How much more environmentally friendly is it to eat insects?
By: Kristian Sjøgren Insect farms emit 75 per cent less carbon and use half as much water as poultry farms, shows new study.
Livestock production accounts for around 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and pollutes both the land and surrounding water ways.
So it may be time to switch from steak and chops to to more eco-friendly farm produce, such as crickets and mealworms.
New research shows that cricket farming uses 75 per cent less CO2 and 50 per cent less water than chicken farming. Insects are also rich in protein and contain all the nutrients that we get from meat.
“Traditional farming involves a lot of environmental impacts in the form of both greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution by pesticides and fertiliser,” says Ph.D. student Afton Halloran from the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Halloran has just submitted her Ph.D. thesis on the environmental impacts of cricket farming in Thailand.
“It’s a massive problem and if we want to reduce the environmental impacts, insects can make a good contribution for both people and feed for animals, which our study shows has fewer environmental impacts,” says Halloran, who has published her research in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
