Why We Should Eat Herbivores (and Maybe a Few Insects) Instead of Carnivores

The food chain, energy economics, and why lions don’t run restaurants.

Let’s begin with a simple observation: the natural world already runs the most efficient buffet system ever invented. Plants collect sunlight, herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat herbivores, and humans — being clever opportunists — stand around deciding what tastes best with garlic.

But if we step back and examine the energy economics of the food chain, it becomes clear why most of our traditional meats come from herbivores rather than carnivores. There’s a reason nobody is opening a global chain of tiger-burger restaurants.

The Energy Problem: Carnivores Are a Terrible Investment

In nature, energy flows through the food chain in a pyramid. Plants sit at the bottom, turning sunlight into biomass. Herbivores eat plants, and carnivores eat herbivores. But at every step up the chain, most of that energy disappears — burned off as heat, movement, or the occasional dramatic chase scene on the savannah.

Scientists describe this with the 10% rule of energy transfer, meaning only about 10% of the energy from one level makes it to the next. This idea is central to the ecological concept of Trophic Levels.

What this means in practice:

• Plants convert sunlight → plant biomass
• Herbivores convert plants → meat
• Carnivores convert herbivores → less meat

So if you try to raise carnivores for food, you’re essentially feeding steak to an animal so that someday you can eat… a slightly smaller steak.

From an efficiency standpoint, that’s like burning money to heat your house instead of using electricity.

Herbivores: Nature’s Solar-Powered Meat Machines

Herbivores such as cows, goats, and sheep operate much closer to the bottom of the food chain. They eat plants directly and convert them into protein that humans can use.

Better yet, many herbivores eat things humans can’t digest — grass, leaves, crop residues, and weeds. Ruminants even have specialized stomach systems that allow them to ferment plant fibers through microbes. That microbial fermentation turns indigestible cellulose into energy.

In other words, herbivores are basically biological upcycling machines.

Carnivores: Expensive, Dramatic, and Slightly Suspicious

Raising carnivores as livestock would create some unusual farming problems.

First, you would have to feed them meat. Lots of it. Which means you’d have to raise other animals just to feed your food animals.

Imagine a farmer explaining the business plan:

“We raise cows to feed lions, so we can sell lion steaks.”

Investors would politely excuse themselves and back away slowly.

Second, carnivores tend to accumulate microbes and parasites from everything they eat. Many pathogens move up the food chain, which is why food safety experts often watch predators carefully. The more animals an animal eats, the greater the chance it collects microbes along the way.

In other words, predators sometimes become the microbial collectors of the ecosystem.

Not exactly a great marketing slogan for dinner.

The Cost of Raising Carnivores

Carnivores also come with logistical complications.

They are:

• Aggressive
• Territorial
• Inefficient to feed
• Generally uninterested in being farmed

Try putting 5,000 lions in a feedlot and see how quickly your insurance company cancels your policy.

Herbivores, on the other hand, tend to be:

• Grazers
• Social animals
• Comfortable in herds
• Much easier to manage

Which is why human agriculture historically focused on animals like cattle, goats, sheep, and chickens rather than wolves or hyenas.

The Surprise Contender: Insects

But herbivores might not be the final answer. A fascinating contender is insects.

Insect farming is gaining attention because insects convert feed into protein far more efficiently than traditional livestock. Many species can grow on agricultural waste, require little water, and reproduce rapidly.

One of the most commonly farmed insects is the House Cricket, which is already used in protein powders and snacks around the world.

Another popular candidate is the Yellow Mealworm, which can be raised vertically in controlled environments and fed on plant scraps.

Insects are basically tiny biological protein factories.

They:

• Grow fast
• Eat almost anything plant-based
• Require minimal land
• Produce high-quality protein

And importantly, they skip several inefficient steps of the food chain.

The Future Plate

If we look at the future of food through the lens of energy efficiency, a sensible plate might include:

• Plants at the base
• Herbivore meat in moderation
• Insects as a high-efficiency protein

Carnivores, meanwhile, can keep doing what they do best — starring in wildlife documentaries and reminding us why humans invented fences.

Final Thought

The food chain has already solved the energy problem for us. The closer we eat to the bottom of it, the more efficient our food system becomes.

Herbivores turn sunlight into steak. Insects turn scraps into protein. Carnivores turn dinner into an expensive ecological experiment.

And that’s why — despite thousands of years of agriculture — no one has successfully launched “Lion Burger International.”

Probably for the best.