There are over 2,000 types of insects that people eat across the world. Some of these species could have the potential to be cultivated at scale using less land, less water, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions while supplying a nutritious protein source to many. But what does scaling insect production look like, and will people actually eat them?

In this bonus episode, we dive deep into the world of insects as a potential food source. We visit a Swedish mealworm factory to understand the production process, and speak to researchers in Ethiopia and the Netherlands about the environmental benefits, ethical considerations, and likelihood of Europeans eating insects in the future.

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For more info and transcript, please visit: https://tabledebates.org/meat/episode9

Meat: the four Futures project webpage: https://tabledebates.org/meat

Take the values-based quiz: https://tabledebates.org/meat/quiz

Listen to: Feed, a food systems podcast

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Music by Blue dot Sessions.

Over the last few months, we explored what the future of meat and livestock could look like. We’ve talked about how our values, ethics and where we live in the world can impact our desired futures for meat. And we did a deep dive into four potential futures - efficient meat, alternative “meat”, less meat and no meat.

To wrap up the series, we hear comments and thoughts from the listeners, and podcast host Matthew Kessler shares some personal reflections on what he learned about the future of meat and livestock after making this series.

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Visit the episode page with more resources: https://tabledebates.org/meat/episode8

Project webpage: https://tabledebates.org/meat

Take the values-based quiz: https://tabledebates.org/meat/quiz

Music by Blue dot Sessions and Epidemic sound.

We've heard four distinct visions for the future of meat and livestock. But realistically, won't they all play a role? As we wrap up the series in the next two episodes, we’re going to review what’s in conflict between the four futures and how parts of them might co-exist.

In this episode we ask three experts to consider different arguments presented by the four futures as they relate to health, biodiversity and animal ethics. We ask a professor of diet and population health if it’s better to eat some, a lot, or no meat; we ask a population biologist about how the different futures would help biodiversity to recover; and we ask an animal ethicist about the morality of eating animals and to interrogate the ethical cases put forward by the four futures.

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Visit the episode page with more resources: https://tabledebates.org/meat/episode7

Project webpage: https://tabledebates.org/meat

Take the values-based quiz: https://tabledebates.org/meat/quiz

Music by Blue dot Sessions and Epidemic sound.