Grubs up! Scientists keen to get us eating bugs

You could call it the campaign for real grub. Scientists want us to eat insects – for the sake of our health and that of the planet.

They say that scoffing spiders and gobbling grasshoppers – or entomophagy, to use its proper name – provides essential nutrients, keeps down pests and puts much less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat.



Researchers from Ohio State University have described insects as "micro-livestock", while the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) earlier this year held a special conference on their benefits.



"Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world," says David George Gordon, a Seattle-based naturalist and author. The West "is one the few cultures" that doesn't eat them, he adds. "Maybe we are the weirdos."

Scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have catalogued 1,700 different species and found that bugs are bolted down in at least 113 countries worldwide.

There's a photo gallery here.