As the world diverts more of its grain harvests into producing meat, some scientists are pushing policymakers to take a closer look at insects as an environmentally friendlier source of protein. Whereas a cow needs to eat roughly 8 grams of food to gain a gram in weight, for instance, insects need less than two. “If you are going to feed 9 billion people, we cannot ignore the efficiency of insects as protein producers,” says Paul Vantomme, senior forestry officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome.
Consider, for instance, the mopane worm. These caterpillars of the emperor moth feed on the leaves of mopane (mo-PAN-ee) trees, which emerge in southern Africa’s summer, a time when other staples can be in short supply. Dried, stewed, smoked, or fried, the insects are a popular delicacy. And they are just one of hundreds of insect species that play an important role in the diets of millions of people.
“Nutritionally, it is excellent food,” says Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “It’s the same or even better than conventional meat, fish, or poultry.” Just 100 grams of caterpillars can provide all of an adult’s recommended daily protein, along with iron, B vitamins, and other essential nutrients, he says.
Such eye-opening statistics have prompted FAO to develop new policy guidelines—expected later this year—that will encourage countries to include insects in their food-security plans. Vantomme hopes the guidelines will lead to more constructive discussions about managing insects. Currently, he says, “some [advisers] get their insecticides ready, and others get their chopsticks.”
Currently, most edible insects are collected in the wild. In Mexico, for instance, farmers collect chapulines (young grasshoppers) from their maize and alfalfa fields, where they would otherwise do damage. FAO, however, is taking a closer look at experimental insect breeding to see whether it can be both eco- logically and economically sustainable. Researchers are also studying whether they could use insect protein in livestock feed or even as a food additive.
A scattering of enthusiasts think that entomophagy—the technical term for eating insects—could even catch on among Europeans and North Americans. In the Netherlands, a company called Bugs Organic Food markets mealworms and grasshoppers through two dozen outlets. The effort has had some success—even “the minister of agriculture held a grasshopper” at a press conference, van Huis says. She didn’t eat the hopper but did approve subsidies for Bugs Organic Food to further develop their products.
