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I’ve been wondering how snails fit into this. I know they have some higher calcium needs, but their carbon footprint per gram of protein is a fraction of chicken. Granted, I know most of their flavor comes from the butter and garlic they are cooked with, but speaking as someone who likes escargot, why is the focus always on crickets? What is the missing piece?

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Higher protein content per carb, easier to grow than other small animals.

In terms of protein and CO2 eq, the snails seem comparable if not better than crickets, if I’m reading the data correctly, with .7 kg CO2 eq per kg for the snails (edible meat) vs 1.3 for crickets, and 16g protein vs the crickets 14-20g.

Granted, there may be other factors in play, such as how easy they are the farm as you mention.

Then we should eat snails, at least they have that meaty texture compared to crickets. Perhaps other forms of bugs could work though, the ones in The Lion King sure looked tasty.

Further research is yielding that, in the USA, they are considered pests, and so somewhat highly regulated: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-snails-raised

> why is the focus always on crickets

Virtue signaling by eating something gross? Dunno.

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