Eating insects is one of those ideas that never quite seems to catch on. The United Nations endorsed the idea a decade ago, but, in the West at least, bugs remain mostly absent from supermarket shelves. Faced with an indifferent—or disgusted—public, scientists have been exploring other options. One is to feed the insects instead to livestock, which are not so picky.

Of course, the insects need to eat, too. To date, they have mostly been reared on leftover chicken feed. But the supply of that is limited, and if insect-reared meat is to take off, new sources will be needed. In a paper in Applied Entomology, Niels Eriksen, a biochemist at Aalborg University, suggests feeding them on the waste products of the beer industry.

It’s not the best solution to feed livestock with insects, but until we can get people to stop eating livestock, this is a more sustainable solution.

That said, I’ve eaten insects more than once and, with one exception (giant water beetle), it was not an unpleasant experience once you get over the ick factor. Several insects I’ve had taste nutty, close to pecans. Ants are more cirtusy, I’m guessing due to the formic acid. It’s too bad we can’t get the West more interested in eating insects.

I haven’t tried any arachnids yet, although a friend who tried scorpion said it was relatively tasteless.