A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about edible flowers, and decided it was time to write an article about edible insects. Although they may not be nearly as appetizing as beautiful flowers, eating insects is actually a great way to reduce your carbon footprint as well as reduce green house gases.

I'm sure you've heard that cows fart a lot, and those farts are filled with methane, which is a really potent (hee, hee, I said fart and potent in the same sentence) greenhouse gas. Well, edible insects (except for cockroaches) don't produce greenhouse gases.

Also consider in many parts of the world, insects are already on menus at some of the finest restaurants.

So where should you start if you are ready to chow down? Well first off, only eat insects that are raised to be eaten. If you grab a cockroach off the floor, or a grasshopper from the garden, the culinary and health results could be terrible. So after you've found a good supplier, here are some insects you may want to sample.

1. mealworms
2. locusts
3. crickets
4. roaches (if you're really brave)

Farmers are also looking at edible insects as a great way to supplement food for their livestock. Insects reproduce rapidly and have very low impact on the land used to raise them.

Looking for more info about edible insects, check out this article from the folks at Earth Times. And if you are brave enough to try some, let us know how they taste by posting a comment below.