Can we continue eating as much meat when factory farming is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases? In France, an edible insect farm offers a new source of protein for our diet.
The weight of industrial farming
If it was a country, industrial farming would be the 2nd world biggest generator of CO2. In France, farming significantly contributes to air pollution, representing on its own for 70% of the national ammonia and methane emissions, known to be two toxic gases for our atmosphere.
Food for thoughts
There has been an emerging reality check from the consumers, with the rise of pro-vegetarism or pro-vegan initiatives...but also with other ways of consuming meat! Insects remain very few eaten in Western countries, whereas they are a great source of proteins. Moreover, insects farming requires very few space and resources, the whole process generating a lower amount of greenhouse gases.
A little more cricket?
Virginie Mixte, founder of Minus Farm, installed her insects farm in a dedicated 10 m2-wide room of her home. This farm of the future can grow edible mealworms of different varieties and stages of development. The Consumption Index of insects is high, because they contain high quality protein, vitamins and amino acids. For example, crickets require 6 times less food than bovine, 4 times less than sheep and 2 times less than pigs nd chickens to produce the same quantity of proteins*.
This impressive differential gives us to think about our food habits, even though the message is not to replace one type of meat by another, but more to rethink globally our animal protein consumption.
Source: http://www.fao.org/edible-insects/en/
