Want some fries with those crickets?

When Luke wrote about eating garden snails a few weeks ago, for natural pest control, it seemed a little yucky to some of our readers, including me.

But then, I got to think, other cultures eat more exotic animals, including insects, by choice, right? So I started to research a little about eating bug – entomophagy – I was surprised to learn that eating bugs is “normal”, even in America.

But I was not surprised that it’s much more “eco-friendly” because carbon emission is much less than eating other meats.

Did you know that:

There are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects.
100 grams of cricket contains: 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 g. of fat, 5.1 g. of carbohydrates, 75.8 mg. calcium, 185.3 mg. of phosphorous, 9.5 mg. of iron, 0.36 mg. of thiamin, 1.09 mg. of riboflavin, and 3.10 mg. of niacin. Compare this with ground beef, which, although it contains more protein (23.5 g.), also has 288.2 calories and a whopping 21.2 grams of fat!
You can eat about a pound of insects inadvertently in your lifetime. Insects are in fruits, vegetables, beverages, canned foods and processed foods.

Ok, now that I’ve freaked you out, check out this infographic of insects and meats and how they compare in eco-friendliness. Make sure to scroll down to the end.

Eating Insects - The Most Eco-Friendly Meat

I have to admit, I did bite into a cricket once when I was having a roast beef dinner in college and I will never forget that weird metallic, aftertaste. ( I guess I am one of those people who inadvertently eat bugs.) But eco-friendly or not, I don’t think I would be growing crickets for dinner any time soon, but that’s just me.

What do you think? Would you eat crickets for dinner?

[Infographics courtesy of Food Service Warehouse]
Source: manataka.org

[CC Image by wwarby via Flickr]

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Tags: carbon footprint, global warming, insects, Meat

About the Author

Karen Lee Karen lives a simple, frugal, green life and shares her eco tips and news on ecokaren and is a co-founder of Green Sisterhood, a network of community of green women bloggers, making change. When she's not managing Green Sisterhood or blogging on ecokaren, she is a chauffeur to two greenagers, wife to an accidental recycler, master chef to hungry locavores, seamstress, knitter, and dumpster diver, not necessarily in that order.