Could Insects Be the Future of Sustainable Nutrition?

The future of food is bugs — or so say the United Nations, the Entomological Society of America, and the 2 billion people worldwide who are already insectivores.

Many a bug is edible, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assures us in its 2013 report The Contribution of Insects to Food Security, Livelihoods, and the Environment. The World Health ­Organization has tallied 2,000 edible-insect species worldwide, which include the roasted crickets prized around the globe, Southeast Asian multispecies bug soups, and escamoles, a delicacy consisting of the farty-ant eggs renowned as “Mexican caviar.” (FAO scientists are even studying the comestible attributes of arachnids — which include spiders and scorpions.)

The future of nutrition, it seems, has legs. Many legs.

Plus, bugs are good for us.

Dubious? The FAO states that “insects provide high-quality protein and nutrients comparable with meat and fish. Insects are particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children because most insect species are high in fatty acids (comparable with fish).” They’re also rich in fiber and micronutrients.

Additionally, insects pose a low risk of transmitting zoonotic diseases (those transmitted from animals to humans) such as bird flu and mad cow disease.

In sum, they’re almost guaranteed to put a chirp in your step.

Can Eating Insects Save the World?

The question remains, however: Why eat bugs?

The future of planet Earth might just depend on it, the FAO suggests: Insects are key to providing sustainable protein to feed the world. Earth cannot support our current reliance on meat and fish protein, and our methods of raising cattle — to focus on just one source of protein — are a key contributor to climate change as well as a major drain on resources, including water, land, and energy. (Modern feedlots produce plentiful and inexpensive meat. Learn more about their cost to environmental and human health at “The CAFO Conundrum.”)

Insects, on the other hand, have a high “feed conversion” rate, to borrow scientific parlance. Crickets, for example, require 12 times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and two times less than pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein. Just a gallon of water is needed to produce a pound of crickets; 1 pound of beef requires almost 2,000 gallons.

Crickets require 12 times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and two times less than pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein. Just a gallon of water is needed to produce a pound of crickets; 1 pound of beef requires almost 2,000 gallons.

Crickets emit far fewer greenhouse gases and 80 percent less methane than cattle. Plus, crickets can be raised on organic waste. This is all similarly true of everything from the lowly mealworm (an insect in larval form) to the despised dust mite (an arthropod), which are both edible and nutritious.

Entomophagy — the eating of insects — may not be quite right for you quite yet. And not everyone agrees that eating insects is the ideal way to save our planet. But the global market for edible insects is on the rise.

Some economic researchers expect the demand to grow 47 percent from 2023 to 2032 — and it’s likely to increase from there. Southeast Asia is the focus of the market, but North America, where the edible-insects sector can only get larger, is seen as the biggest growth area.

As one news report summarized, the growth of the global edible-insects market is driven by factors such as “growing population and decreasing food resources, increasing demand for protein-rich food, high cost of animal protein, environmental sustainability with production and consumption of edible insects, the high nutritional value of insects, and low risk of transmitting zoonotic diseases.”

Our future may actually require us to dine on bugs.

Cooking With Bugs

Lately, I’ve been trying to practice entomophagy. I am striving to incorporate more bugs into my diet. (Granted, in the past I haven’t included any bugs in my meal planning — beyond the odd and unplanned ant at a picnic — so “more” simply means “some.”)

Where does the neophyte insectivore begin?

Perhaps unexpectedly, there’s a swarm of creepy-crawler cookbooks already available. Insects: An Edible Field Guide is a fine starting place if you’re thinking of becoming a grub hunter as well. The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook is an ideal primer. And the internet is teeming with insect recipes, including an array of pasta sauces featuring crickets (as well as cricket-flour pasta itself) and Chocolate Chirp Cookies (hopefully, they taste as good as the pun reads).

I chose to start with dessert, naturally. There are several purveyors of cricket flours and even cricket-flour brownie mixes that seemed the ideal gateway for bug-eating neophytes. Just add eggs, oil, and water. Each brownie contains 14 crickets, give or take, and boasts 2 grams of protein — pretty much on par with the old-school, nonbug type.

How did they taste? Good. Chocolatey. Worthy of eating a second one. And if you didn’t know the brownies contained insects, you’d never guess.

Although they did have a slightly different taste. Not unpleasant, just . . . different. Earthy.

Protein bars seemed a safe second choice. Exo protein bars are made with cricket flour (a.k.a. acheta powder), and the company has marketed them with slogans like “No guts, no glory” — which seems like a challenge to actually eat one. Each bar contains between 160 and 170 calories, good power for a lengthy bike ride or ­Ultimate Frisbee game. And they have 14 grams of protein, which is in the ballpark with other snack bars.

Before venturing into an insectivore main course, I decided to experiment first on my dog. Rosie is a Bernese mountain dog who has yet to meet a meal she doesn’t like. ­Chippin dog treats are made with traditional canine faves like peanut butter, and some also include “humanely harvested” crickets. As Chippin states, “We’re all about pets and their people ‘chippin in’ to help save the planet.” And take it from Rosie: These are tasty treats. Her “sit” command ­response has rarely been so good.

With that endorsement, I was ready to go for the main course. Ground insects seemed too easy; it would have to be full-on bug. So I made tacos garnished with chapulines — traditional roasted grasshoppers from Oaxaca, Mexico. The Merci Mercado chapulines bear the EntoTrust seal signifying they’re a trusted, sustainable source for “quality insect food.” Each chapulín is about an inch long and looks exactly like a grasshopper — which is to say, a tad bit ferocious, especially when roasted to a crisp, golden brown.

I made blue-corn tortillas with ­pinto beans, avocado, cotija cheese, and more, then poured what I thought was a healthy handful of chapulines atop each one. The result was, actually, amazing.

Roasted with a bit of lime and chipotle pepper, the grasshoppers add some 2 grams of protein for every 6 grams of chapulines, spicy flavor, and an especially crunchy exoskeletal je ne sais quoi. Tacos transformed!

With that success, it was time to try out entomophagy on my unsuspecting son. What better than a buggy birthday cake?

I used an all-purpose baking flour that blends bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, and cricket powder for a one-to-one substitution with regular flours — and includes 16 grams of protein per cup. I took a tried-and-true devil’s food cake recipe and swapped it in, making a three-layer cake with chocolate ­ganache frosting (free of worms or other larvae, although I was tempted).

I served it up with the requisite number of candles and, just as he and his friends were about to take a bite, I mentioned, “Oh, by the way, this is made with insect flour.” This evoked nervous grins and several grimaces from the boys around the table and a devil-may-care, dig-right-in bite from one young woman.

The cake tasted dense and fudgy, but it was also heavy and quite filling. In the end, they all tried it: Some had seconds, some couldn’t quite cotton to the cricket connection. All enjoyed the adventure.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers a level of insect “contamination” inevitable, as outlined in its Food Defect Levels Handbook. For instance, the FDA permits up to 75 “insect fragments” in every 50 grams of wheat flour (just under a half cup).

Still, even if you’re not ready to become an insectivore, you might be surprised to know you’re likely already eating some bugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers a level of insect “contamination” inevitable, as outlined in its Food Defect Levels Handbook. For instance, the FDA permits up to 75 “insect fragments” in every 50 grams of wheat flour (just under a half cup) and no more than one maggot per 100 grams of tomato juice (also about a half cup). For chocolate, no more than 90 insect fragments are allowed per 100 grams — about twice the size of a typical bar.

The concern, the FDA notes, is mostly just one of aesthetics.

7 Treats Featuring Insects to Try