Replacing half of the meat eaten worldwide with crickets and mealworms would cut farmland use by a third, substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, researchers say.While consumers’ reluctance to eat insects may limit their consumption, even a small increase would bring benefits, the team says.
This could potentially be achieved by using insects as ingredients in some pre-packaged foods.
They found that insects and imitation meat – such as soybean-based foods like tofu – are the most sustainable as they require the least land and energy to produce.Beef is by far the least sustainable, the team says.
In contrast to previous studies, lab-grown meat was found to be no more sustainable than chicken or eggs, requiring an equivalent area of land but using more energy in production.
