--- 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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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## 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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/"},"headline":"Eating Insects Isn't as Eco-Friendly As People Say","datePublished":"2015-04-20T21:11:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:23.200Z","description":"Crickets aren't so green after all","url":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","diet"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad3e783007b3c7f/6987ebae55a859ed37a89a33/crickets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad3e783007b3c7f/6987ebae55a859ed37a89a33/crickets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Insects: Our Food Of The Future?","caption":"Insects: Our Food Of The Future?","creditText":"Sean Gallup—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/","name":"Eating Insects Isn't as Eco-Friendly As People Say"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Cook a Bug","description":"A great way to save the planet may be to stop eating beef and munch on crickets instead.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FaWUVZvV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2008-05-29T17:00:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FaWUVZvV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/","duration":"PT2M43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3824917/crickets-sustainable-protein/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```