Actualités: Green briefing — insects on the menu, methane megaleaks and beaver carbon gains
actualités — A Concordia University research team measured how open visitors to the Insectarium de Montréal were to eating insects. Between October 2024 and February 2025, 252 adult visitors completed a structured online questionnaire to gauge willingness and barriers to trying insect-based foods. The effort aimed to identify motivations such as curiosity and barriers like disgust to understand whether entomophagy could gain traction.
Actualités — What the Concordia study found
The Concordia team, led in the field by undergraduate student Nadezhda Velchovska with supervision from Rassim Khelifa, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Concordia University, found mixed openness. Forty-four percent of respondents said they would be willing to try insect-based foods, while only 27 percent would integrate them into their regular diets. Curiosity was the top motivator for nearly 42 percent of participants; health, nutrition, sustainability and taste were secondary factors. The chief barriers were strong: 70 percent cited disgust, followed by fear of insects and uncertainty about safety and sanitary conditions.
Presentation mattered sharply. Eighty-seven percent preferred products where insects were not visible; two-thirds said they could or would try baked goods made with cricket flour, and roughly half were open to a cricket-protein bar or bread made with cricket powder. In contrast, 82 percent said visible larvae in a muffin would dissuade them. Demographically, men reported greater willingness and were more likely to have prior experience; participants with graduate-level education were more likely to test insect ingredients at home. Age alone was not a consistent predictor.
Methane megaleaks and beavers: satellite alarms and carbon wins
Satellite analysis by researchers working with the Stop Methane Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, identified some of the world’s largest methane megaleaks, mainly from oil and gas installations. Researchers estimated individual leak rates large enough to have a warming impact comparable to that of a coal-fired power plant; fifteen of the twenty-five largest leaks were located in Turkmenistan, with others in Iran, the United States, Venezuela and Pakistan. The team described the situation as “exasperating, ” noting many leaks stem from poor maintenance and can be straightforward to repair.
Separately, a study published in Communication Earth and Environment examined how beaver activity affects wetlands and carbon storage in Switzerland. The research found that beaver-created wetlands boost biodiversity, reduce flood risk and help in drought resilience while enabling significant carbon accumulation. Projecting data across Switzerland, the authors estimated beaver recolonization could offset between 1. 2 percent and 1. 8 percent of the country’s annual carbon emissions without a direct financial cost.
Reactions and next steps
“The motivating factors and the obstacles reveal an interesting interaction, ” said Nadezhda Velchovska, Honours student, Department of Psychology, Concordia University. “If we want to encourage entomophagy, the best approach would be to convince the public of its health benefits and the sanitary conditions in which insects are raised. ” Rassim Khelifa, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Concordia University, emphasized demographic trends in openness and the importance of product presentation in consumer acceptance.
Researchers at the Stop Methane Project, University of California, Los Angeles, called the large leaks exasperating and highlighted that many are repairable with improved maintenance. The beaver study’s authors pointed to natural recolonization as a low-cost pathway to added carbon storage and enhanced ecosystem services.
Looking ahead, the immediate watch points are clear: for insect-based foods, targeted public information on health and sanitary standards and product forms that hide visible insects; for methane, accelerated detection and repair of high-volume leaks; and for carbon management, monitoring beaver-driven wetland restoration and its scaling potential. Editors and researchers will follow these threads in the coming weeks as follow-up studies, remediation efforts and public outreach evolve in the actualités landscape.
