice to feed the human population in the future.
2 billion people across the world include insects in their diets and eat 1,900 different species of insects.
The practice of eating insects is called “entomophagy.”
The possibility of mass-producing insects as a food source has not yet been explored. Most people that eat insects either forage for them in the wild or keep a small supply in their home.
Insects have many of the same nutritional benefits as meat. Although some might consider eating insects unusual, the environmental cost of raising insects would be much lower than the environmental cost of farming cows and pigs.
Although issues like climate change and overfishing are endangering the future of food, the FAO report predicts that it will be difficult to convince most Westerners to eat caterpillars and beetles.
Want to learn more? Read the full story here: Eat insects to mitigate deforestation and climate change.