Dec.
19, 2012 — Food enthusiasts interested in sustainable farm practices may
soon have a new meat alternative: insects. Beetle larvae (called mealworms)
farms produce more edible protein than traditional farms for chicken, pork,
beef or milk, for the same amount of land used, according to research published
Dec. 19 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Dennis Oonincx and
colleagues from the University of Wageningen, Netherlands.
The
researchers compared the environmental impact of meat production on a mealworm
farm to traditional animal farms using three parameters: Land usage, energy
needs, and greenhouse gas emissions. From the start of the process to the point
that the meat left the farm, they found that mealworms scored better than the
other foods. Per unit of edible protein produced, mealworm farms required less
land and similar amounts of energy.
Previous
work by the same team, published in PLOS ONE in 2010, has already
shown that mealworms themselves produce less greenhouse gases than other
animals grown for meat. In this new study, the researchers elaborate on the
sustainability of insect proteins as a food by showing that growing mealworms
for animal protein requires less land and generate fewer greenhouse gas
emissions than chicken, pork, beef or milk.
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