--- title: Insect Protein: Eating Crickets and Chapulines Won't Save the Planet description: Crickets are hailed as the future of food, an alternative, sustainable source of protein. But a new study questions their eco-friendliness canonical: https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-20T21:11:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:23.200Z article:section: Health og:title: Eating Insects Isn't as Eco-Friendly As People Say og:description: Crickets are hailed as the future of food, an alternative, sustainable source of protein. But a new study questions their eco-friendliness og:url: https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad3e783007b3c7f/6987ebae55a859ed37a89a33/crickets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Insects: Our Food Of The Future? og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eating Insects Isn't as Eco-Friendly As People Say twitter:description: Crickets are hailed as the future of food, an alternative, sustainable source of protein. But a new study questions their eco-friendliness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad3e783007b3c7f/6987ebae55a859ed37a89a33/crickets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Eating Insects Isn't as Eco-Friendly As People Say > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=af79ba3b-f40e-4bca-a148-564901e4f7a8&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How to Cook a Bug [Watch (HLS stream): How to Cook a Bug](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FaWUVZvV.m3u8) (2:43)  _Published 2008-05-29. A great way to save the planet may be to stop eating beef and munch on crickets instead._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 20, 2015 9:11 PM UTC  Dried grasshoppers, mealworms and crickets seasoned with spices Dried grasshoppers, mealworms and crickets seasoned with spices Sean Gallup—Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Apr 20, 2015 9:11 PM UTC Crickets are often trumpeted as the future of food, an edible, eco-friendly solution to a some-day protein shortage that livestock just can’t fix. Even the United Nations [promotes insect-eating](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/15/fight-world-hunger-by-eating-bugs-urges-u-n/) as a promising, protein-packed way to feed the 9 billion people that will live on earth in 2050\. “A benefit of insects as an alternative animal protein source is that they can be reared sustainably on organic side streams (e.g. manure, pig slurry and compost),” their report reads. Because insects emit far fewer greenhouse gases than livestock and consume way less water, they have a comparatively tiny ecological footprint, and they’re thought to thrive on basically anything, even organic waste. That last point sums up the main ecological appeal of eating insects; growing the grain used in animal feed takes up huge water and energy resources. But do crickets really have the potential to be the new beef? Not yet, according to a new [study](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118785#abstract0) published in the journal _PLOS ONE_. When researchers raised crickets on several different diets and tried to see how much protein they could squeeze out of them, they got some disappointing results: just not a whole lot of protein. **MORE**: [Why, On Second Thought, Maybe You Shouldn’t Start Eating Bugs](http://business.time.com/2011/03/15/why-on-second-thought-maybe-you-shouldnt-start-eating-bugs/) In the experiment, researchers raised crickets on one of five different diets. They replicated each diet three times and harvested the crickets after two weeks. One group ate corn-, soy- and grain-based feed, while others survived on food waste or crop residue. The researchers measured how big the crickets grew and how much edible protein they produced. Diet made a huge difference, the study authors found. Those that ate a diet of processed food waste had feed and protein conversion rates no more efficient than that of chickens. Nearly all those fed straight food waste died before they could be harvested. And the most successful crickets were those that ate a grain-based diet similar to what most poultry eat. They had a 35% protein conversion rate, which is only slightly better than chickens. So even if the whole world took a page out of Mexico’s cookbook and developed an appetite for [chapulines](http://www.timeforkids.com/news/article-good-enough-eat/99001)—crunchy fried crickets—the small protein payoffs may not even be worth it if we’re feeding them what chickens eat, the authors suggest. “I think the sustainability claims on this topic have been overstated given the current state of knowledge,” wrote study author Dr. Mark Lundy of the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources in an e-mail. Even if they can’t survive on as many organic sidestreams as we originally thought, Lundy doesn’t think that insects are out of the running as the future of food. “I’m all for exploring alternatives, and I am impressed by the amount of innovation that has sprung up around insect cultivation and cuisine in the last few years,” he says. “However, I also think we need to be clear-eyed about what the sustainability gains are and aren’t, and focus our innovative efforts and limited resources to where they will have the most lasting impact.” Swapping chickens for crickets–while feeding them the same thing—is unlikely to make a real difference. “Insect cultivation is more likely to contribute to human nutrition at a scale of economic and ecological significance if it does not rely on a diet that competes with conventional livestock,” he says, “but more innovation is needed for this to become a reality.” ## Transcript Hi, I'm Bryan Walsh with TIME Magazine. I recently went to the Broad Appetit Food Festival in Richmond, Virginia, where a pair of the world's best and only insect- cooking chefs faced off. They prepared everything from cricket pasta to filleted water bug, from tarantula tempura to wax- room salad. Now, most Americans would rather exterminate bugs than eat them but insects are considered a delicacy in much of the world. If you can get beyond the eek factor, insects like grasshoppers can actually be a healthy >> and low fat source of protein and vitamins. And when you realized how much land, food and water it takes to produce cattle, then maybe raising crickets for food isn't such a bad deal for the earth. So I talked to David George Gordon, author of The Eat- a- Bug Cookbook, and he showed me how to cook and eat one of his favorite recipes, Scorpion Scaloppine. And of course, there's a scientific term for eating insects, right? >> The fancy word is Entomophagy. >> Entomophagy. >> I like that word. So first, I'm gonna cut off the stingers of the scorpions. >> Which is important because you don't want to-- >> There's a venom gland in there. >> Yeah. >> That's right. So, now these are no more dangerous to handle than say, a shrimp or a lobster. >> Right. Appearance is not what's standing there. >> That's right. We're gonna put this in the milk. And then we're gonna dredge them in cornmeal. Make sure we get lots of cornmeal on there. So then into the butter they go, it's a melted butter. >> We'll give them about one minute. Okay, so these are now ready to serve. We'll put them on a plate. >> Okay. >> And like a lobster, where the meat really is, is the-- is in the claws and the tail of-- >> Of course. >> So-- >> So how do I eat this? >> Well, what I would do is, let's-- >> Yeah. >> cut off-- >> Okay. >> the tail, crossly. >> And this is the fun part of the job, the adventures in eating. >> Tastes like-- tastes like crab, you're absolutely right, not like chicken. Not as you might expect to taste like crab and you know, it's looking good. That's good. That's good. >> Okay, yeah. >> Insect cuisine may be great for Gordon but it's little hard to see the average Americans swallowing his cooking anytime soon. 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