Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow. Bionutrient Food Association. Vegetarian. From farm to table, mealworms may be the next best food. Food enthusiasts interested in sustainable farm practices may soon have a new meat alternative: insects.
Beetle larvae (called mealworms) farms produce more edible protein than traditional farms for chicken, pork, beef or milk, for the same amount of land used, according to research published Dec. 19 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Dennis Oonincx and colleagues from the University of Wageningen, Netherlands. The researchers compared the environmental impact of meat production on a mealworm farm to traditional animal farms using three parameters: Land usage, energy needs, and greenhouse gas emissions.
From the start of the process to the point that the meat left the farm, they found that mealworms scored better than the other foods. Per unit of edible protein produced, mealworm farms required less land and similar amounts of energy. Vegan Health Home Page. Vegan. Starting a Raw Food Diet.