Insects as a New Protein Source
Our Results
Cricket Farming Results
1. Crickets
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Crickets proved to be an economical and environmental source of protein, with great potential to feed communities.
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They do not require a great amount of water and their food can simply be scraps; they are prepared in a variety of ways and have shown to be safe for people as cricket farms in Thailand have taken off.
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80% of a cricket is useable meat as well, so not a lot goes to waste.
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2. Mealworms
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Mealworms are also another efficient protein source, albeit less explored than crickets,
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Though they have a longer development cycle, the CO2 emissions per person are even less than crickets.
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They may take more space than crickets, but mealworms are another effective option going forward.
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3. Chicken
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Much to our surprise chicken proved to be the most environmentally friendly option of all when taking into account the CO2 per person sustained.
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However, there are some concerns with raising chickens; a large concern is in terms of ethics. The great numbers that chicken give are largely because they have extremely short lives, breed only for slaughter and living in an extremely tiny space for the entirely of their short lives. Yes, chicken at a glance are a great option. Yet we have to consider how the chicken are actually treated.
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There is a debate over the ethics of insects, but insects lack nociceptors (pain receptors) so there might be a difference in ethics between breeding insects vs. chicken for slaughter.
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3. Beef
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To no surprise, beef proved to be the worst environmental option.
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Between the long lifespan of cows, the water cows need, the food cows need, and the methane released by ruminants, beef is the worst environmental option.
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If nothing else, we do not need to entirely replace our protein with insects, but without question we do need to phase out beef if we want to cut GHG emissions from the livestock sector.
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Mealworm Farming Results
Chicken Farm Results
Grain Farm For Chicken Results
Grain Farming for Beef Results
Conclusion
Other Considerations
Observing the figure to the right, crickets and mealworms have proven to be on par with chicken in terms of low CO2 emissions per kg of protein. Beef is certainly the outlier, with the entire production process being incredibly detrimental to the environment.
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Crickets, mealworms, and chicken all have roughly the same environmental impact. So why choose insects over the conventional chicken? This primarily has to do with ethics. The chicken industry is incredibly cruel, and while it is not necessarily ethical to kill insects for slaughter there is scientific evidence that insects do not feel the same kind of pain as humans or chickens. Chickens also require more water than insects, so they may not be a practical option in certain areas. However, if chicken is the desired protein one way to implement the lowered emissions of insects could be to use crickets or mealworms as chicken feed.
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In general, our results show that insects are an up-and-coming protein source with great potential to lower CO2 emissions especially compared to beef.
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1. Feeding the insects​
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Something we did not consider in our analysis was that crickets and mealworms do need food.
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However, crickets can eat almost anything and one of their preferred foods is rotten produce, so in theory communities could simply give their produce scraps to feed the crickets instead of tending a completely separate farm purely for cricket feed.
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Mealworms also have a variety of feed options, with grain as a common source but spoiled food as an option as well.
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In general, it would be easier and emit less CO2 to feed these insects versus any current livestock, with the plot on the right showing how much feed is needed for a kg of live and useable product for crickets vs, poultry and beef.
2. Water
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There is currently not analysis conducted on how much water it takes to raise insects, however the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) predicts that water emissions for insects could be much lower than current livestock.
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1 kg of chicken takes 2,300 liters of water
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1 kg of pork takes 3,500 liters of water
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1 kg of beef takes at least 22,000 liters of water (some estimates are much higher)
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If communities don't have easy access to water, insects could be a better option as they can get some moisture from their food alone and require potentially significantly less water than chicken and especially beef.
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