The rearing of cattle and pigs for meat production results in an estimated 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. With worldwide consumption of beef and pork expected to double by 2020, alternatives are being investigated. Of these, perhaps the most notable has been the development of “in-vitro meat” which is lab-grown tissue not requiring the production of a whole organism. Initiated by NASA as a form of astronaut food, in-vitro meat production took its first steps in 2000 when scientists used goldfish cells to grow edible protein resembling fish fillets. Since then, turkey and pig cells have been used to create spam-like substances, and Time Magazine has included in-vitro meat in its list of the top 50 breakthrough ideas of 2009.
Here’s the fixins:
Five insect species were studied: fifth larval stage mealworms Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), fifth and sixth nymphal stage house crickets Acheta domesticus (L.) (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), third and fourth stage nymphs of migratory locusts Locusta migratoria (L.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae), third larval stage sun beetles Pachnoda marginata Drury (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) and a mix of all stages of the Argentinean cockroach Blaptica dubia (Serville) (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae). Currently, T. molitor, A. domesticus and L. migratoria are considered edible, while P. marginata and B. dubia are not. The latter two species were included since they are a potential source of animal protein, for instance by means of protein extraction. These two species can be bred in large numbers with little time investment and are able to utilise a wide range of substrates as feed
Here’s the paper:
Oonincx DGAB, van Itterbeeck J, Heetkamp MJW, van den Brand H, van Loon JJA, et al. (2010) An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14445. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014445
Abstract
Background
Greenhouse gas (GHG) production, as a cause of climate change, is considered as one of the biggest problems society is currently facing. The livestock sector is one of the large contributors of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Also, large amounts of ammonia (NH3), leading to soil nitrification and acidification, are produced by livestock. Therefore other sources of animal protein, like edible insects, are currently being considered.
Methodology/Principal Findings
An experiment was conducted to quantify production of carbon dioxide (CO2) and average daily gain (ADG) as a measure of feed conversion efficiency, and to quantify the production of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) as well as NH3 by five insect species of which the first three are considered edible: Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domesticus, Locusta migratoria, Pachnoda marginata, and Blaptica dubia. Large differences were found among the species regarding their production of CO2 and GHGs. The insects in this study had a higher relative growth rate and emitted comparable or lower amounts of GHG than described in literature for pigs and much lower amounts of GHG than cattle. The same was true for CO2 production per kg of metabolic weight and per kg of mass gain. Furthermore, also the production of NH3 by insects was lower than for conventional livestock.
Conclusions/Significance
This study therefore indicates that insects could serve as a more environmentally friendly alternative for the production of animal protein with respect to GHG and NH3 emissions. The results of this study can be used as basic information to compare the production of insects with conventional livestock by means of a life cycle analysis.
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No mention if the authors chow down on locusts at lunchtime. My advice: you first.
Of course, if this becomes widely acceptable, I’ll gladly send Al Gore a box of hornets and some ketchup. It’s the least I can do.
Well, about the only comment I can muster is this:
I hope that charbroiling beef does cause cancer, because I’d rather die than be forcefed bugs by envirowackos.
Amazingly disgusting and revolting to me.
I can foresee a great new industry based on the commercial breeding of blowflies and maggots at the sewerage processing facilities of large population centres.
Fattened maggots could be harvested and processed into high protein snacks to feed back to the city slickers who preach the fire and brimstone of climate change fear mongery. Maggot sushi, blow-fly kabbab, and worm stew could be sold in your local gourmet restaurant and perhaps Macdonalds could do a line of magburgers.
Yup. We gota drive this here herd of locusts down to the Santa Fe railhead before the end on the month. Shorin don’t want them low-down cockroach fellers to get there before we do. Now, you buckaroos keep a sharp lookout. We shor don’t want to be ambushed by any of them snake-in-the-grass bug rustlers.
Why don’t we leave something for our grandchildren and their children to work on. We are using up all of the really swell solutions to AGW before they get a chance :<)
After reading a recent article about the selling of fluoridation of water in the US by using the testimony of doctors, a similar campaign to educate everyone that the AGW religion wants you to eat the pictured plate will make it impossible for global warming to be taken seriously.
The image everyone needs to visualize when global warming is mentioned is a dinner of a plate of bugs (as grossly pictured above). The only people who won’t be grossed out are six year old boys who want to torment their sisters.
Eating bugs is required to reduce carbon dioxide. Renewable energy won’t save the earth, only eating bugs will! Hammer that image home again and again.
It’s a bunch of crackpots from the Agricultural University of Wageningen riding the AGW gravy train full speed together with the Free university of Amsterdam and the University of Tilburg that recently offered Al Gore an Honorable Doctorate.
In case you’ve planned to send your kids to one of these universities? Don’t, you get them back with bugs on their teeth.
This is the most idiotic study I have seen in a while. Consider:
1) What sort of fencing would be most effective containment for all those free range roaches ?
2) What kind of fertilization scheme would be best to maximize my Tenebrio cow-calf units ?
3) Predict the unit losses on my Acheta crickets due to grizzly predation. Could government trappers provide effective control ?
There are just too many questions which boggle the mind !
So the rich countries of the earth had beef and pork to their hearts content while the poor scraped away at bugs and moss to keep themselves alive. As the new age dawns, the wealth shall eat bugs and must for it is they who must save the planet, The poor on the other hand, locked in countries with no regard for saving the planet, will have no recourse but to eat meat as they will be unable to compete with the wealthy for insect food. Od course this would bring up a new problem in that the reduced herds of cattle and swine would in turn reduce the productivity of all the crops that depend on the fertilizer they produce, CO2 included, to keep insect population at maximum.
My guess is however that this will result in a beef trading scheme. You can eat as much steak as you want, but you have to buy enough insect credits from starving countries to get them to eat your allotment of insects for you. They in turn will have to buy carbon credits to off set the use of CO2 from the crop production needed to meet their insect commitments.
Of course the whole thing gets thrown into chaos when someone gene splices a pig with a grasshopper because that would enable all sorts of things previously impossible to come true until “when pigs can fly”.
What is rich shall be poor again and what is poor shall be rich,
BFL, I see she and I are in the same camp then.
Can you imagine the ads for this?
Come get ‘yer insects! Delicious cold roasted insects!
Multi Layered June bugs and we include the gnats for free.
Horse flies, house flies lets fill our bellies with all sorts of flies and save momma gaia from we shallow gaia member eaters.
Come get ‘yer insects!
*~~and we give you more pure energy ounce per flea than our major competitors, enough daily energy to pollinate the acres and acres of planted food for your all knowing gaia minders, all done by your loving hands with zest, zeal and boundless energy like never before, you’ll be telling all your friends and good for the children too!~~
With due respects to the insect connoisseurs above unless I’m starving I won’t be eating any bugs, thank you all the same. At least seafood has been in a bath of salt water it’s whole life and I unfortunately ‘see’ where my land bugs go and what they consume, ahem.
Before anybody gets a chance:
“Soylent green is bugs, people! Soylent Green is bugs!”
@Justa Joe
I think you’re already too late (see below). The real question remains, what would be the appropriate wine list for a Stewed Silkworm Pupae amuse-bouche followed by a Fried Scorpion starter or main course? Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc? And I always thought the green of ecotards was grass not biliousness.
7 Most Disgusting Insect Delicacies on Earth
Funny, I didn’t see much of this stuff at the buffet bar in Cancun.
Next time they stage an eco-conference perhaps someone should set up a stand with this crap and guilt-whip the ecotards into eating some of it.
I prefer a T-Bone next to my baked potato!
Intellectually I can accept eating insects and many survival courses teach you about where to find edible insects if you’re wandering around in the back woods and have to live off the land. Perhaps the palatability can be enhanced by making grasshopper sausage or serving them like shrimp. Shrimp aren’t that much different than insects and I’ve been told by people that slugs taste much the same as escargot (but much cheaper if you live on the wet coast). I think the insect feeding would have to start in childhood to prevent the unpleasant psychologic reactions that many people get when they ponder ingesting insects.
I’ve involuntarily eaten many mosquitoes during my student days working in the NWT. My primary concern is disease transmission through insects as you don’t know where they’ve been so deep frying is a must. OTOH, perhaps soaking them in alcohol like the worm in some brands of tequila is the solution. I’ve had those and they go down well with lime, salt and, of course, tequila. Unless I’m really strapped for protein, I’ll stick to free range beef, buffalo and lamb.
What do the statistics say ?
I think it’s something like the average person eats approximately 8 household spiders (unbeknownst to them) in the average lifetime during their “good night’s sleep”.
Mmm… protein.
C’mon. How about a hat-tip to the commenter (I cannot recall who) who has mentioned this at least twice so far?
Try a six pack of slugs:
http://jimthompson.org/wp/2005.07.04-18.43.56/IMG_3893.JPG
You always wondered what those black spots in you corn chips were.
@Honest ABE
“It really is too bad that the Rocky Mountain locust is extinct.”
Don’t forget the Mormon Crickets. Still plenty of them around, as well as other species of swarming grasshoppers and locust in the Rocky Mountain area. Insects were a major staple for the pre-european inhabitants. The Goshute of the Great Basin sometimes call shrimp “fish cricket.”
@Lank in the South
“I can foresee a great new industry based on the commercial breeding of blowflies and maggots at the sewerage processing facilities of large population centres.”
We’re almost there. Look up Black Soldier Fly. The people who make the BioPod, a BSF based composter, can design industrial sized composting facilities. I assume that if they can process animal waste, they can process municipal sewage sludge, but there there may be some regulatory problems with processing human waste. They recommended converting the pupae and grubs into biodiesel or pet food, but any good food scientist could turn them into a delightful snack for the masses.
Pirran, the things I learn here.
And I didn’t realize that scorpions were classified as ‘insects’.
Had I known this years ago … had to divorce the one I had.
we need to bleach all our skins white so we can reflect sunlight back into space. and we must only eat insects to reduce CO2 from cows and pigs.
^^^
if you believe the above, i feel sorry for you. go and marry al gore, he is single again.
Time to solve the green problem once and for all. Let’s turn the greenies into Soylent Green to feed the world.
Mmmmm…. Kentucky Fried Crickets…
If it tastes good, then why not eat it? We eat prawns anyway, which is sort of a water bug.
If I may put on my tin foil hat for a second, this idea seems like trying to turn real meat into a more expensive produce. “Fake” meat, and bugs? You can have it cheap, but if you want a proper steak it will cost you a lot more! So basically, people with nice wages would be able to afford 100% real meat (Al Gore, Mann, the Queen) but people like us will be eating cockroaches. This kind of thing already happens in poor countries, where meat is a luxery. Why wouldn’t I be surpised if this was extended to the first world ‘in order to save the world?’