According to the UN’s FAO, two billion people eat insects every day. Out of the more than 2,100 types of edible insects, the most commonly consumed are: ants; beetles; bees; caterpillars; cicadas; crickets; dragon flies; grasshoppers; locusts; termites; and wasps. If this information is acting as an appetite suppressant, it may be because for those who consume a traditional Western diet, the appeal is difficult to swallow.
However, if one considers that insects are packed with vitamins, minerals, fat and high-quality protein – not to mention they offer a sustainable food source – the case for their consumption becomes more persuasive. Crickets, for example, are a “complete protein” which means they contain all nine essential amino acids to build and repair protein tissues.
Furthermore, if we were to consume insects instead of CO2- and methane-producing livestock, the environmental damage being done by our current food system would be reduced significantly. Farming insects would require much less water, feed and space. According to the FAO, one-quarter of the Earth’s land mass is used for grazing and another one-third is used to grow animal feed. Crickets require 12x less feed than cattle and 50% less than pigs and broilers, to produce the same amount of protein. Also, insects have much shorter life cycles which means faster production.
According to a recent Global Market Insights report www.gminsights.com, the US and EU edible insect markets will both reach $80 million by 2024; and the Asia Pacific market will be $250 million by 2025. Meanwhile, work is underway to perfect a lab-grown version because it’s relatively easy to grow insect cells according to a report by research group, Faunalytics, www.faunalytics.org However, researchers say mass production of “lab bugs” is still years away.