Research: Eating 'Artificial' Insects and Meat is Good for Health and the Earth

Consuming 'artificial' meat or those developed in the laboratory as well as insects can save carbon and water emissions, and is also good for environmental sustainability.

In research on the benefits of eating plant-based foods or "green food", scientists say the pressure on the Earth can be reduced by more than 80 percent if we eat these foods, compared to European types of food.

However, it is not certain whether consumers are interested in changing their eating habits.

These unconventional foods are being developed with the aim of providing foods rich in protein and other nutrients, but still environmentally friendly because they use less water and land.

Quoted from the BBC, scientists in Finland examined the nutrition of some of these "green" food products and measured three factors related to pressure on the environment; water use, land, and potential carbon emissions.

According to them, replacing meat, dairy, and other animal products with alternative foods can reduce pressure on the environment by more than 80 percent.

"By significantly reducing animal sources of food and replacing them with novel or future foods and plant-based protein alternatives, you can significantly reduce your environmental impact in terms of potential global warming, land and water use," explains Rachel Mazac of the University of Helsinki. .

The research, published in Nature Food, examines a new type of food that is expected in the next few years to make up a large part of the diet we eat. Many of these new foods are developed by high-tech methods such as developing artificial meat with bioreactors.

Some of the novel foods being researched included: flies and crickets, egg whites from chicken meat cells developed in the laboratory, kelp or a type of seaweed, protein powder from fungi and microbes, edible algae; and milk, meat, and berries grown from cells.

A number of studies show, plant-based foods are beneficial for health and the Earth.

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends that people switch to foods rich in plant-based elements such as whole grains and vegetables, with meat and dairy products that are sustainably produced.

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