A few weeks ago, I wrote about the growing interest in eating insects, especially in developed countries like ours.

Now, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has published a wide-ranging study into the history, current practices and future potential of this.

The report, ten years in the making, looks at how people might move from gathering insects in the wild, for local processing and consumption, to farming them on an industrial scale to feed both people and animals.

This is no quirky niche market exercise; the world’s population is likely to reach nine billion people by 2050.

Although in the west there is often revulsion at the idea of eating insects, in less developed countries there is an existing base to build on. According to the report nearly 2,000 insect species are already part of the diet of at least two billion people.

The most commonly eaten insects are beetles, caterpillars, ants, bees and wasps, and grasshoppers, locusts and crickets. All stages of insects are consumed, for instance ant eggs and pupa, beetle grubs and moth caterpillars, and adult grasshoppers and dragonflies. Smaller species can be produced in huge numbers to turn into animal feed, especially fishmeal and chickenfeed.

Rearing insects for food has many advantages. They are rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals, and they can produce some elements, such as such as omega-3 and fatty acids as, or more efficiently than, fish, cattle and pigs. Insects require less land and water, and emit less carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia.

The prospect of snacking on chocolate covered bees (a Nigerian delicacy), crispy fried locusts, or nectar-rich oak galls (available in Mexican markets) may be strange to us now. Perhaps though our grandchildren will happily be doing so, sustaining themselves and the planet at the same time.

If you want to browse the full report go to http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e00.pdf

* Peter Shirley, nature conservationist with interests from neighbourhood to global ecological issues.