Even though their hearts are slowed, it is vital to trap the grasshoppers in your hands with one swift motion.

The sun has not yet gone up over the hills surrounding Santa Maria Coyotepec, a small town seven miles south of Oaxaca's state capital and largest city, Oaxaca de Juarez. With temperatures in the low 40s, the damp air hangs heavy in the dim light, and dew drips off the maize stalks onto the ground. This is the peak time to gather chapulines.

Going into a hibernation-like state at night, chapulines are able to slow their heartbeat to a minimum, a mechanism allowing them to survive freezing temperatures. Thus, the insects are slowed before sunrise. "Sometimes they'll react and hop before you grab them, though," warned Roberto Perez, a food engineer guiding the harvest.

Perez and his partner Hugo Sandoval founded Inalim (Industrias Alimenticias) in Santa Maria Coyotepec more than a decade ago, with the goal of applying industrial standards to the production and distribution of chapulines-based products.

"This is a remarkable insect. And it can truly solve the problem of world hunger," Sandoval explained.

One of my earliest memories as a child is grabbing them in the fields and taking them to my grandmother. Josefina Lopez, a chef and Oaxaca native

The Food and Agriculture Organization within the United Nations predicts the world will reach 9 billion inhabitants by 2050. By then, chapulines - and other high-protein insects -- could represent a significant source of sustenance for the world's population.

"Crickets need six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep and twice less than pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein," the FAO states in its report about insect consumption.

Small groups of farmers slinking around plants and snapping at dormant animals with their bare hands remains the traditional method. Each year, harvesters roam the fields in Oaxaca and surrounding Mexican states, picking them off corn plants called milpas and selling them in large quantities to local markets. However, this model is rapidly shifting in the 21st century.

To keep costs down and maximize production both at home and abroad, Inalim's engineers are also raising chapulines in captivity, which eliminates the risk of the insects in the fields being potentially misted with pesticides.

"This allows us to sell year-round and eliminate a number of variables," Sandoval said.