A lot of countries, like the United States, for example, have a meat-heavy diet (2). Even though meat is full of protein and is extremely delicious, the impact it has on the environment is astronomical. If everyone in the world had the same diet as the average American, the world would only be able to feed around 2.5 billion people (almost 8 billion people in the world) (2). 

Meat is a very inefficient type of food source because it takes so much energy, water, and land to produce it (2). When put into perspective, corn requires 75 times less energy to produce (2). It also takes a tremendous amount of fossil fuels to produce meat, which is a huge problem because the burning of fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of global warming (2). This problem needs to be solved, for the sake of the environment.

However, we can’t forget about the benefits of meat consumption. Meat is full of protein, which is the most important macromolecule (besides nucleic acids that store our DNA) because of its various functions; we need a lot of protein so that it can carry out all of its functions. This makes us ask: “How can we continue to obtain our protein without eating meat?”

A possible solution to this may be eating edible insects. I know what you are thinking: “Insects? That’s disgusting!” Although it may be disgusting, we may have to do what we have to do in order to save the environment while also obtaining our protein. We can also grind the insects instead and combine them in other dishes with the powder of it, which may be easier to eat as it will feel less disgusting. Edible insects are full of protein and nutrition, and also contains healthy fats, iron, and calcium (1). 

Edible insects are also cheap and are easy to produce unlike meat (1). With the help of edible insects, we may be able to drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels and also slow down global warming. 

1: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/311139#Eating-bugs-could-combat-obesity

2: https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/foods-and-beverages/world-consumption-of-meat