VIAENE:

To make the same amount of protein as a cow, crickets need 25 times less food, 300 times less water, and they produce 60 times less greenhouse gases.

Viaene says another benefit of breeding crickets is they feed on by-products normally thrown away – like soybean hulls and corn husks.

Breeding and selling crickets for food is so new, different countries have different rules. It's not allowed in Italy, Iceland, or Denmark. It IS legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK — and the U-S.

With all that uncertainty, in York, England, scientist Adrian Charlton is studying the use of insects in animal feed as a replacement for soybeans and fishmeal.

The nutritional profile of insects for use in chicken feed, as an example, are absolutely perfect. As you can imagine, chickens have evolved to eat insects.

Charlton says more than two billion people – mainly in Africa and Asia — already eat bugs as part of their diet, but despite the health benefits, he isn't convinced Western taste buds are ready to swallow crickets and grasshoppers like vitamins. Charleton thinks incorporating insects into other products is the place to start.