Sustainable Eating: Why Insects Should Be on the Menu
President Biden recently announced that the US aims to achieve a 50% reduction from 2005 levels in GHG pollution by 2030. This goal will only be achieved if everyone — corporations and individuals — makes significant changes to their current practices. For major companies, like Microsoft and Disney, this will mean buying more carbon offsets and investing in aforestation projects, reexamining supply chains and, ultimately, changing how their businesses are run.
For individuals, such changes will mean a fundamental reshaping of consumer priorities. The good news: the market is making such reshaping easier by the day. Witness the introduction of the Ford F-150 Lightning, which had 20,000 people on the waitlist within 12 hours of launch, or the rapid proliferation in restaurants offering Impossible and Beyond Meat. These changes are staggering.
But the enthusiasm for these products, while welcome, is far from enough. And there’s one market that’s ready for consumers if they are willing to embrace it with equal enthusiasm: the market for edible insects.
Insects are good for the planet.
As our population continues to grow, we must find alternative sources of protein to feed ourselves and reduce our dependence on the livestock industry. Livestock are responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gases. But crickets, the most widely available insect for human consumption, beat cows, chickens, and pigs on almost any measure. Cows produce 100x the greenhouse gas emissions of crickets. And while it takes 1 gallon of water to produce a pound of cricket, it takes 518 gallons to produce a pound of chicken, 718 gallons to produce a pound of pork, and a whopping 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.
Insects are good for you.
Insects aren’t just good for the planet, they’re also a good source of essential nutrients. For example, crickets are high in protein, low in fat, and packed with prebiotics, B12, iron, calcium, and fiber. Unlike plant proteins, crickets are a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids.
Insects come in all different forms.
Insect-based snacks are currently available in a wide range of different forms. In the United States, most insect-based consumer products visually mask the fact that insects are a main ingredient, so you won’t see any legs or antennae in your protein bars or crackers. You can also cook and bake with insects: many brands sell insect flour — milled and dry roasted insects that you can mix into recipes to dial up the protein. Like all proteins, different insects have different tastes and flavor profiles.
None of this is new.
Eating insects is not a new concept. Insects have long been a staple of diets in Mexico, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, and China, among other countries.
Why now?
As our culture continues to shift and conversations around climate change mitigation become more and more frequent, it’s important to consider any and every option available to us to help neutralize the tremendous negative impact we as humans have already had on our planet. Achieving a 50% reduction from 2005 levels in greenhouse gas pollution by 2030 will require us to pull out all the stops, and changing our diets has to be one of them.
This behavioral shift won’t be easy — as co-founder of Chirps, I have seen the initial resistance to eating insects firsthand. But given their nutritional profile and ecological footprint, introducing insects into our diets to offset the traditional proteins we consume is a simple way to have a tremendous positive impact. I promise you they won’t bite back.
Interested in chatting more about sustainability, climate tech, or eating insects? Feel free to reach out: meryl@atoneventures.com.
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