The more they do things like this, the less people will take them seriously. A scientific study urges that we investigate replacing meat with bugs to save the planet. From the story in Science:
Forget eating local or eating organic, the new way to dine green may be eating gross. Meat consumption presents a big environmental problem: Cows and pigs are good sources of protein, but they’re also big sources of the heat-trapping gases carbon dioxide and methane, which they belch and, um, emit in other ways. One way to reduce such emissions while maintaining a nutritious diet may be to get people to eat more cricket burgers and mealworm patties. According to a new study, many insect species gain weight faster and spew out less greenhouse gases as they grow than do their beefier counterparts. The tricky part is getting them to look good on a menu...
Oonincx says that based on these results, insects do seem to put more of their food into growing plump and less into polluting the atmosphere than do traditional livestock. “The species I’ve looked at so far suggest that insects could be a more environmentally friendly alternative,” he says.
I know humans eat insects. St. John the Baptist ate locusts and honey as an ascetic discipline. But let’s get real: People are not going to give up their sirloin steaks for leg of cricket. Nor, it seems to me, should we spend public resources (or private, for that matter, although that is the funders’ own business) studying whether to create a new industry in Gryllidae ranching.
But don’t say we weren’t warned!
